Elsevier

Landscape and Urban Planning

Volume 124, April 2014, Pages 129-139
Landscape and Urban Planning

Research Paper
The influence of information provision on people's landscape preferences: A case study on understorey vegetation of deer-browsed woodlands

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • People's preferences regarding woodland understorey vegetation were generally unstable.

  • Over 50% of participants adjusted preferences upon new information.

  • Extreme preferences following information provision became increasingly rare.

  • People's preferences became more robust with their age and familiarity with woodlands.

  • There was a widespread desire for a spatially diverse woodland management.

Abstract

We investigated whether people's landscape preferences could be readily influenced by information provision within the context of woodland management. Specifically, we determined: (i) people's preference regarding understorey density on the basis of visual images; (ii) the occurrence of change in preference due to information provision about biodiversity and deer management associated with different understorey densities; and (iii) demographic or social factors potentially explaining variation in the occurrence of such preference change. We found that of all participants (n = 126) more than half changed their expressed preference. This largely entailed a shift away from denser understorey to intermediate levels, suggested a balancing between initial preference and the objectives linked with the information provided. Change in preference was unrelated to livelihood connection. However, preferences became more robust with age and familiarity with woodlands. There was an unprompted widespread desire for different understorey densities in different places, i.e. a ‘patchwork’ landscape, to maximise opportunities for different species and societal uses. This represents a clear interest for a spatially diverse rather than uniform woodland management. We recommend that the susceptibility of landscape preferences to information provision is explicitly recognised by landscape planners and researchers, notably where visualisation techniques are being used to inform decision making.

Introduction

A rapidly growing body of literature has developed on people's perceptions of landscapes, providing us with an increasingly rich understanding of the variation in landscape preferences, and the factors underlying this such as people's relationships with and meanings attributed to landscape components (Buijs et al., 2006, Cañas et al., 2009, Gobster et al., 2007, Vouligny et al., 2009). Such variation means that people may value different features within the same environment, which could present an obstacle to reaching agreement about the way that landscapes could develop and should be managed (Scott, 2003). People's landscape preferences have mostly been studied using visual approaches (Jorgensen, 2011, Tahvanainen et al., 2001, Tveit et al., 2006), notably through presenting imagery to participants in various forms. For such approaches to be of practical use in landscape planning and management, it is important to understand whether preferences expressed are readily influenced by contextualisation. We adhere to the everyday definition of preference as “a greater liking for one alternative over another” (Oxford English Dictionary) and focus on the potential of preference change – a topic of widely discussed in economics and political science (Grüne-Yannoff & Hansson, 2009). Accordingly, we view preferences as potentially subject to a framing effect through communication, changing people's attitudes towards an object by altering the relative weights they give to competing considerations about the object (sensu Druckman, Fein, & Leeper, 2012). Although substantial research has shown that some aspects of landscape are evaluated in similar ways across a wide range of cultures (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989), recently attention has been given to the susceptibility of specific landscape preferences to information provision (Palmer, 1997, Tyrväinen et al., 2003) and thus the context in which landscape images are presented in preference studies (Sheppard, 2001). Early work revealed that labelling of photographs (i.e. ‘wilderness area’, grazing range) influences visual attractiveness of landscapes, disclosing a general preference for wild over managed nature scenes (Anderson, 1981, Hodgson and Thayer, 1980). Yet, more recent information provision studies (Hill and Daniel, 2007, Van Marwijk et al., 2012) conclude that visual attractiveness is not highly malleable and may be susceptible to messages only when their content invokes a strong emotional response.

The need to incorporate public preferences in the management of rural landscapes is fuelled by changes in expectations regarding their societal use. Across Europe, such landscapes have become increasingly multi-functional, for instance fulfilling recreational, environmental and human health roles as well as providing economic services including food production. A prime example of such a change is represented by the woodlands of NW Europe, where the provision of traditional economic goods such as timber is now balanced against alternative opportunities, notably for leisure use and biodiversity conservation (Mather, 2001). Consistent with this is the change in woodland users, from merely land owners and foresters to recreationists and others.

Studies investigating public preferences of wooded landscapes typically focus on identifying specific physical components such as tall trees, structural complexity of the understorey or the proportion of fallen wood and clear-cut (Daniel and Boster, 1976, Edwards et al., 2012, Kearney and Bradley, 2011, Purcell and Lamb, 1998, Ribe, 2006, Schroeder and Daniel, 1981). The same approach tends to underpin public consultations and policies affecting landscape or woodland management. However, there is evidence that individual preferences change in response to the context in which they are sought, especially in relation to knowledge levels, and the variation of an individual's experiential connection with the landscape (see studies reported in Kearney & Bradley, 2011). In turn, this has implications for the ways public preferences for landscapes ought to be sought and the weight they should have in informing management and planning decisions. Here, we investigate whether information provision on biodiversity and deer management, two aspects integral to woodland management, affect people's preferences about woodland structure.

The appearance of woodland is influenced by a wide range of factors such as stem density, canopy species and age distribution of trees, all of which can be influenced by woodland management and may potentially impact biodiversity. We focus on a specific component that has a strong visual effect on the character of woodland, namely density of the understorey vegetation; this aspect has been shown to be related to biodiversity components (Ferris and Humphrey, 1999, Vodka et al., 2009), although primary data remain relatively scarce. Understorey density has received much attention within landscape preference studies, although with varied results. In several studies the presence of understorey is positively linked to scenic beauty (e.g. Blasco et al., 2009, Kellomaki and Savolainen, 1984, Schroeder and Daniel, 1981). When the understorey is very dense studies suggest reduced perceived scenic beauty (Karjalainen, 1996, Tahvanainen et al., 2001, Tyrväinen et al., 2003); however, dense understorey has also been linked positively to ‘wildness’ and opportunities for seclusion (Dandy & Van der Wal, 2011). This suggests underlying differences in respondents’ perspectives and interests, echoing earlier work such as Patey & Evans (1979) who reported forests with less ground vegetation were generally preferred except by those with an interest in wildlife. Kaplan (1985) suggested that those pursuing recreation in woodlands prefer open scenes as they afford access. The latter finding has been found in other studies (Dandy and Van der Wal, 2011, Gundersen and Frivold, 2008) and Edwards et al. (2012) suggest that the relationship between recreational value and understorey density of European forests is bell-shaped, i.e. recreational value is greatest where understorey density is neither very low nor very high. This would make understorey density a highly suitable landscape dimension to investigate possible framing effects through information provision.

Understorey structure, diversity and density are determined to a large extent by large herbivores such as wild deer (Allombert et al., 2005, Gill, 2006, Rooney, 2001, Tilghman, 1989, Tremblay et al., 2006). The density of deer in many forests across the Northern Hemisphere has increased during the last 50 years, thus suppressing vegetation development in a wide range of woodlands (Clutton-Brock et al., 2004, Côté et al., 2004, Gill, 1990), and raising controversy regarding management options. This includes debate over the perceived impact of deer on biodiversity and the evaluation thereof (Albon et al., 2007, Hunt, 2003), along with disagreement regarding the culling of deer to allow woodland and understorey regeneration (MacMillan & Leitch, 2008). Given the level of controversy, the provision of biodiversity and notably deer management information may evoke preference change regarding the understorey density of woodlands.

With this paper we aim to contribute to a better understanding of landscape preferences and their susceptibility to information provision in the context of woodland and its management. Specifically, we determined: (i) people's preference regarding understorey density using visual images; (ii) the occurrence of change in preference and associated justifications in response to information provision on biodiversity and deer management associated with different understorey densities; and (iii) demographic or social factors potentially explaining variation in the occurrence of such preference change. We predicted preference change to depend on people's familiarity with woodland, and for notably deer management information to generate considerable preference shifts because of its potentially controversial nature.

To achieve this, a case-study was developed around a group of 29 deciduous woodland sites in Herefordshire, in the West of England. Collectively, these woods represented a gradient in understorey density from very sparse to dense, for which we gathered specific biodiversity and deer management information. A total of 138 people were introduced to this woodland setting and asked to express their preference regarding understorey density on the basis of the same set of visual images before and after receiving information on plant and bird diversity and the role of deer and their management in the structure of these Herefordshire woodlands.

Section snippets

Ecological setting of the case study

The landscape preference study was centred around deciduous woodlands of the ‘Welsh Marches’, the border area between England and Wales, focusing on those in Herefordshire, UK. These woodlands are mostly remnants of old, and previously much larger, woods and hence of interest for cultural and biodiversity reasons. Most are privately owned, although some larger woods are owned and managed by the Forestry Commission, the UK government's forestry department. Many of the woodlands in the Welsh

Initial preference for understorey density

A wide range of preferences was expressed regarding the density of understorey vegetation in woodland, with a majority of participants indicating a preference for intermediate to dense understorey (Fig. 3a). Keyword analysis (see Table 1) revealed that reasons given for specific understorey vegetation preferences were spread across all five categories, with aesthetic reasons being the most common (Fig. 3d). Preferences were largely motivated by positive connotations. For example, woodland with

Discussion

Our study supports Edwards et al. (2012) who suggest a general bell-shaped distribution of preferences in relation to understorey density, although our results indicate an initial bell-shape skewed slightly towards a preference of denser ground vegetation (see Fig. 3a). Importantly, however, the shape of this distribution was strongly influenced by contextualisation (much tighter bell-shape; widely held preference for intermediate understorey density), thus providing strong evidence for the

Conclusion

The elicitation of landscape preferences using visual imagery has become a vital element of rural planning and management processes. This paper has investigated the impact of information provision as part of this method: a key issue given concerns regarding the potential manipulation of preferences. Our results show that more than half of our respondents altered their preference in response to information contextualising woodland landscapes in relation to biodiversity and deer management. We

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