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Predicting scenic beauty of forest stands in Catalonia (North-east Spain)

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Abstract

Relative preferences of 90 images of forest stands, photos and virtual reality images were investigated by the internet to develop a quantitative model for estimating scenic beauty preferences at the stand level. The relative priority values obtained from the questionnaire of a total of 259 judges were analyzed using regression methods for pairwise comparisons. Two models were developed based on two different groups of stands. Both models indicate that the priority of a forest stand increases with an augment in the number of bushes and trees, and also with the mean diameter of trees. On the other hand, the priority is low with large number of pines and small trees. Stands represented by photos receive better priority values than those represented by virtual reality images. When the background of the judges (gender, country or occupation) was included into the model as additional predictors, no significant improvements are achieved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya, Pujada del seminari s/n, 25280, Solsona, Spain

    Elena Blasco & José Ramón González-Olabarria

  2. EFIMED, Mediterran Regional Office of the European Forest Institute, Passeig Lluis Companys 23, 8010, Barcelona, Spain

    José Ramón González-Olabarria & Marc Palahí

  3. University of Vigo, Pontevedra, 36200, Spain

    Pedro Rodriguéz-Veiga

  4. ForEcoTechonologies. Av, Diagonal 416, estudio 2, 08037, Barcelona, Spain

    Timo Pukkala

  5. Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Joensuu, Science Park, 3rd floor Länsikatu 15, 80110, Joensuu, Finland

    Osmo Kolehmainen

Authors
  1. Elena Blasco
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  2. José Ramón González-Olabarria
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  3. Pedro Rodriguéz-Veiga
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  4. Timo Pukkala
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  5. Osmo Kolehmainen
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  6. Marc Palahí
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Ramón González-Olabarria.

Additional information

Foundation project: This study was financed by the EU EFORWOOD Project.

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Blasco, E., González-Olabarria, J.R., Rodriguéz-Veiga, P. et al. Predicting scenic beauty of forest stands in Catalonia (North-east Spain). Journal of Forestry Research 20, 73–78 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-009-0013-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-009-0013-3

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