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Abstract
Background readings on scale plus 21 visual landscape assessment studies were examined to understand the nature and use of scale and its relationship to the visual environment. The objectives of this study were to: 1) describe the concept of scale as applied to visual assessments, 2) review scale use in selected visual assessments vis-à-vis landscape ecological scale, and 3) identify issues that need further research to better integrate scale into visual landscape assessments and landscape ecological theory. It recommends further research for defining, recognizing, and incorporating scale into visual landscape studies should: 1) explicate use of absolute and relative scale; 2) compare traditional and multi-scalar, hierarchical approaches; 3) examine and revise reliance on substitution of distance for extent or scale; 4) compare space/mass interactions, not simply masses, to determine visual grain; and 5) design research protocols in which psychophysical metrics correlate more logically with eco-physical metrics.
Parent Publication
Citation
Sutton, Richard K. 2018. Ecology of Scale in Visual Assessments. In: Gobster, Paul H.; Smardon, Richard C., eds. 2018. Visual resource stewardship conference proceedings: landscape and seascape management in a time of change. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-183. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 73-85.
