IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i6p750-d1403427.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Assessment of Landscape Perception Using a Normalised Naturalness Index in the Greater Seoul Area

Author

Listed:
  • Doeun Kim

    (Interdisciplinary Program in Landscape Architecture, #82, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea)

  • Yonghoon Son

    (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, #82, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

This study analysed the greater Seoul area (GSA) in terms of naturalness, a representative indicator of natural scenic beauty, and created an assessment map, shifting from a traditional urban development perspective to a landscape perspective. It also developed a “normalised naturalness index” by combining the results of the expert metric score with the Hemeroby index, which was used as a naturalness assessment representative item. Then, it interpreted the naturalness status of the GSA landscape characteristics. As a result, the landscape of the GSA demonstrates the following five characteristics: First, the central business districts in the capital city of Seoul are densely developed areas with a very high degree of human intervention. Second, the satellite cities built to solve Seoul’s housing and logistics problems are rated as “a little less, but still heavily humanised” as a landscape characteristic. These areas are becoming increasingly humanised. Also, it is worth noting that the third characteristic, regarding moderate landscape areas, has a distinctly different meaning for areas outside of the city boundary, as well as those within the city boundary. Although these areas are in the same statistical category, they have two different meanings: one is the area where the average values converged on “moderate” by virtue of urban forests near the city centre, and the other is the area outside of Seoul that has a Hemeroby value of 0.5–0.6, which refers to open spaces such as agricultural lands, wetlands, or coastal areas. Fourth, suburban forests are reserved with legal restrictions to curb excessive urban sprawl, as well as parts of the demilitarised zone along the border areas of North and South Koreas. The last landscape characteristic is illustrated in the scenic area of the eastern woodlands. The normalised landscape naturalness index developed through this study provides an overall understanding of the environmental state of the GSA. Future research may build on the results of this study to refine methods for assessing public perceptions of naturalness.

Suggested Citation

  • Doeun Kim & Yonghoon Son, 2024. "An Assessment of Landscape Perception Using a Normalised Naturalness Index in the Greater Seoul Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:6:p:750-:d:1403427
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/6/750/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/6/750/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:6:p:750-:d:1403427. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.