CLASSIFICATION OF LANDSCAPES USING QUANTITATIVE AND CATEGORICAL DATA, AND PREDICTION OF THEIR SCENIC BEAUTY IN NORTH-WESTERN SPAIN

The present study approaches the environmental assessment of landscapes in two steps: first, through the determination of the relevant characteristics that influence the perception of a sample of galician landscapes, in north-western spain, using both quantitative data and categorical data; and second, by obtaining a list of predictors of scenic beauty for a sample of landscapes. Predictors were related to two of the most fertile approaches to landscape assessment: the psychophysical and cognitive paradigms, the latter including five different models to explain landscape preference. Our results support the existence of a classification criteria that is common to most subjects. The criteria followed by subjects to derive this classification were: presence/absence of water, artificiality of landscape, powerfulness of landscape, and human presence in the landscape. With respect to assessment of scenic beauty, our results showed that both the psychophysical and the cognitive paradigm were able to explain to a high degree the preference scores. The relationships found between predictors from both paradigms indicate that it would be possible to integrate them into a more general model of landscape assessment.