No abstract

Tourists and others who are unfamiliar with an environment may be sensitive to environmental cues when choosing their walking routes. In this study, we combined inductive and deductive approaches to evaluate walkability cues. We defined a set of walkability variables by analyzing the narratives of participants, who walked along one of 19 diverse routes. These cues were then supplemented with environmental and walkability variables from Mehrabian and Russel scales (Russel et al., 1981) and SPACES (Pikora, 2003), resulting in a total of 48 descriptors. Using the 48 descriptors, 60 diverse photos of streetscape views were rated, and we identified 14 relevant walkability correlates. Using principal component analysis, we identified six components that best predicted walking decisions: safety from traffic, comfort of walking area, environmental appearance, activity potential, shade and exploration. These results suggest that real walkers make more finely grained walking judgments than those measured by current, conceptualized walkability scales.

This study was conducted with the objective of finding the perceivable effect of figures and backgrounds on residential streetscapes and their connections in visual complexity. The visual complexity depends on the extent of information a viewer can observe from a visible area. The information includes a number of visual elements along the streetscapes and their diversity and interconnections. The aim of this research was to analyze the structural hierarchical visual complexity of the streetscapes, caused by varied spatial arrangement and numerous spatial connections of the perceivable visual elements. The visual elements of 60 residential streetscapes were classified into figures and backgrounds using human perception of 20 subjects. The identified figures and backgrounds were arranged in a taxonomic diagram representing their connections. These taxonomic diagrams reflect the structural hierarchical visual complexity. Finally, taxonomic entropy was applied to statistically analyze the structural hierarchical visual complexity. When the taxonomic diagram is vertically and horizontally lengthy and the arrangement of the elements of taxonomic diagram is irregular, the complexity increases depicting a large number of figures whose spatial connections impart a high visual complexity to the streetscapes.

The planning of road structures must take into consideration both structural design and aesthetic design. Road planners and designers must keep in mind aesthetic design in the planning stages. In Japan, various design techniques have been established, and many design guidelines and design manuals have been compiled. However, most design techniques are derived from empirical knowledge, and their explanations are often subjective. We have developed a decision support system in landscape planning to simplify complicated processes and avoid fuzziness in decision making. We have collected a large amount of empirical knowledge and have created a database for use in developing design techniques. The main system supports designers and allows planners to select suitable design techniques considering environmental conditions and design policy based on a knowledge-based system. The introduction of three concepts-visual importance, visual suitability, and four kinds of design consistency-allows solution of certain design problems.