A perceptual model of smellscape pleasantness

Abstract

Smellscape has increasingly attracted attentions across disciplines. However, little research provides a model to help understand the perceptual qualities of smellscapes. This paper, taking pleasantness as a perceptual quality dimension, aimed to explore indicators influencing people's pleasantness of smellscapes in a selected case. People's natural speaking language was used as resources to understand their perceptions. Grounded Theory was used as a methodological approach in this study in a selected case. Nineteen participants were recruited for smell walking with semi-structured interviews. Overall, nine indicators emerged from participants' descriptions which contribute to their smellscape pleasantness: cleanliness, preference, appropriateness, naturalness, freshness, familiarity, calmness, intensity and purity. Meanwhile, four types of pleasantness were found according to dominant indicators: preference dominated, healthiness dominated, memories and habituation dominated and context dominated. A perceptual model has been developed based on the indicators which can be used to classify smellscapes through their dominant perceptual features and evaluate smellscape qualities based on pleasantness.

A laboratory study of the sound-odour interaction in urban environments

“…-Even if the simulation variable control is accurate in the laboratory, it cannot replace the real feeling of the actual environment on site and in real time. The results of laboratory studies should be verified in the field [48].…”

Smell walking and mapping

“…A more corporeal approach can document smell to explore the affect of the office as a place of work, as described by Riach and Warren (2015). Planners and landscape professionals can use smell walking as a means of investigating how a smellscape contributes to perceptions of pleasantness, such as in the work of Xiao, Tait and Kang (2018). The mapping of the smellscape can also directly contribute to multi-sensory urban and landscape design of urban greenspaces (Kang, Tait and Xiao, 2017).…”

A Field Method for Landscape Conservation Surveying: The Landscape Assessment Protocol (LAP)

“…Metric selection is based mainly on visually apparent indicators of "state change" in natural and cultural landscapes. Since each metric is assessed on-site in the field, utilizing a trained assessor's visual [48], acoustic [49,50], and olfactory senses [51], specific easily apparent and practical elements were chosen. The assessment is meant to be able to discern widespread and general "quality conditions" in all types of landscape [52]; this includes all types of cultural landscapes, even urban areas (i.e., the most "culturally-modified" landscapes).…”