Perceived Environmental Aesthetic Qualities Scale (PEAQS) – A self-report tool for the evaluation of green-blue spaces

Abstract

Aesthetic qualities of urban green and blue spaces have received considerable attention in scientific literature but are operationalized in multiple ways and lack clear assessment and measurement techniques. To fill in this gap, we developed a Perceived Environmental Aesthetic Qualities Scale (PEAQS). Based on previous literature both in philosophy and empirical sciences we created a questionnaire with 36 statements and three open questions focusing on the perceived aesthetic qualities of environments. This questionnaire was used to sample 331 respondents in three sites different in their level of naturalness, human intervention and design: a natural-like but managed urban forest, a partly human-made and intensively managed bay-park and a completely human-made green roof. These sites were selected to represent a variety of urban green and blue infrastructure common in cities. The results suggest a scale that consists of 23 statements and five factors that reflect perceived aesthetic qualities of urban green spaces: Harmony, Mystery, Multisensority & Nature, Visual Spaciousness and Visual Diversity, and Sublimity. We give guidelines for further development and testing of the scale in order to prove its potential to develop the field of environmental aesthetics and to demonstrate its usefulness for adaptive, evidence-based urban planning and design.

“Can Intelligence Make You Happy?” The Influence of Tourists’ Cultural Sustainability and Intelligence on Their Flow Experience

“…In cultural and creative tourism, perceived aesthetics and enjoyment are essential elements of aesthetic value [32]. Perceived aesthetics is the aesthetic response of one or more senses to environmental stimuli, which will affect individual information processing after being internalized, such that aesthetic quality can be regarded as the result of the interaction between individuals and the environment [46]. When tourists perceive aesthetics in tourism activities, the impact of the tourism destination environment on the tourist experience is direct and profound [47].…”

Important Factors Affecting Rural Tourists’ Aesthetic Experience: A Case Study of Zoumatang Village in Ningbo

“…Through semi-structured interviews, the analysis yielded 21 aesthetic dimensions, which were grouped into nine themes. Subiza-Pérez et al [31] developed the PEAQS to measure the aesthetic quality of a tourist attraction, but the scale only focuses on the aesthetics of the natural physical environment and does not address the deeper emotional and spiritual aspects of aesthetics. Breiby et al [32] construct an aesthetic experience scale with five dimensions from sensory aspects: "harmony", "variation/contrast", "scene/viewing", "genuineness", and "art/architecture".…”

“…Currently, the study of aesthetic experience focuses on philosophical discussion so that empirical research on the aesthetic experience offered by tourism is needed [30]. A small number of empirical studies mainly focus on the "sensory level" of aesthetic experience [31][32][33], ignoring its "spiritual level". In fact, the existing literature tends to regard aesthetic experience as a dimension of consumer experience (entertainment, education, aesthetics, and escape) [34], and research focuses on the role of aesthetic experience in the field of service marketing [35,36].…”

A Preliminary Exploration of Landscape Preferences Based on Naturalness and Visual Openness for College Students With Different Moods

“…A considerable number of previous studies have indicated that the beneficial effects of landscape preferences and rehabilitation landscapes on humans' physical and psychological health will be affected by a person's attention to nature, sense of fatigue, and other psychological states (Berman et al, 2009;Tyrväinen et al, 2014;van den Berg and Jorgensen, 2014;Windhorst and Williams, 2015). Although Joye and van den Berg (2011) have pointed out that landscape preference was not a direct cause of physical and mental recovery, it is undeniable that in the studies on landscape preference, there is a positive correlation between a psychological state and a healthy relationship (Hartig et al, 1997;van den Berg et al, 2003;Subiza-Pérez et al, 2019); the researchers considered that people are more likely to choose to ascend in their well-being and emotional state of active space (Kaplan et al, 1998;Feng and Chen, 2020). Although moods cannot be totally equal to emotions, moods are often used as indicators of emotion to explore the benefits of nature to human beings.…”