Use of Video and 3D Scenario Visualisation to Rate Vegetation Screens for Integrating Buildings into the Landscape

Abstract

Human actions in the natural environment create a visual impact. The main objective of this study was to examine the acceptance of vegetation screens for integrating buildings into the landscape using new techniques of visualization in three dimensions (3D), videos and public participation. The status quo of two study areas representative of the Mediterranean climate in Spain (one inland and one coastal) was modelled, placing vegetation screens around a building typical of the area and varying the density, species, and layout of plants. After establishing a series of scenarios, videos showing a simulation of outdoor tourism activities performed at varying speeds were created to analyse how movement affects the perception of the combination of a building and vegetation screen in the versions created. The 3D models generated were subjected to a survey for public participation and to allow respondents to rate their preferences of the videos created. The results show that adding vegetation always improves the integration of buildings into the landscape. The most highly rated vegetation screen placed around the buildings in the two scenarios was high density vegetation, irrespective of the layout or species.

Visual Impact Assessment in Rural Areas: The Role of Vegetation Screening in the Sustainable Integration of Isolated Buildings

“…This shows that respondents did not visually prefer this type of arrangement to an irregular or dispersed arrangement. Similar results were obtained by Garrido et al [39], although these authors did not quantify the percentage of vegetation used or measure its impact.…”

“…Both graphics also show a nonlinear trend in respondents' answers. Other authors reported that 40-50% shifts in visual stimuli [7,20,39] become appreciable for observers.…”

“…The following guidelines applied to photo capture: (1) sufficient distance from the observer to the building so that the photos show as many details of the building as possible and part of the landscape background. In previous studies, this meant that the building occupied 25-30% of the total area of the image [38,39]. (2) Avoid taking photos in adverse weather conditions, such as rain, cloud cover, fog, or mid-day sun [40,41].…”

Bridging the Form and Function Gap in Urban Green Space Design through Environmental Systems Modeling

“…Smardon 1988Smardon , 2016Grahn and Stigsdotter 2010) that included assessments of shape, color, scale and texture. With the increasing sophistication of computing power, however, visualizations have progressed to 2D representations of space using GIS (Bishop 2003;Van Herzele and Wiedemann 2003;Pettit et al 2006;Ives et al 2017), 3D, and virtual reality representations (Bishop 2003;Pettit et al 2006;Fisher-Gewirtzman 2012;Yokoya et al 2014;Portman et al 2015;Li et al 2015;Velarde et al 2017;Echevarria Sanchez et al 2017). Mixed method approaches using questionnaires, semi-structured surveys, indicators, and multivariate analyses such as analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and principal component analysis also are being applied with increasing frequency (Van Herzele and Wiedemann 2003;Bulut and Yilmaz 2009;Hoyle et al 2017;Meri and Lian 2017).…”

Assessing the Impacts of Public Policies Over Tourism in Azores Islands. A Research Based on Tourists and Residents Perceptions

“…Therefore, there is a global concerning considering Sustainable development regional strategies for territorial growth [8,9,10,11]. In fact, this is one of the biggest challenges of regional planning nowadays [12,13,14,15,16].…”