The objective and subjective criteria which are effective on the scenic beauty perception of landscapes

Recent literature paid high attention to scenic evaluation of natural landscapes. The individual perception, due to the perceptual characteristics of landscape, is different from one to another and this is what called as “aesthetic preferences” in this study. These perceptions are different from one to other as a result of landscapes diversity and based on the shape, color, texture, rhythm, suitability, balance, symmetry, order, direction and continuity. The aim of this research was to identify the objective and subjective criteria which are effective on the scenic beauty perception of landscapes.
This is a reviewing research which is done by librarian method and using the existing documents. In this paper, related components and variables have been surveyed by investigating landscape elements.
land use planners usually assess the scenic value of landscapes using the objective and subjective approaches. At the first approach, landscape visual quality is defined by physical and biological values of landscape such as diversity of toposhape, vegetation cover, water features and man-made features and in the second approach is defined according to the individual vision, perception and feeling.
This paper is presented a list of objective and subjective criteria which are effective on scenic value of a landscape and the role of each criterion in the preference of a landscape is expressed. Final conclusions showed that spatial expansion of a landscapes without proper aesthetic impact assessments will endanger the high valuable tourism natural resources, therefore recognizing of objective and subjective factors seems to be necessary for proper assessment. Aesthetic quality should not be considered as the only inherent characteristic of an object but also the differentiation of mind and nature would make it easier to honor the role of emotions in estimation of landscape aesthetic preferences, actually aesthetic analyzing can be examined by a degree of objectivity based on public preferences. The combination of objective and subjective approaches could be used as a comprehensive method to assess the aesthetic quality of a landscape. Regarding that the visual sense has the most impact on the quality of recreational experience of individuals so assessing the aesthetic and visual quality of a landscape should be regarded as a fundamental part in land use planning and management projects.