Examining the role of auditory-visual interaction in the characterization of perceived wildness and tranquillity in valued open spaces

摘要

A review of the websites, marketing material or Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) reports belonging to any of the UK's 15 National Parks, will show wildness and tranquillity as two of the most valued 'special qualities' of these unique British landscapes. In fact they are so valued that the UK Government amended the 1995 Environment Act to specifically require all National Park Authorities to; "place emphasis on conserving and enhancing the valued attributes of wide open spaces and the wildness and tranquillity found within them". However, current Landscape Character Assessments methodologies within the UK rarely, if at all, incorporate objective acoustic measures within their predominantly uni-modal (visual) environmental appraisal, nor does the wild-land mapping of Scotland, recently commission by Scottish Natural Heritage. This paper reports the findings of a wildness pilot study that presented bi-modal audio-visual stimuli (video footage), to experimental subjects under controlled conditions, in order to obtain reliable estimates of perceived wildness, naturalness, felt remoteness and tranquillity. The findings have identified important aspects of the soundscape that impact on these assessments and highlight the need for such factors to be considered in order to adequately characterize valued open spaces for planning, conservation and promotional purposes.