Frontier Progress of Landscape Character Assessment in China

The role of Landscape Character Assessment(LCA)at the level of territorial landscape governance spans both natural and social sciences.By analyzing the development history,research distribution,methods and applications of cutting-edge cases of LCA in China,the following conclusions are drawn:①the LCA research in China originated earlier than that in Europe,but has not yet been systematically applied to the implementation of urban and rural planning at all levels;②the fundamental theory of LCA in China has been well constructed,with three main research directions:technologyled,assessment-led,and assessment combined with other theories;③the development of LCA in rural areas is more mature than in urban areas,but the progress of research is uneven across regions;④the current research presents significant“bottom-up”academic characteristics,and there is an urgent need for government decision-making authorities and academia to jointly promote a“top-down”standardized governance mechanism to comprehensively promote the modernization of territorial landscape governance.

Study on Landscape Character Assessment System in Small Cities and Towns

The paper elaborated landscape character assessment system of small cities and towns, defi ned the assessment objects, application range of assessment fruits, specifi c evaluation methods and procedures. Taking Gexianshan Town in Pengzhou City for example, technical means for assessing landscape characters were adopted for the landscape assessment, which provided professional support for the future planning.

Certainties and uncertainties of land cover statistics in China

Vegetation or land cover maps have been made directly or indirectly available for the entire territory of China. The certainties and uncertainties of land cover statistics were analyzed by comparing three data sources: China's Vegetation Map, IGPB DISCover, and University of Maryland Product. Great similarities in the statistics of 7 aggregated land cover types were found among the three data sources, particularly between the two global land cover maps. The per pixel agreement between any 2 of 3 maps was between 38.0%—51.4%; the per pixel agreement among all three maps was only 27.1%. Certainties were found in regions where vegetation types are typical and human land use practice is relatively homogenous; the uncertainties occurred to either vegetation transition zones or regions where land cover types and land use practice are relatively diversified. Systematic and multidisciplinary efforts are necessary to promote accurate mapping of nationwide land cover types in China. Intensive efforts should be made in regions where uncertainties of land cover information are found.

Residents'urbanized landscape preferences in rural areas reveal the importance of naturalness-livability contrast

Urbanization has caused significant landscape changes in rural areas,leading to the emergence of urbanized landscapes(ULs),which have been generally criticized by authorities and professionals.However,perceptions of ULs among local residents have rarely been studied.In this study,we chose five typical categories of ULs from rapidly transforming villages in Fujian Province,China–hardened water bank(HWB),big pavilion(BPA),big memorial arch(BMA),big ornamental lawn(BOL),and big square(BSQ)to do the study.We identified how these ULs were rated and ranked by on-site surveys,as well as how related aesthetic and multifunctional landscape characters(LCs)played a role.The results(N=550)showed that 1)residents supported the construction of ULs,and the most preferred category was that with the most natural elements(BOL)that was simultaneously well maintained.2)For the residents,the longer they had resided in the village and the fewer connections they had with the city,the more in favor they were of the ULs,and the more eager they were for landscape change.In addition,residents with higher education and Communist Party of China membership valued the naturalness related LCs more highly.3)Two contradictory preference features,naturalness and livability,should be well coordinated and balanced to construct an improved favorable village for the residents,to realize a balanced and sustainable development path.This study makes great theoretical contributions to landscape research and provides new insights into rural planning and construction.