1/f Characteristics Of Landscape Images And Their Correlation With Naturalness And Landscape Preference

Abstract

Naturalness is an essential environmental character that appears in the development of indicators for landscape assessment, including landscape preference and ecological value. However, scientific and convenient indicators are needed on the policy agenda and are increasingly needs in the assessment of different landscape functions. Thus, this study introduces a critical low-level feature of natural images that can represent variations in environmental naturalness, designated the 1/f characteristics. Generally, 1/f characteristics represent the visual texture of the environment, which is different in urban and natural environments. We subjected 117 images from communities in the Midwestern USA to 1/f characteristic analysis. We demonstrate that the 1/f characteristics varied with the proportion of the natural and artificial elements within a particular scene, thus representing variations in environmental naturalness. Additionally, the high correlation between 1/f characteristics and landscape preference is explained by the processing-fluency theory of visual signals, which may provide a neurological explanation for landscape preference. Finally, the application of these visual features to the urban environment is discussed.