Approaches to landscape evaluation: questioning examining landscape vulnerability and sensitivity of the Island of Rab

Abstract

The incentive for this research has come from a wide range of methods for landscape quality evaluation. The purpose was to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the commonly used approaches to landscape evaluation. In the selected research area, the Island of Rab, 15 landscape character areas were identified and three approaches for evaluation of landscape qualities were determined; (1) one based exclusively on the evaluation of vulnerability of landscape qualities, and two based on landscape sensitivity assessment: (2) the overlap of landscape character areas with the combined landscape quality vulnerability model and (3) the direct evaluation of landscape character areas from the natural, cultural-historical, and visual-experiential perspective. The aforementioned approaches were compared with one another in order to identify similarities and differences between the individual approaches, as well as to highlight their advantages and disadvantages. The results have shown that the adequacy of an approach depends on the selection of a homogeneous spatial unit; the appropriate approach for the evaluation criteria selection may affect the objectivity of the method; and the highest landscape qualities were determined in the same areas regardless of the approach used.

Keywords

• evaluation
• modelling
• landscape qualities
• vulnerability
• sensitivity