Abstract
Developing Scenic Highway Design Guidelines using GIS and Landscape Visualizations
Track: Transportation
Author(s): Xiaochun Qin, Michael J Meitner, Xiaoning Zhang, Brent Chamberlain
In previous decades, highway designers in China focused primarily on the physical design of highways, but placed little emphasis on scenic design around highway. Recently, more attention has been given to the aesthetic improvement of the environment surrounding highways. Our project employed GIS to help explain how highway landscape features relate to the visual perceptions of drivers. A number of experimental landscape visualizations, in the form of video clips, were statistically generated to investigate the relationship of landscape features including topography, visual closure, vegetation type and density to the driving experience. Continuous rating data were recorded for scenic preference allowing us to investigate how the impact of landscape features change and temporal aspects such as rate, frequency and rhythm of change affected driver's visual perception. Based on these results, a series of prescriptive guidelines relevant to the scenic management of highways were presented to make it more applicable globally.
Xiaochun Qin
The University of British Columbia
Interactive Digital Environmental Assessment Laboratory, Forest Science Center, 2424 Main Mall
Vanvouver , British Columbia V6T 1Z4
Canada
Phone: +1 604 8226708
Fax: +1 604 8229106
E-mail: qinxc@hotmail.com
Michael J Meitner
University of British Columbia
Department of Forest Resources Management, Forest Sciences Centre, 2045-2424 Main Mall
Vancouver , British Columbia V6T 1Z4
Canada
Phone: +1 604 822 0029
E-mail: mike.meitner@ubc.ca
Xiaoning Zhang
South China University of Technology
Institute of Road ResearchSchool of Traffic and Communications, South China University of Technology
Guangzhou , Guangdong 510640
China
Phone: +86 87588879
E-mail: prozxn@163.com
Brent Chamberlain
University of British Columbia
Interactive Digital Environmental Assessment Laboratory, Forest Sciences Centre,2045-2424 Main Mall
Vancouver , British Columbia V6T 1Z4
Canada
Phone: +1 604 822 6708
E-mail: chambs10@interchange.ubc.ca