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Effect of ecosystem management on public acceptance of visual impacts and perceived scenic value in a tourist destination area
xiv, 171 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm.
environment has been a major attraction for tourists and recreationists and a key for success or failure of tourism and recreation-related industries (Goner, 1996). Following the current environmental concern, alternative management or development policies, such as ecosystem management or sustainable development, are required for providing various social needs as well as environmental and economic needs. Ecosystem management has been adopted by various public natural resource management agencies in the U.S. One of the main issues of ecosystem management is defining social acceptability, which is related to public value judgment. Since public judgment of a place depends primarily on what a person sees, understanding the visual effects of ecosystem management is important for resource managers. Visual effects have been evaluated by two approaches, including scenic beauty (an immediate and affective evaluation of a landscape) and visual acceptability (a product of a cognitive comparison process). The purpose of this study is to determine the differences in visual acceptability and scenic beauty between ecosystem management and traditional management practices. Secondly, this study explores the relationship between the concepts of visual acceptability and scenic beauty. Specifically, the study investigate whether scenes that are low in scenic beauty can still be judged as visually acceptable. The study was conducted at a major tourist destination area in Arkansas. One ecosystem management practice, two traditional management practices, and a control condition were implemented. Students at Texas A&M university rated the scenic beauty and the visual acceptability of 240 color slides of forest stands. The results indicate that an ecosystem management practice (group selection) is more scenic and visually more acceptable than traditional management practices, but less attractive and acceptable than an undamaged control condition. The results also indicate that the more scenic a forest stand is, the more visually acceptable it is. However, the results also suggest that there is a possibility that even if a scene is perceived as unattractive, the scene can be judged as acceptable by the public. In addition, the findings lend some support to the use of persuasive communication to increase public acceptance of management practices, including ecosystem management.
"Major Subject: Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences".
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-152).
Major recreation, park and tourism sciences