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This work is an experimental contribution to assessing the relationship between place attachment and well-being in urban parks in a mobility and migratory context. Using virtual park visits, we aimed at finding out whether place attachment and familiarity with parks are related to physiological responses, i.e. relaxation/arousal. The experimental study involved bi-cultural residents and locals who were invited to experience two comparable urban parks in an audio-visual laboratory. The virtual visit included a Persian Garden in Iran and a historic park in Switzerland. During the session, subjects’ affective responses were measured via skin conductance activity and a questionnaire was used to collect information on aspects of place attachment/identity and perceptual properties. Statistical analyses show that place attachment and familiarity with the cultural background of a park have a significant influence on the affective responses, particularly relaxation. In addition, we find some experimental evidence that measurable place attachment has developed among bi-cultural migrants in their new place of residence. Results fit well to theories of place attachment that are compiled in the article, Landscape and Urban Planning, 232, ISSN:0169-2046, ISSN:1872-6062

Noise annoyance reactions in the population due to wind farms are related to visual as well as noise-related impacts of the farms. Improved understanding of these effects may support the planning of better accepted wind farms. Recently, tools for visualization and auralization of wind farms have been developed that allow mutually studying audio-visual effects on annoyance. The objective of this study was to investigate the audio-visual effects of different wind turbine noise situations on short-term noise annoyance in a psychophysical laboratory experiment, considering serial position effects (simple order and differential carryover effects). A set of 24 audio-visual situations covering a range of acoustical characteristics (sound pressure level, periodic amplitude modulation) and visual settings (landscape with visible wind turbine, landscape only, grey background) was created. The factorial design of the experiment allowed separating audio-visual effects from serial position effects on noise annoyance. Both visual and acoustical characteristics were found to affect noise annoyance, besides the participants’ attitude towards wind farms. Sound pressure level and amplitude modulation increased annoyance, the presence of a visualized landscape decreased annoyance, and the visibility of a wind turbine increased annoyance. While simple order effects could be eliminated by counterbalancing, the initial visual setting strongly affected the annoyance ratings of the subsequent settings. Due to this differential carryover effect, visual effects could be assessed reliably only as long as the participants saw the initial visual setting. Therefore, the presentation order of audio-visual stimuli should be carefully considered in experimental studies and in participatory landscape planning.

Finding the “right” sites for developing renewable energy systems (RES) is one of the major challenges in planning strategies for energy transitions. The visibility aspects of such infrastructure are important factors that explain local opposition. Classical visibility and viewshed analyses of RES disregard people’s perceptions and estimations of new infrastructure. To address this void, we demonstrate an approach that combines rated visual landscape qualities with measured visual features. In doing so, we established visual stimuli with systematically controlled visual impact scenarios featuring the use of renewables in different landscape types. The study investigated how ratings of landscape qualities are affected by landscape changes stemming from RES. We also identified measurable visual features that might help to operationalize landscape qualities. Finally, we intended to improve the understand of how rated landscape qualities lead to preferences for different RES visual impact scenarios. Our results showed that rated coherence is strongly influenced by renewable energy infrastructure, whereas complexity ratings are affected mainly by variations in landscape types. These findings let us to conclude that the visual understanding and visual connectedness between energy systems and surrounding landscapes are core drivers of people’s visual preferences for landscapes altered with RES. Considering landscape qualities within impact assessments of RES can augment our grasp of how the visual character of a landscape changes through renewable energy infrastructure., Landscape and Urban Planning, 209, ISSN:0169-2046, ISSN:1872-6062

Urban green spaces offer multiple ecosystem services (ES), which provide a variety of benefits to human well-being. Yet in urban planning they are not taken into account systematically. Recently new tools have been developed integrating ES into procedural modeling and visualization to raise stakeholder awareness for the explicit ES trade-offs that have to be made. These tools yet do not allow fast and comprehensive integration of ES provision in urban environments. In this paper we show how urban green space typologies can be linked to ES provision for facilitating collaboration between stakeholders of different backgrounds. Based on a generic typology green spaces were mapped and linked with information on potentially provided ES and their parameters. Further, pattern designs of the green space types were described with a form-based code. Both the map of green space types and the pattern designs were integrated into the parametric modeling and visualization chain of Esri CityEngine resulting in 3D visualizations of the green space patterns and correlating ES indicators. The green space typology allows for integrating different kinds of knowledge from both science and practice communities. The procedural model enables rapid interactive visualization of urban patterns and calculation of simple indicator values on the provision of ES. The simple approach for mapping green space types with low data requirements and the generic green space design patterns allow for transferability to other places and application to large areas. The developed approach is simple and fast yet comprehensive to communicate the vital importance of all green space types within the urban environment.

Forests provide a variety of ecosystem goods and services to society, which often have the typical characteristics of a public good: non-excludability and non-rivalry. One of these services is avalanche protection of forests. A monetary valuation of this service would be helpful to provide efficient and effective protection to the local population. We present the results of a case study from the Swiss Alps, where we determined the willingness to pay for avalanche protection based on a choice experiment combined with virtual reality visualizations. Furthermore, we compare these results with the costs of alternative technical measures for natural hazard mitigation as well as with the results of a risk-based evaluation. We conclude that the willingness to pay for avalanche protection of forests is about the same range as the collective risk related to a 300-years avalanche event and within a range similar to the per-household costs of alternative measures. However, willingness to pay is substantially higher than the costs of silvicultural measures to maintain protection forest. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Erratum to “Avalanche Protection by Forests A Choice Experiment in the Swiss Alps” [Forest Policy and Economics 15 (2012) 108–113] Roland Olschewski ⁎, Peter Bebi , Michaela Teich , Ulrike Wissen Hayek , Adrienne Gret-Regamey c a Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Economics and Social Sciences, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland b WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Switzerland c PLUS Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems IRL, ETH Zurich, Switzerland