Relationships Between Vegetation Density and Preference of Bioretention Landscapes: The Roles of Perceived Naturalness and Safety in the United States
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Abstract
Recently, environmental management strategies suggest the implementation of plants and natural processes for flood and stormwater management. Among those strategies, bioretention is growing in popularity across nations. However, the understanding of perceptions and preferences of bioretention landscapes are lacking among landscape designers, planners, and engineers. This lack of knowledge risks the acceptance and sustainability of such projects. While research suggest landscapes with higher vegetation density increase positive landscape perceptions and preference, the mechanism of why denser landscapes are preferred is still missing. Thus, this research aims to understand how some landscape perceptions mediate the relationships between vegetation density and preference of bioretention landscapes. The researchers deployed 54 item photo-questionnaires and analyzed the relationships between vegetation density, landscape perceptions, and landscape preference. We found that perceived naturalness strongly mediated the relationships between vegetation and preference of bioretention landscapes while perceived safety had a weak mediative effect. Designers, planners, and engineers can use this information as a tool to assess how they can implement bioretention designs towards landscapes. This research is new because it helps us understand humans’ perception of landscapes and environments more deeply. Future research may explore more diverse variety of bioretention landscapes and differences among cultural and place identities.
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