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VOL.12, NO.4

USING BIRD AS THE INDEX SPECIES FOR EVALUATING LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL SCALE IN RURAL AREA OF TAIWAN

Wei-Ming Huang, Sheng-Jung Ou, Chun-Yen Chang

The major purposes of this study were to select appropriate indices for ecological evaluation and develop the landscape ecology scale in rural area of Taiwan. It is expected that this scale could be applied in landscape ecology field. Based on the structure concept in landscape ecology, the study employed eCognition 4.0, ArcGis 8.X, and Fragstats 3.3 to calculate the evaluating indices of landscape ecology. Furthermore, the study utilized multiple regression analysis to identify the landscape ecological scale of avian diversity in rural areas of Taiwan. The results showed that using the concept of multiscale which combined geological scale with home range scale is more efficient to explain avian diversity.

THE INFLUENCE OF VISTORS’ ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTE PREFERENCE ON THEIR ACCOMMODATION SITE CHOICE

Wei-Chen Li, Chang-Chan Huang

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of vistors’ environmental attribute preference on their accommodation site choice behavior. Lushan Hot Spring and Chingjing in Nantou County were selected as the study areas. An on-site questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from these study areas and 442 valid questionnaires were obtained. The results of the logistic regression showed that 67.2% of the accommodation site choice behavior can be predicted from the preference of seven environmental attributes. These attribute included: scenic spots nearby the place I accommodated are attractive to me, the place I accommodated is well-known, there are famous souvenirs at the place I accommodated, there are hot spring and hydrotherapeutic facilities at the place I accommodated, the place I accommodated could remind me of beautiful memories, the place I accommodated could let me relax, and there are many night activities at the place I accommodated. According to the findings, some suggestions were proposed to the industry of accommodation facilities in Lushan Hot Spring and Chingjing and to future research.

STUDY OF RESIDENTS’ PLACE ATTACHMENT TOWARD MEI-CHUAN WATER PARK IN TAICHUNG CITY

Bing-Shi Tseng, Cheng-Ping Wang, Chin Chung-Jen

Space design of urban riverbank had potential influences on the uses and affective meanings of local residents toward the urban riverbank. The Mei-Chuan Water Park in Taichung City was an artificial waterfront. This study investigated residents’ place attachment toward Mei-Chuan Water Park, the relationship between park use experiences and place attachment, and residents’ place attachment toward two different types of riverbank, near-water space and by-water space. The results pointed out that residents’ attachment consists of three factors, including place dependence, place identidy, and lifestyle. The residents being the park, willing to revisit, staying longer, participating more in the near-water and by-water activities reported higher scores on the place attachment. In addition, the residents reported higher place attachment scores toward the near-water space than the by-water space. These results indicated the design of artificial waterfront had positive influences on the uses and affective meanings of residents toward the urban riverbanks.

THE INFLUENCES OF RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT QUALITY ON RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION IN URBAN AREAS

Mei-Hsiu Chen, Yann-Jou Lin

The purposes of this study were to set up the index of residential environment quality in urban areas to assess the residential environment of Taipei, and to analyze the relationship between residential environment quality and residential satisfaction. Thirty-six questions were designed to measure residents’ perception of their residential environment quality. The sample consisted of 836 residents. Study results were summarized as follow: (1)Through factor analysis, thirty-six items of residential environment quality were simplified to seven factors, named “ outside space of dwellings” , “environmental health” , “green areas”, “relation of neighbors”, “accessibility to public services”, “security of neighborhood”, and “convenience of transportation”. (2) Residential satisfaction was affected significantly and positively by seven factors of residential environment quality. (3) “Environmental health” , “green areas”, “accessibility to public services” and residential satisfaction were significantly different among seven districts of Taipei. (4) Seven factors of residential environment quality were significant predictors in the regression model for residential satisfaction.

VOL.12, NO.3

INTEGRAL EVALUATION FOR THE STRUCTURES IN ECO-ENGINEERING

Shin-Hwei Lin, Jau-Shiung Hung, Chun-Jen Huang, Yi-Chang Chen

This study is consisted of the exploration on the eco-engineering index based on the influence factors such as the function, the ecology, the economy and the environment of the application of eco-engineering. The “Modified Delphi Method” was used to design the questionnaire and establish the integral evaluation principle of ecological engineering method structure. Based on this questionnaire, the integral evaluation index of ecological engineering methods structure was calculated by processionals & scholars investigating and explore the viability of integral evaluation index. Finally, using “Analytic Hierarchy Process” to calculate the weight of counsel and evaluation for the basis of designing the structure.
According to the result of integral evaluation index, staking and wattling gives the highest score in the 15 structures; in the revetment, wooden pile revetment is evaluated in first place. Then, rockery revetment is second and stake and infill roll revetment is third place. Based on the correlation coefficients, although the functional index of this study is still not completed yet, the others are applicable.
In the priority sequence of important factor in evaluation principles, although each field is different, it is almost the same with all samples. The index including “safety”, “suitability”, “stability”, “offering biological environment”, “the environment damage under construction” and “the environment influence of structure” are the top 10 in each field. That mean all scholars have almost the same common consensus for these index.

A STUDY ON THE NIGHT VISITORS’ RECREATION MOTIVATION AND SAFETY COGNITION IN TAICHUNG METROPOLITAN PARK*

Su-Hsin Lee, Shu-Chen Chang, Ni-Tien Lin

Park areas should be an urban oasis for users in which to recreate and relax after a long working day. However, parklands after dark appear to have the potential to be insecure environments due to the increasing demoralization of the society. Parks therefore are places of recreation but also of crime. This paper explores the recreation motivations of night-time park users and the factors that affect their sense of security. Respondents were taken from Taichung Metropolitan Park, Taiwan, with 419 valid samples. The results show that: (1) the major motivations to visit Metropolitan Park included five factors: social contact, having romantic activities, participating special events, learning and exercise, and experiencing nighttime atmosphere; the visitors could be categorized into three motivation types: nighttime activity experiencing, romantic socializing, and specific activities. (2) The cognition of environmental attributes, psychological attributes and the sense of safety are related to the recreational motivation of different park users. (3) Factors affecting the sense of safety include: park safety management, spatial characteristics, park insecurity image, victimization risk, and having romantic activities. (4) There is no correlation between lighting illumination (Lux) and the selection of unsafe places. However, a road accessibility integration value (Rn) has a negative correlation with unsafe places. The results indicate that less accessible, isolated places are more likely to be conceived of as unsafe areas. The results of this study suggest that park management should reinforce night patrols, install more monitors and alarm systems, and restrict access in the “night time control areas” to prevent users from being lured into dangerous situations.

THE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP AMONG PERCEPTION, ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR OF ECOTOURISM FOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF WILDERNESS

Homer C. Wu

The purpose of this study was to understand the environmentalists’ perception and attitudes toward ecotourism development, to explore their behavior in participating ecotourism, and the relationships among them. Based upon the literature review, five dimensions of residents’ perceptions of ecotourism were developed. Three dimensions of residents’ attitudes toward ecotourism were developed. Five other dimensions of residents’ behaviors during/after ecotourism activities were also adopted. The survey questionnaires were mailed, email, or via internet to the members of the Society of Wilderness, R.O.C, and the valid respondents were 788.
The overall model evaluation for calibration sample showed a fair fit and the model was proved as stable after cross-validation. “Perception” significantly and positively impacted “attitude”, “Attitude” significantly and positively impacted “behavior”. However, the results showed that the influence of “perception” on “behavior” was spurious. This result indicated that “perception” would not necessarily have direct influence on “behavior”, while the influence must be mediated by “attitude”.

RESIDENTS’ ATTITUDE AND INTENTIONAL ACTION TOWARD ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Hsing-Fen Tang, Yu-Ming Chen

The important concept of ecotourism is to concern the ecological impact while developing the tourism activities. Therefore, the attitude and the behavior of the local residents of the ecotourism site will have significant influences on the sustainable ecotourism development. The purpose of this study is to depict the attitude and behavior intention and their factors of the local residents of the ecotourism site. Establishing the research framework by literature review, this study categories the attitude and behavior intention into four dimensions, including the economic development, the social psychology, the environment conservation, and the management strategies. The selected study site is the Chigu Hsiang, which is famous with its popularity of the development of the ecotourism. A structured questionnaire was adopted as the data collection tool to know the local resident’s opinions. The result shows there are no significant strongly positive or negative attitudes or behavior intentions. However, different dependence of the economic on the ecotourism, different familiarity of the ecotourism and the selection of different development projects has significant differences on the residents’ attitude and behavior intentions. Testing of the factors, the attitude and the behavior intention are correlated to each other. Furthermore, the social psychological attitude is an important factor on the behavior intentions. Discussions emphasize on the vitalization of the local residents, to make them experience the benefits of improving the living quality and promoting the public facilities by the development of the ecotourism. Educating the local residents understanding the meaning of the ecotourism and getting the benefits by the development of the ecotourism are the major factors for the achievement of the ecotourism.

VOL.12, NO.2

ANALYSIS AND ESTIMATION OF THE EFFECT ON LANDSCAPE PATTERN BY RURAL ROAD NETWORK

Hou-Nan Tsai, Shu-Mei Chiu

Since Taiwan government has declared the future national comprehensive development should be on the basis of sustainability in 2002, it pronounced a new view on transport planning that would give equal weight to accessibility and economy. It’s the turning time for us to pursuit the dynamic balance among infrastructure, ecology and community all around the country. This research focuses on presenting the method and formulae to quantify the effect of landscape fragmentation by rural road network. It chooses FuLi, ChihSang and KwanShan of HuaTung Longitudinal Valley, where are the major areas of rice production, as the study area. But this article only presents the outcome of empirical study in Fuli because of the limited pages. Furthermore, the study adopt 2001 Taiwan aerial photos, completed by Agricultural and Forestry Aerial Survey Institute as basic maps and utilize GIS as an analytic tool to evaluate the landscape pattern and its impact on rural landscape fragmentation from road network. Finally, the result of this research tries to integrate both the concerning spatial concepts of accessibility and the “traffic calmed rural area” (TCRA) to merge the sustainable road network and to promote landscape connectivity in order to reduce the fragmentation effects in the expanding rural areas. The result of this empirical study includes each and all landscape structure of FuLi, ChihSang and KwanShan, which have a very high similarity. The landscape pattern of FuLi is dominated by huge forest pattern. After the adjustment of road network, the level of landscape fragmentation at three sample areas is lower down than the level before the adjustment. The landscape pattern of FuLi is the most influenced sample area by specific landscape type with strong domination among three chosen sample areas. The conclusion indeed shows the rural road network and its traffic flows always cause impacts on the landscape fragmentation among national, regional and local scale, as well as can reduce the fragmentation effects in the expanding rural areas by merging the sustainable road network.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON APPLYING NATURAL PURIFICATION TO BOD OF SEPTIC TANK SEWAGE IN THE URBAN CAMPUS

Chih-Hong Huang, Wei-Chia Su, Yi-Der Lin

The purpose of this study is to ensure the treatment efficiency of natural purification. In recent year, studies of ecological function in landscape have focused on the pollutants reducing rate. It has been reported that aquatic plants are helpful but the real mechanisms are unknown. This paper discusses the organic waste matter in the water, and limits the discussion to biochemical oxygen demand (BOD).
Experiments are carried out in the campus ecological pond. BOD5 in different installations were measured continuously. The statistic method is applied to analysis the data. Results clearly show that reducing rate is in relation to the wastewater loading. In 15% loading, the reaction rate constant k is 0.558(day-1); in 100% loading k is 4.955(day-1). The treatment efficiency in this experiment is better than it in other countries. Temperature might be the reason to speed up the reaction.

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERPRETATION SIGNS IN NATIONAL PARK INTERPRETATION TRAILS—A CASE OF SKADANG TRAIL IN TAROKO NATIONAL PARK

Yuan-I Eric Yeh, Lin, Ang-Yi

This study explored the effectiveness of Skadang interpretation trail through four aspects of measurements, including:(1) visitors’ recreation experience; (2) visitors’ commitment toward the interpretation trail; (3) visitors’ attitude toward the management of National Park; and (4) visitors’ learning effectiveness. The results indicated that visitors’ characteristics were significantly related to interpretation effectiveness. With respect to the effectiveness of interpretation signs, whether visitors’ use of interpretation signs or not was significantly related to visitors’ characteristics, the relaxation of emotion and pressure, the commitment of interpretation signs, use effectiveness, attitudes toward national park regulations, and learning effectiveness. This study suggests that government agency not only needs to reinforce visitors’ commitment and learning benefits while planning the interpretation trail, but also have to take both environmental resource development and resource preservation into consideration for mutual balance so as to maintain high quality of recreational experience for park visitors.

A PRIMARY EXPLORATION ON THE PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES OF ECOTOURISM PROGRAMMING IN NATIVES’ RESERVE AREAS

Wen-Tsann Yang

The agricultural function of the native reserves should be declining since Taiwan became a member of the World Trade Organization. Owing to the abundant landscape resources in some reserves and increasing demand on outdoor recreation, it has been proved by relevant studies as a new survival way for native people to develop leisure and recreation business in terms of their reserves’ land uses.
However, it is possible to threaten the sustainable management of the ecotourism due to a lack of knowledge and experience in activity programming. This is the basic concern of this article. If the relevant government agencies have some training programs for native people to carry out their ecotourism business, the curricula design for the training programs may refer to the results and suggestions of this article.
An integrated study results from Tanaiku ecological park at Arlishan village, Chiayi county, Songher community at Hopin village, Taichung county and Pagou Lass reserve, Nantou county were used as information in this study. This article is a primary exploration of the principles of ecotourism programming and planning skills for the reference of ecotourism providers. Hopefully this primary exploration would inspire those who are interested in this issue to promote sustainable ecotourism in the native reserve areas.

VOL.12, NO.1

A STUDY ON THE EVALUATION FACTORS OF URBAN ROAD THROUGH THE GREENWAY THEORY OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY -A STUDIED EXAMPLE FROM THE WEST DISTRICT OF TAICHUNG CITY

Li-Shin Chang, Pao-Ting Liu

Based on the landscape ecology theories, factors affecting the ecology of urban roads were proposed through literatures in this study. The factors were further screened and confirmed through FDH method, correlation and independency analyses. The weighing of each factors were subsequently established by FAHP method to form an ecology evaluation framework for urban road system. The framework was applied empirically on the West District of Taichung City. Strategies to improve the ecology of ecological network of urban road inner space were suggested in order that the urban roads can function as ecological corridors.
Twelve evaluation factors on the ecology of urban road system were proposed which fall into three-level categories of a hierarchy system. The target level is to enable the urban road systems to function as ecological corridors. The first level category includes green network structure (0.6745) and environmental characteristics of road sections (0.3225). The second level category includes four factors, viz. the connectivity of network (0.4660), landscape ecology strategy (0.2085), structure of plant community (0.1787) and disturbance factors (0.1467). The factors fall into the third level of hierarchy system are connected patch area (0.1348), green belt width of road system (0.1145), continuity of road systems (0.2167), etc. In order to improve the landscape ecology of the West District of Taichung City, the ecological network can be developed from the existed greenway system, in conjunction with near-by river corridors to form a more integral green network.

A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION OF CHUNGHSIAO AND HSIENYI BUSINESS DISTRICTS AND THEIR LEISURE SATISFACTION

Shu-Chun L. Huang

In Taiwan, due to the overall economic growth in the past few decades, shopping has become a popular recreational activity to many people. In many developed countries, the trend of urban planning has attempted to integrate leisure and shopping activities in business districts to attract more consumers. The purpose of this study was to examine the discrepancy of people’s environmental perception and leisure satisfaction between Chunghsiao and Hsienyi business districts in Taipei. The findings suggested that four dimensions embodied in people’s perception of the two business districts. They were labeled as environmental attributes, commercial attributes, convenient attributes, and recreational attributes. The evaluation of environmental attributes for Hsienyi business district was significantly better than that of Chunghsiao business district. However, the mean of convenient attributes for Hsienyi business district was significantly less than that of Chunghsiao business district. The means of commercial and recreational attributes did not differ significantly in both districts. In addition, the means of the leisure satisfaction in the two districts were only moderate and didn’t show significant difference. The findings indicated that the four perceptual dimensions were positively correlated with leisure satisfaction at both business districts. Based on the above findings, some suggestions regarding the recreational planning for Chunghsiao and Hsienyi business districts were proposed.

URBAN SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FEAR OF ROBBERY

Su-Hsin Lee, Shu-Chen Chang

Fear of crime is people’s perception and cognition responding to the possibility of criminal attacks. People seek signals of danger in environments such as dark and hidden area where the sense of precarious is generated. Signals of danger are generally communicated via visual transmission. This study used photos of different streetscapes to measure the subject’s fear of robbery, and to investigate the influence of urban spatial characteristics to subject’s fear of robbery. The photos were taken from the view point of two traveling methods, one traveling by foot and another traveling via motorcycle. Both groups have 50 pictures. The situational characteristics in each of the photographs include: time session of one day, traffic condition, the surrounding activities near the streets, section of the street, buildings near the periphery, subject’s location and forward when walking on the streets (only for Walker Group), street width (only for Motorcyclists Group), There were 405 university students participated in the survey. According to the students’ majors, they were identified as spatial professional and non-spatial professional department students. The results showed that: (1) the time session of one day, surrounding activities near the streets and subject’s location when walking on the streets have substantial influences on Walker Group fear of robbery. (2) the time session of one day, surrounding activities near the streets, traffic condition and street width have substantial influences on Motorcyclists Group fear of robbery. (3) gender and spatial professional have different on fear of robbery, gender have more influent than spatial professional.

THE INFLUENCE OF URBANSCAPE RENOVATION PROJECTS ON RESIDENTS’ EVALUATION OF LANDSCAPE IMAGES

Yu-Yun Kao, Ying-Hung Li

Besides the obviously substantial form of the appearance, urban landscape also presents the abstract contents of human memories, experiences, emotions and the parts of impressions, which are the soul of the city. Therefore, it is meaningful and needed for image exploration from psychological perspective. The purpose of this research is to compare the differences among landscape images by local residents. This research selected a total of nine landscape sites in Makung City, Penghu County as a study area. Based on Nasar’s (1998) image evaluation theory, two latent constructs, imageability and likability, formulated through eight adjective items including distinctiveness, visibility, use/symbolic significance, naturalness, upkeep/civilities, openness, historical significance and order were evaluated by 403 valid subjects in this study. The results find image perception does vary since landscape change in difference time periods, and landscape modification has positive influence on image perceptions. In addition to these positive effects, only “historical significance” variable is negatively related to image evaluation.

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