VOL.18, NO.4
THE NATURALNESS AND LANDSCAPE PREFERENCE OF THE PUBLIC ART IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Jing-Shoung Hou, Chang-Chan Huang, Yen-Ting Hsu, Wei-Chih Chiu
Public art is an activity which combines creative concept and public living space that people use. There are a lot of styles and forms of public art. Analysis of Public Art in Taiwan Annual shows that most of them are sculptures. When considering the different surrounding, people have polar reaction to those art works. Therefore the research aims that how the relationship of public art’s naturalness and environmental naturalness influence people’s landscape preference. Choosing 6 levels of environmental naturalness and public art naturalness photos, by cross composing them, 36 new photos will came out for examine subjects’ preference of landscape and naturalness. The result shows 1. Generally, people’s preference are influenced by the combination of art work naturalness and environmental naturalness. 2. There is notable difference that people’s preference of different public art is influenced by environmental naturalness. 3. Individual attitude to the art work could influence the preference of public art. Hence, to the future art creation, different environmental naturalness to fit different naturalness of art work is good for art design and application to promote the relationship among environment, public and human.
THE PLANT SPECIES SELECTION AND IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT OF ECOLOGICAL ROOF IN TAIWAN
Chien-Hung Tsai, Chih-Fang Fang
The purpose of this study was to investigate the suitable plant species and irrigation management of ecological roof in cities of Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan in Taiwan area. The experiment devices were set up in Wenshan Dist., Taipei City; Taiping Dist., Taichung City, and Rende Dist, Tainan City. 20 species were planted in the experiment devices. The growth index, coverage ratio, and growth and coverage index were used to estimate the suitable plant. Moreover, the soil water tension was monitored everyday to determine the irrigation time of each area. It revealed that Indigofera spicata Forsk, Nephrolepis auriculata (L.) Trimen, Asparagus densiflorus (Kunth.) Jessop cv. Sperngeri, Dianella ensifolia (L.) DC.cv. Silvery Stripe, Hymenocallis speciosa (L. f. ex Salisb.) Salisb, Hippeastrum hybridum, and Lantana camara (L.) cv. Mista were the suitable plants in Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan City. Arachis duranensis Krapov. & W. C. Greg, Aloe vera ( L.) Webb. var. chinensis Haw, Asclepias curassavica (L.) , and Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC. were the suitable plants in Taipei city; Arachis duranensis Krapov. & W. C. Greg. were the suitable plants in Taichung city. The average irrigation interval was 17 days in Taipei city, 9 days in Taichung city and 8 days in Tainan city.
A PROBE INTO THERAPEUTIC HORTICULTURE PROGRAM ON WELL-BEING FOR CANCER PATIENTS
Chia-Yen Wu, Hui-Mei Chen, Yann-Jou Lin, Hsiu-Mei Chung
Cancer has been the leading cause of death in Taiwan for many years. This disease negatively affects patients’ life quality. Many medical facilities has introduced complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to help patients alleviating the symptoms, reducing the accompanying stress, and improving quality of life. In recent years, horticultural therapy (HT) has been utilized as an option of CAM for cancer patients. However, there is still no empirical data to support the benefits of HT on cancer patients. This study executed a six-week HT program to better understand the feasibility and effectiveness of HT for cancer patients. A in-depth interview was conducted to explore cancer patients’ preference for horticultural activities, their cognitition of benefits, as well as their attitudes toward horticulture. The results showed that horticultural knowledge and horticultural works were the attraction of the HT program. The patients preferred spiritual activities. Moreover, the major benefits of HT program was affective benefit. Finally, HT was distinct from other forms of CAM for contacting nature. This study presents a horticultural therapy for cancer patients being pilot-tested for feasibility and effectiveness.
FROM TOURISTS’ PERCEPTIVE VALUATION TO EXPLORE THE SUCCESSFUL KEY POINTS FOR THE REGENERATION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGES: A CASE STUDY OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRIAL HERITAGES
Hung-Hsu Yen, Ju-Hui Lin, Mei-Fen Lee
The value identification is the successful key points for the regeneration plan of industrial heritages. The main purpose of this study was to explore tourists’valuation toward the industrial heritages in order to input the key points from the point of view of tourists for future development of the regeneration plan. This study first adopted the qualitative approach to establish the perceptive valuation model of the industrial heritages, following by utilizing this model to develop the questionnaire. The questionnaire survey was conducted in the Si- Hu Sugar Factory and Hu-Wei Sugar Factory and 367 valid questionnaires had been collected. The data applied the confirmatory factor analysis to examine the goodness fit of the model. The results showed there were seven dimensions in the valuation model. The“environmental space”value (λ= .95) most represented tourists’ valuation toward the industrial heritage, followed by the“identity”value (λ= .93),“tourism experience”value (λ= .92),“spiritual symbol” value (λ= .90), “esthetics” value (λ= .88), “historicity” value (λ= .87), and “economy” value (λ= .77). The results pointed out the value judgment of tourists toward industrial heritages. This results presented different way of evaluation from utilizing the traditional judgment of experts. By understanding tourists’ valuation, we hoped this research could let the future development be more public and more sustainable.
VOL.18, NO.3
PROMOTING STRATEGIES OF BIOTOPE QUALITY OF B&B INDUSTRY IN SUN MOON LAKE NATIONAL SCENIC AREA
Ying-Chyi Chou, Jing-Shoung Hou, Chang-Chan Huang, Chia-Han Yang, Jung Yuan
In recent years, Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area had reached a peak of attraction because the high speed rail, National Freeway 6 and Sun Moon Lake rope way system have been in operation, and the government allowed the mainland tourists to visit Taiwan. It had brought a huge amount of tourists that led to the rapid increase of demand and supply of lodging, within which the bed and breakfast (B&B) industry was the most significant. Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area is facing the continuous increase in recreational pressure and the environment will be impacted. As an important lodging industry, the B&Bs rely on the natural resources of Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area, so the B&B industry has a responsibility to protect the quality of the biological environment. However, the prime cost is usually the rst consideration. Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to study how to improve the quality of the environment of B&Bs to the best extent under the condition of the lowest cost. Biotope Area Factor (BAF) measures biological quality of environment using 9 surfaces with a total of 20 materials. The cost of improving environmental quality depends on the surfaces and materials being used. In order to obtain BAF target at the lowest cost, the multiple objective programming method was used to analyze the best combination of the surfaces and the materials.
The results showed that Type I, II, III, and IV B&Bs can reach the lower limit of BAF target (0.3) at a low cost between 10 thousand and 20 thousand dollars. The cost will increase intensely by 200% if the four types of B&B raise the BAF target to 0.5. The increase rate of cost to reach BAF target of the fifth type of B&B is comparatively lower than that of the prior four types. According to the findings, comprehensive discussions and recommendations were offered to every type of B&B.
INFLUENCES OF GREEN SPACE STRUCTURE AND RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT QUALITY ON LIVING SATISFACTION
Yen-Cheng Chiang, Pei-Yi Weng, Chun-Yen Chang
This purpose of study was to explore the influences of green space structure and residential environment quality on living satisfaction. We adopted seven indices of green space structure, four dimensions of resident environmental quality (public pollutions, public facilities, green space accessibility, and interior environments) and living satisfaction to explore the relationships among these variables. The South district and the nearby area of Taichung city were selected as the study site from which we selected 41 survey sites. In total, this study obtained 989 valid samples and used related statistical techniques for analysis. The results showed that the mean patch size, mean shape index, and area-weighted mean shape index of farmland and the mean patch size of forest are positively correlated with living satisfaction, showing people increase their living satisfaction with larger and more complex of farmland and larger forest. On the other hand, there was negative correlation in the relationships between area-weighted mean shape index of built area and living satisfaction, showing built area with irregular patch shape that can decrease preference and living satisfaction. The influences of residential environment quality on living satisfaction that result showed public facilities is the most essential factor, which was followed by interior environments. Green space accessibility is less influential than the others. In the sum of results, the rating of public facilities was highest and green space accessibility was lowest from residents’ response. These results can provide guidelines for public facilities and green space establishment in future urban planning.
THE INFLUENCE ON VISUAL PREFERENCE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION FENCE APPLYING BY GREENING AND BEAUTIFICATION PRACTICE
Li-Shin Chang, Sih-Sian Yu, Ming-Jen Cheng, Chang-Mei Chou
The designs for greening the construction fences differed among construction companies, their appearances are also diverse. The purposes of this study are to explore visual preference of different types of green construction fences. Through field survey, 18 representative photos of green fences were selected and then classified them by basic forms, planting design elements, goodness of maintenance, and accessory facilities, like rain cover. Questionnaire survey with random sampled general public were conducted on site, the effects of those factors addressed above for green fences design were studied and analyzed.
The results shows that comparing the different greening and beautification types of fences, visual preference of green construction fence was significantly higher than those in painting, canvas, and traditional construction fence. For green construction fences, 3 or more kinds (green, purple, red and yellow) of planting colors were significantly better than just a single planting color. Plants’ nature growth patterns would also affect the visual preference. For planting design of green construction fences, geometric planting patterns were superior to natural one. The maintenance situation of green construction fences also affects visual preference. The visual preference for plants shown in good conditions was significantly higher than those plants showed 25%, 50% and 75% of undesirable conditions. Their effects of setting rain cover for green construction fences on visual preference were not significant different. The results of this research could apply on design of green construction fences and support the government policy on promoting greening construction fence to construction companies and the public.
A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RESIDENTS’ RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT QUALITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Yuan-I Eric Yeh, Wen-Wei Tseng
This study aims to examine the relationships between residents’ perceived residential environment quality (PREQ) and their quality of life (QoL). The study firstly employed Bonaiuto, Fornara, and Bonnes’ (2003, 2006) R-PREQ to investigate, modify, and establish the features of residential environment quality in Taiwan (PREQ TW). Afterwards, a confirmative factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the reliability and validity of PREQ TW scale, and then examined the relationships between residents’ perceived residential environment quality and their quality of life in Taiwan. A total of two hundred and twenty-seven samples of residents living in Taichung City were investigated and analyzed via a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and the study results indicated that residents’ perceived residential environmental quality has positive influence on quality of life. This study not only provided a feasible PREQ instrument specifically for Taiwan urban cities, but also added to the literature on suggesting an applicable guidance that can be substantively helpful for management practice in this profession.
VOL.18, NO.2
THE APPLICATION OF BAF CONCEPT ON THE PLANNING OF GREEN TOURISM SITE
Chang-Chan Huang, Pei-Ling Wu, Jing-Shoung Hou, Yi-Shiun Chen
The global climate change has caused severe problems and, therefore, forced every government to pay attention to the subject of carbon reduction. In recent years, however, leisure and tourism business brought over-development and a lot of negative impacts to the environmental ecology, social culture and economy. Green tourism seeks to protect the environment and fine landscape of an area, reuse existing buildings, and set limits on development in a designated area. The study site of this research was Ita Thao district in Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area. Based on the zoning of urban planning, a full scale survey was conducted to calculate the BAF (Biotope Area Factor) value for each zone. Landscape planning and management strategies were proposed specifically for those zones not reaching their corresponding BAF targets. The results of the study revealed that the visitor center and the parking lot are the two plots not reaching BAF target (0.3). Although the residential area, business area, and school sites have the BAF values higher than the target value, these areas still have some potential to be improved. It was suggested that the Administration of the Sun Moon Lake Scenic Area can make use of government owned lands and the public spaces to improve the biotope quality for those plots not reaching BAF target. Furthermore, it was also suggested that the Administration provides incentives or subsidies to encourage the private landowners adopt the green roofs and vertical greening to enhance BAF values.
A STUDY ON RURAL COMMUNITY RESIDENTS' PARTICIPATION BEHAVIOR MODEL IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS FROM SOCIAL CAPITAL PERSPECTIVE
Chang-Jen Kuo
The meaning of "Rural revitalization" policy in Taiwan are center on rural communities, strengthen residents participate in community revitalization, establish rural activation. It focused on the planning and constructing of rural industry, natural ecological, living environment. It also emphasized on rural cultural preservation and green landscaping the rural area. So study how to improve the people participating in environmental improvement actions is a very important research topic. The purpose of this study is to understand what make community residents to participate in environmental improvement? Is it a kind of planned behavior? Through understanding the track of residents to participate in environmental improvement actions can help to advice community participation. This study is through theory of planned behavior(TPB)model to investigate the behavioral model of residents to participate in environmental improvement, and to test the fitness of conceptual model. Kuo, et.al(2009)proved that TPB model is fit for explaining resident's participating environmental improvement behavior. Meanwhile, their study also explaining the resident's reasoned action model of participating in community landscape renaissance project. This study surveyed community residents who ever participated in "rural community landscape renaissance project" founded by Soil and Water Conservation Bureau. A total of 615 community residents were administrated a self-report questionnaire. At the same time Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)method was employed to test a conceptual model. This study proved that TPB model is fit for explaining resident's participating environmental improvement behavior. Meanwhile, this study also explaining the resident's reasoned action model of participating in community landscape renaissance project. The findings also showed that, the conceptual models of community residents who have different amount of social capital are partially different.
EXPLORING THE CONSTRUCTION OF QUALITY INDICATORS IN AGRI-TOURISM BY LEISURE FARMS
Ching-Sung Lee, Cheng-Wei Che
Due to awakening of leisure conscious, agriculture was the productive transition to the service oriented, and it developed link agriculture and tourism. The purpose of this study was to investigate how to enhance the overall quality of agri-tourism. Therefore, exploring the construction of agricultural tourism of quality indicators was the worth discussing. This study was used Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analysis the quality indicators in the agri-tourism. The results indicated that experts from different fields have individual preferred indicators. Furthermore, in the micro perspective, itinerary experience was a relative important index comparing to others in the macro perspective. The findings of this study suggest that new investors of leisure farm must evaluate itinerary experience and food service.
THE SUITABLE PLANT SELECTION OF ECOLOGICAL ROOF IN TAICHUNG REGION
Chih-Fang Fang
The study examined the suitable plant species of ecological roof in middle Taiwan. The growth index of low stem plants (plant's height≦ 30 cm), high stem plants (plant's height> 30 cm), succulent plants and corm plants (the total were 18 species) in three kinds of water retention plate (Nan-Hai , Bao-Rai and Fang-Chih water retention plate) were investigated. The sequence of the growth index from high to low in the low stem plants were Ophiopogon intermedius cv. Argenteo-marginatus, Zoysia japonica, Ophiopogon japonicus and Cynodon dactylon. In the high stem plant that were Dianella caerulea cv. Silvery Stripe, Asparagus densiflorus, Ananas comosus, Furcraea foetida cv. Striata and Belamcanda chinensis. In the succulent plants, that were Kalanchoe tubiflora, Aloe vera and Portulaca grandiflora. In the corm plant, that were Crinum asiaticum, Hymenocallis speciosa and Hippeastrum hybridum. The water retention plates did not significantly influence the growth index of most plant. However, only Zoysia japonica was more suitable growth in Nan-Hai and Bao-Rai water retention plate. Dianella caerulea cv. Silvery Stripe was the most suitable growth in Bao-Rai water retention plate. Furcraea foetida cv. Striata and Portulaca grandiflora were the most suitable growth in Fang- Chih water retention plate. The growth index was affected by the plant species more than by the water retention plate.
VOL.18, NO.1
NATURALNESS AND EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE OF PLACE - A CASE STUDY OF TAICHUNG SITUN RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT
Jing-Shoung Hou, Chung-Hsien Lin, Yi-Ling Chen
In the interaction of humans and environment, Place as a unit of local identity, the usage for the place, land use is kind of specific performance. At present, the residential place within the city is affected by the impact of zoning. Land use of residential districts changes the natural state of land to attack the natural environment, that is worth paying attention the impact of people's emotions. This study attempts to explore the emotional of people's impact on place. This case study in 325 landscape units of residential in Taichung Shituen District, the survey naturalness of residential districts of emotional experience and place preference. For each landscape unit to calculate the BAF values , and survey the emotions by structured questionnaire. Research found that: (1) describe the survey results show that residential users have a strong feeling to sense of pleasant and sense of bright. (2) regression analysis found that the naturalness can effectively influence the sense of monotony and sense of uninteresting of residential unit. (3) cluster analysis results indicated that there were three groups of residential district. (4) the positive emotions focus on the residential unit of higher degree of naturalness. The naturalness of the residential unit to play the roles of different emotional experience reflected.
QUANTIFICATION OF PERCEIVED NATURALNESS USING SCENE GIST ALGORITHM
Li-Chih Ho, Chun-Yen Chang, Chien-Chung Chen
Naturalness is an important visual character of landscape environment, significantly impacting landscape preference and restoration of environments. But how objectively measure this landscape character still needs to develop.
This study proposed a new method to predict the degree of naturalness of landscape environments - namely, Scene Gist Algorithm (SGA) that is developing in the field of visual neuroscience. The algorithm simulates the signal processing process in human visual system. It uses the changing rate of black-and-white pixels in a unit space namely spatial frequency to compute the degree of naturalness.
The result shows the recognition rates are 95.3%. It means that naturalness computer model is good at predicting the degree of perceived naturalness. The number of training images and content variation within image category are main factors that affect reliability and validity of the model.
A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF PRIMAL LANDSCAPE AND LANDSCAPE PERCEPTION
Pei-Chun Chen, Sheng-Jung Ou, Wen-Bor Lu
Primal landscape is considered as the fundamental part of environmental attitude, and therefore can be acted as a model to investigate the content of personal primal landscape and its influence on landscape experience. In present study, the meaning of primal landscape and relationship between individuals and landscape perception was investigated based on the primal landscape, which is the personal landscape experience established during younger life time. As a qualitative study, data were collected by purposive sampling. Fifteen persons were divided into different age layers above 20. Divided age-layers can clarify whether any difference exists on the composed elements of primal landscape, and associated to age. Results indicated that interviewed cases considered an impressed landscape is normally associated with personal primal landscape. Furthermore, one's personal primal landscape influences his/her decision making strategy on selection of travel sites, personal career, and other environmental information processing (such as concerns on changes of natural environment, and awareness on surround environment). In general, since the daily playing circumstance during childhood is the most impressive part for individuals' environmental recognition, and also more meaningful place than others, the daily life environment plays a key role on shaping landscape perception for local people.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS OF CULTURE, CREATIVE AND CONSERVATION INDUSTRIES IN KINMEN NATIONAL PARK
Yann-Jou Lin, Bau-Show Lin, Ai-Tsen Su, Wei-Hung Tzeng
Conservation is one of the three major management goals of national parks. To enhance the efficacy of conservation, Kinmen National Park Administration has devoted to develop conservation industries by applying the concepts of culture and creative industry recently. The purpose of this study was to assess the performances of culture, creative and conservation industries in Kinmen National Park. The performances were evaluated by importance perceived by visitors and their satisfaction levels toward five dimensions of culture, creative and conservation industries. Visitor surveys were conducted on September to November 2010. Results suggest that there are good performances in all dimensions, especially in the redevelopment of traditional architectures and culture. There exist some difference on the important rankings and satisfaction levels among respondents with different purposes and different types of traveling. It is suggested that conservation in national park should be promoted as an industry like the culture and creative industries. Different traveling packages in culture, creative and conservation industries could be developed to meet diverse visitors' needs.