The aesthetic value of landscapes of the upland right bank area of the Dnieper River of the Kaniv Nature Reserve, Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of this publication is to assess the qualities of landscapes that are significant to their aesthetic value. The object of this study is the landscapes of the dislocation loess plateau Ukraine, Cherkasy region, Kaniv district, with a total area of 11.43 km2. The landscapes of this region have the potential to form expressive and diverse landscapes. Operational units of the study were homogeneous landscapes level areas and tracts with typical appearance, typical for this territory only. The choice of such a research object is explained by the natural and cultural reference of the landscapes of the Kaniv glacial dislocation site. The complexity of landscape-forming processes and the intensity of anthropogenic development of these landscapes led to the emergence of a unique highly attractive image of this territory. The methodological basis of the study, the results of which are presented in this publication, are the starting points of the concept of aesthetic landscape science about the objective factors of aesthetic attractiveness of landscapes that are revealed through a number of physiognomic and compositional parameters of landscapes. We evaluated the aesthetic qualities of the Kaniv landscapes based on a component analysis of «beauty factors». Such significant factors include land features, floral, hydrological, landscape diversity, artificial objects and more. In their sum, «beauty factors» will determine the holistic nature of the visual images of landscapes - landscapes in the perception of landscapes a human. The criteria for assessing the aesthetic qualities of landscapes, in our study, selected their metric parameters, namely: morphological indicators of relief vertical and horizontal dismemberment, aspect and slope of the surface, indicator of landscape diversity - Shannon entropy, forestry. In addition, the floristic diversity of landscapes is analyzed. The physiognomy of the vegetation improves the aspect of the landscapes. Conducting a consistent component analysis of the territory allowed us to determine objective criteria and to calculate the metric indicators of the aesthetic value of the Kaniv dislocation landscapes. The application of the unified aesthetic score scale of aesthetic value indices made it possible to calculate the integral coefficient of aesthetic value of landscapes, which is the sum of the values of the coefficients of significance of the individual metric indicators. According to the results of calculations of the integral coefficient of aesthetic value, the landscapes of the Kaniv right-bank section of the loess plateau are classified as aesthetically valuable.