A Prototype Method to Map the Potential Visual-Amenity Benefits of New Farm Woodlands

Author:

van der Horst Dan1

Affiliation:

1. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England

Abstract

In many developed countries forest cover is growing and forestry policy is increasingly focused on the provision of nonmarket benefits such as recreation, biodiversity, and visual amenity. The amount of benefit provided by new woodland is not only dependent on the (site level) design of the woodland, but also on its location in the wider landscape. This poses a challenge for policymakers, who, in order to allocate limited resources efficiently, have to target areas in which the efforts or costs of planting are relatively low and the benefits of planting are relatively high. The adoption by policymakers of such methods of spatial targeting has been hampered by a lack of established methods with which to map the various nonmarket benefits in a policy-relevant way. In this paper I develop a new GIS (geographic information system)-based method to map the potential visual-amenity benefits of new small-scale woodlands, on the basis of criteria of visibility, size, and location of the viewing population, and public preference for wooded landscapes. A case study in Scotland, relating to an existing publicly funded afforestation scheme, is used to demonstrate how this map can serve as an important criterion for the selective allocation of planting subsidies, thus helping to provide a better (visual-amenity) value for (taxpayers') money.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

General Environmental Science,Geography, Planning and Development

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3