A Zoning Method for Forest Landscape Management by Visual Quality Assessment

Korea, with 63.7% of the land being forests, has unique characteristics of forest landscapes coming into view for most residential areas and roads. This study was undertaken with a purpose of supporting forest landscape management by partitioning the areas that landscape management is needed. Through analysing the degree of forest landscape management needs and the visual absorption capability for landscape changes, the zoning process and method for landscape management were conducted. In order to select the areas that are managed by priority for landscape, the degree of forest landscape management needs was quantitatively analyzed with the main scenic sites, travel frequencies, major forest landscape resources, and areas with demand for walking and automobile travel as the basis. The visual absorption capability that means the visual acceptance capability against physical landscape changes of the designated areas was analyzed in order to select the areas that are suitable for artificial landscape management. As a result, it became possible to express the degrees of forest landscape management needs in high, middle, and low sub-areas, and the visual absorption capability in high, middle, and low sub-areas, for each of the three zones in terms of spaces in the forest landscape management areas. For example, among the forest landscape transition zones, if the degree of forest landscape management needs is high and the visual absorption capability is high, then aggressive landscape management would be possible; this would also mean that this area could accept certain levels of physical landscape changes. By applying zoning methods like these, it was possible to attain a conclusive result that proper means of landscape design and management of the forest landscape resources and the surrounding areas could be provided.