Visual quality assessment of roadside green spaces in the urban landscape - a case study of Belgrade city roads

Abstract

Road infrastructure is a dominant element of urban landscapes which influences its visual identity. In the past decades, landscape visual quality issues have become increasingly significant in the contemporary approach in road infrastructure planning. At the same time, the European Landscape Convention provides a means of achieving "land-scape democracy" and promotes improved public participation in the spatial and urban planning as well as in road planning. The visual quality assessment which takes into account the aesthetic demands of public perception has evolved into a required study for green infrastructure planning where roadside greenspace has an important role. This paper presents the results of assessing the visual quality through holistic approach which combines quantitative public preference surveys and landscape features inventories. The main direction is to predict visual quality based on the presence of quantifiable biophysical structure of the green spaces along urban roads. The different types of urban biotopes, with various biophysical structure, were the spatial units for the survey. An application based on 38 roadside green spaces in the metropolitan area of Belgrade is presented. On the basis of the visual quality assessment and preferences of urban users, the results will be useful to improvement modality for decision making support and public participation in the processes of urban landscape planning.