Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemRural road management using visual assessment techniques( 1991)This thesis explores the management of rural road landscapes using information derived from visual assessments of these landscapes. Visual assessments of landscapes have previously been mainly restricted to investigating scenic/aesthetic matters. However the methods used in these assessments seem to be appropriate for assessing other matters and have potential for application in the management of multi-use resources in rural roadsides. In this thesis, the responses to rood landscapes of three expert groups and a public user group are considered. The expert groups responded to the rural road landscapes with reference to their areas of expertise - landscape architects evaluated for scenic beauty, ecologists for ecological significance and fire experts for fire hazard potential. The public group responded to the landscape scenes for their preference (for a Sunday afternoon recreational drive). Based on these responses, estimation values, which are numerical representations of the importance of landscape scenes relative to each other, are derived. Policies - multiple linear and non-linear regression equations which statistically represent the average responses of each of the groups to various roadside features - are also developed. Policies make explicit the relationship between changes in selected landscape features and groups' responses to those landscapes. As this study has a management focus, only measurable and manageable landscape features of rural road reserves are considered in developing policies. In exploring the application of estimation values and policies in the management of rural road reserves, the relationship between the responses of individuals and those of the groups to which the individuals belong is examined, using a technique called policy capturing. The results of this study indicate that for the four main groups, within group differences exist in the way in which group policies can be used to describe people's responses. The results of this study indicate that the average response of the experts accounts for the majority of their group's members' response but this is not the case for the public group. It is also found that, given the same landscape features, the amount of variance (multiple R2 value) associated with a group's policy was generally larger than that associated with those policies for its individual members. The findings in the present research complement those in non-landscape research, but contrast with the only other landscape research application of policy capturing. Finally, this study shows ways in which information based on the group policies can be used in the management of rural roads. Five theoretical courses of action are investigated with respect to two landscapes - annual burning, annual slashing, tree planting, road widening, and do-nothing. These five courses of action are referred to as management options, and are theoretically applied over ten- and fifty-year planning periods. Only one management option, annual slashing, is found to be successful. The results seem to indicate that, for the landscapes examined, often the best option may be to do nothing.