This work presents four studies examining aspects of human experience of landscape focusing on landscape preferences, expectations of landscape, landscape-related leisure motivation, and the Japanese concept of landscape.
Three studies use a quantitative approach, in which a representative sample of the Swiss resident population, tourists in two alpine valleys, as well as experts and decision-makers are surveyed using a standardised questionnaire.
The first study analyses group-differences in preferences regarding different states of alpine landscape development in Switzerland. Furthermore, types of landscape preferences are identified and differences of these types in their expectations of landscape experiences and their representation in different social groups are examined.
On the basis of a proposed push and pull model of landscape-based leisure motivation, the second study examines landscape experiences as push and pull factors of leisure motivation and the push and pull feeling as predictors of leisure mobility to the Alps. Furthermore, the experience of contrasts, in terms of compensatory and complementary landscape experiences, is examined.
The third study suggests an integration of theoretical concepts which describe different aspects of human experience of landscape. Three dimensions are proposed that build a higher-order structure common to the different concepts.
The fourth study uses a qualitative approach and conducts semi-structured interviews with people living in Japan. The study explores the concepts of landscape represented by different terms coexisting in the Japanese language and used when speaking of landscape. Differences in meanings and images as well as discursive contexts related to the different terms are analysed.