Landscape Quality Assessment

Landscape quality assessment means aesthetic evaluation of an area of Earth's surface. The word landscape originates from the 16th-century Dutch word landschap, which described paintings of inland natural or rural scenery. Originally translated into English as landskip, the term was gradually replaced by landscape. Landscape refers to the surface of land and water bodies that may be viewed and includes physical landforms, land cover, and land uses. The adjective quality denotes an aesthetic dimension that derives from the human perception of the landscape. The terms landscape quality and scenic quality are equivalent, scenery deriving from stage backdrops but now applied also to the physical environment. Scenic quality is the more common terminology in the United States. Assessment means some form of evaluation or discrimination of ...