Indicadores visuales como predictores de la preferencia del paisaje costero en isla Cozumel, México

Abstract

The visual assessment of the landscape helps to understand the preferences of the landscape as a fragile and scarce asset, and to evaluate the perception, acceptance, and rejection of natural, managed and altered landscapes. The valuation of the landscape using eco-aesthetic indicators allows us to evaluate them from their structure, and it is a way of facing the problems of subjectivity observed in other methods. Although these eco-aesthetic indicators have been used in the assessment of different landscapes, they have not been widely applied in the assessment of coastal landscapes. The objective of this study was to carry out a visual evaluation of the naturalness and complexity of the coastal landscape of the Cozumel island, Mexico through 2 eco-aesthetic indicators: The successional stage index, and the Shannon diversity index. To evaluate the perception of the observer, coastal landscapes of 4 successional stages, and different levels of diversity, were photographed, and the photographs were projected to 152 individuals who scored the landscapes according to their preference. The responses were analyzed by means of non-parametric tests. The results show a direct, positive, and statistically significant (P < 0.05) relationship between preference and the naturalness, but not between preference and diversity. It is concluded that naturalness, measured through the ecological succession indicator, directly influences coastal landscape preferences, and can be used to evaluate the effect of landscape alterations on observer preferences.