Case Study Based on Southern Expressway
5 the approach to the bridge could make the
bridge more noticeable. The slopes have also been noted their positive contribution along with
lighting and fences. Also the monument of a bird
near Welipenna rest area have also been noticed and appreciated by many showing a higher landscape potential.
Cultural elements: Buddha statue, village and temple
were some frequently mentioned elements with a cultural meaning. Among them the Buddha
Statue had received the highest number of
comments followed by village and temple. Although the best observable Buddha statues by the expressway are two in number, they are well appreciated as mentioned by one participant “Buddha statues makes our mind happy. We want more creations like this”. For most of its parts the expressway traverses through plantations in which the landscape is inactive. Perception of well placed cultural elements as discussed above can bring some lively feeling and thereby break the monotonous landscape experience of the expressway.
Landscape configurations/ characteristics and composition
Three level II themes have emerged under the above which were landscape characteristic, landscape composition and road geometry.
Landscape characteristics: These reflected
comments about inherent qualities about the expressway which will be helpful to form the image of the expressway. Among the level III themes only green had been mentioned frequently as a landscape characteristic. Thus the users are likely to imagine and remember this route as a place of green.
Landscape compositions: The level III themes
under landscape compositions identified some perceived patterns in which the landscape is composed of. But the themes were scattered and infrequent indicating that this route is not highly memorable in terms of landscape compositions.
Road geometry: This was mentioned by one
respondent in describing the positive contribution of the bends to the aesthetic appearance.
Psychological constructs
Instead of rationalising the preference for expressway landscape using the foresaid objective aspects, some participants have expressed their preference in a gross manner using psychological constructs like beautiful,
clean or unique.
5.2.2. Negative Landscape Experiences along the Southern Expressway
From the descriptions about the negative landscapes, 226 remarkable segments were coded. This has led to 43 level III themes 7 level II themes and 3 level I themes. If any of the above theme is frequently mentioned within the remarkable segments, such theme is likely to influence the Southern Expressway negatively.
Most negative landscapes
Concrete structures, corps of animals and grass were
the three most frequently mentioned negative themes at level III. These indicate individual aspects that can directly contribute to the negative visual appearance. Thus it is important for the officials to treat these aspects in order to make the expressway more visually attractive. The three themes at level I were Landscape Elements, Landscape composition and Psychological constructs. These three themes showed a higher degree of similarity to the level I themes of positive landscape in content. Also the relative frequency of mentioning showed the same order with landscape elements being mentioned in 94% of the remarkable segments.
Landscape elements
The level II aims of the above consisted of
negative man made elements, negative natural elements, negative due to maintenance and negative by practice. Negative man made elements: The
majority of the negative landscape elements consisted of man made elements especially related to the road infrastructure. Among them
concrete structures was frequently mentioned
followed by bridges, Houses, Building, Fences,
Wires, Cuts and Drain. As discussed above with
respect to bridge noticeability, in finalising the designs based on economic grounds, the room for architectural appearance might have to be compromised. But the results here suggest that such decisions may lead to the creations of a landscape that is not aesthetically pleasing. Another element mentioned as negative were
billboards and political cut outs that were facing the
road. Although a decision has been taken to not to allow such along the road, occasional breaching of such practices can be observed. But with the above observation confirming that even occasional breaching does not go unnoticed the officials should take more care to ensure 100% adherence to the rule.
Negative due to maintenance issues: The next most
frequently mentioned themes of negative landscape related to lack of maintenance which included Badly maintained vegetation, Buildings
6
underconstruction, Broken Fences, Garbage, Defects of road, Broken rocks, Grass land, Broken Houses, Broken Road, Broken Structures, Grass dried, Structures broken. Although vegetation has a
universal acceptance as an aesthetically attractive element, untended vegetation is a cause for negative landscape (Kaplan, 1986). The data here confirms the above point. The other frequently mentioned elements mentioned above such as broken elements, structures, under construction or garbage confirms the importance of proper maintenance and construction. This confirms that officials should pay sufficient attention to the maintenance of expressway.
Negative natural elements: The negatively
perceived elements included some natural elements, namely Grass, Rocky mountains, Soil,
Forest, Rocks, Coconut trees, Rubber and Stones.
Among those grass was frequently mentioned as a negative element. One element under negatively perceived landscape compositions was empty areas. But preference for vegetation confirms that taller trees were perceived as positive. Also the mountains received higher preference levels. The totality of above suggests that empty areas or grass areas without trees are perceived as negative in the context of this landscape of mountainous appearance.
Negative by practice: Three other elements
namely, cloths hung, corps of animals and animals
on the road highlighted some practices which
may need regulation. The road side occupants may hang cloth without realising the visibility of such to the road user. In the perception of the road user, cloths hung by the road side symbolises lack of attention or even displeasure of road side occupants towards the existence of the road. The data here confirms such a point. Most of such hanging has been done on the fence belonging to the expressway. If the road side dwellers are made aware of this negative practice, the issue may be resolved. The corps of animals killed by hitting with vehicles is another frequently mentioned negative element. Thus it is important for the expressway authority to establish a method to remove such immediately to avoid disgusting appearance of corps on road.
Landscape composition
Showing a similar trend to the positive elements, only few themes were mentioned to describe the
landscape composition. Among these empty areas
were frequently mentioned as being negative. As discussed above with respect to the element
grass, this data suggests that higher preference for mountain landscape instead of open areas.
Psychological constructs
Only three elements were mentioned to describe the feelings towards the expressway. The theme
monotonous which described the lack of a good
sequential landscape highlights an important point. Irrespective of being visually attractive, a similar landscape continues in most of the parts. Such monotonous appearance may make the drivers feel bored which may lead to negative consequences like accidents. Therefore it is important to establish some conspicuous visual elements at regular intervals to break monotony. Landmarks like Buddha statue or monuments could be used for this purpose.
6. Conclusion
Through a content analysis of a set of landscape preference descriptions this research was able to identify a set of factors that describe the preference for a tropical expressway. In the absence of previous knowledge that matches the context, this research adopted a bottom up approach whereby some basic factors behind the preference for a tropical expressway was elicited. The methodology did not allow statistically significant identification of what is the best factor. Instead a set of potential factors were identified which can be studied to depth and more quantitatively in future studies. Based on the above results following recommendations can be made in order to improve the landscape of a tropical expressway of similar context.
Landscape treatments should focus more on above identified individual elements instead of composition/ configuration or characteristic
Preserving views of traditional agriculture Creation of an interpretation master plan to
communicate the values of landscape Improving the appearance of blasted rocks Making the bridges more attractive and
bridge approaches more conspicuous Introducing a mechanism to remove corps Increasing appearance of concrete elements Ensuring the adherence to no billboard policy Regular maintenance to roadside landscape,
removal or garbage and repairing the broken elements like fences
Planting trees in empty and barren areas Educating people to refrain from hanging
clothes within road vicinity
Introducing more landmark elements and cultural elements like Buddha statue
7
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by research grants received under project for Internationalization of University of Ruhuna. The authors would also like to acknowledge the help extended by the officials of Southern Expressway Maintenance Authority, the staff policemen attatched to the Pinnaduwa and Makubmbura exchanges in conducting the questionnaire.
References
1) http://www.rda.lk, Visited, 15th September 2011. 2) http://byways.org/ Visited, 15th September 2011. 3) Petraglia, L & Weisbrod, G, A Review of Impact
Studies Related to Scenic Byway Designation, A report submitted to Scenic Byway Resource Center, March 2011, Downloaded on 26th March, 2006.
4) Brown, G., A method for assessing highway qualities to integrate values in highway planning, Journal of Transport Geography Vol. 11 (2003) pp 271–283.
5) Smardon, R.C. amd Karp, J.P. (1993). The legal Landscape, Van Nostran Reinhold, New York. 6) Patton, M. Q. (1980). Qualitative Evaluation
Methods. Beverly Hills, U.S.A.: SAGE Publications.
7) Ohta, H. A phenomenological approach to natural Landscape cognition. Journal of Environmental Psychology 21, (2001). Pp 387- 403 8) Kaplan S., Aesthetics, affect and cognition:
Environmental preference from an evolutionary perspective. Environment and Behavior, . 19, (1987) pp 3-32.
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Table 1 - Themes of Positive Landscapes
Level I Themes Counts of level I themes Percentag e within Level I Level II Themes Count of level II themes Percenta ge within Level II
Level 3 Themes Count of
level III themes Percenta ge within Level III Percent age among all comme nts 462 91 Primary 215 47 Vegetation 117 54 23.0
Landscape Landscape land cover rock 47 22 9.3
Element Elements Mountain 40 19 7.9
Water 8 4 1.6
land cover coloured soil 2 1 0.4
sky 1 0 0.2
Agricultura 162 35 Paddy field 66 41 13.0
l elements Rubber 37 23 7.3 Tea 22 14 4.3 Palm 14 9 2.8 Farms 8 5 1.6 Coconut 7 4 1.4 Animals 5 3 1.0 Cinnamon 3 2 0.6 Total 162 Manmade 59 13 Bridge 8 14 1.6 elements Lighting 8 14 1.6 slope 8 14 1.6 Fence 5 8 1.0 Bird monument 5 8 1.0 Road 4 7 0.8 Channel 3 5 0.6 embankment 3 5 0.6 exit 3 5 0.6 Cut 2 3 0.4 fly over 2 3 0.4 houses 2 3 0.4 Concrete work 1 2 0.2 entrance 1 2 0.2 factory 1 2 0.2 landscaping 1 2 0.2 steps 1 2 0.2 Structures 1 2 0.2 Total 59
Cultural 26 6 Buddha Statue 10 38 2.0
Element Village 8 31 1.6
Temple 7 27 1.4
Habitation 1 4 0.2
Total 26
Total 462 Total 215
Landscape 29 6 Characterisi 20 67 green 18 90 3.5
configurat tic biodiversity 1 5 0.2
ions/chara enroute change 1 5 0.2
cteristics/c Total 20
ompositio Compositio 9 30 view 5 56 1.0
n n country side 1 11 0.2 Flat Landscape 1 11 0.2 footpath to village 1 11 0.2 tropical landscape 1 11 0.2 Total 9 Road 1 3 bend 1 100 0.2 geometry Total 30 Total 1
Psycholog 17 3 Evaluation beautiful 10 59 2.0
ical clean 4 24 0.8
construct Unique 2 12 0.4
Total 17 100 Sri Lankan culture 1 6 0.2
Table 2- Themes of Negative landscapes Level I Themes Count of level I themes Percent age within Level I Level II Themes Count of level II themes Percenta ge within Level II
Level III themes Count
of level III themes Percent age within Level III Percentage among all negative comments Landscape Elements 212 94 Negative man made elements Negative due to maintenance issues Negative natural elements Negative by practice 97 45.8 Concrete Structures 33 34 14.6 Bridges 12 12 5.3 Houses 9 9 4.0 Building 6 6 2.7 Fences 6 6 2.7 Wires 6 6 2.7 Cuts 5 5 2.2 Drain 5 5 2.2
Bill board and political cut outs 4 4 1.8
Exits 3 3 1.3 Overhead bridges 3 3 1.3 Channel 1 1 0.4 Signage 1 1 0.4 Tunnel 1 1 0.4 Village 1 1 0.4 Walls 1 1 0.4 Total 97
54 25.5 Badly maintained vegetation 12 22 5.3
Buildings underconstruction 11 20 4.9 Broken Fences 10 19 4.4 Garbage 9 17 4.0 Defects of road 3 6 1.3 Broken rocks 2 4 0.9 Grass land 2 4 0.9 Broken Houses 1 2 0.4 Broken Road 1 2 0.4 Broken Structures 1 2 0.4 Grass dried 1 2 0.4 Structures broken 1 2 0.4 Total 54 39 18.4 Grass 13 33 5.8 Rocky mountains 8 21 3.5 Soil 8 21 3.5 Forest 4 10 1.8 Rocks 3 8 1.3 Coconut trees 1 3 0.4 Rubber 1 3 0.4 Stones 1 3 0.4 Total 39 22 10.4 Corps of animals 15 68 6.6 Clothes hung 6 27 2.7 Animals on road 1 5 0.4 Total 22 Total 212 Landscape Composition 11 5 Landscape Composition 11 100 Empty areas 9 82 4.0 Disorderly trees 1 9 0.4 Gaps 1 9 0.4 Psychologica l Constructs Total 11 Total 11 3 1 Evaluation 1 33.3 Ugly 1 100 0.4 Total 1 Sequence 2 66.7 Monotounous 2 100 0.9
1 Annual Transactions of IESL, pp. [70-75], 2012
© The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka