Assessment of Aesthetic Quality on Soil and Water Conservation Engineering Using the Scenic Beauty Estimation Method

Taiwan has rich natural landscapes, but the sensitive geology and concentrated rainfall have resulted in frequent sediment hazards. Thus, various stream control works are established in watersheds to secure midstream and downstream citizens’ lives and properties. Taking care of slope safety and natural landscapes has become a primary issue for soil and water conservation engineering. The scenic preference beauty estimation method (SBE) in psychophysics, which was proposed by Daniel and Boster in 1976, is utilized herein to evaluate the scenic aesthetics of stream control engineering in watersheds. It aims to discuss various landscape factors (water body, vegetation) in the aesthetic preference and differences of various artificial structures in a watershed under people’s psychology. First, pictures and images related to soil and water conservation engineering are collected, and an in-situ investigation is performed to determine the pictures and images for discussion and design of the relevant questionnaire. The scenic aesthetics evaluation results are standardized with RMRATE, a computer program for analyzing rating judgments, of the United States Department of Agriculture, and then transformed into SBE values to compare the difference of various engineering structures in scenic aesthetics. The results reveal that flowing waterscape elements and the coverage of vegetation on the surrounding artificial structure volume in images present positive effects on the public overall scenic aesthetics. This study is expected to provide engineering designers with reference for considering a design integrating engineering structure with natural landscapes.