Integrated scenic modeling of environmentally induced color changes in a coniferous forest canopy.

Abstract

The relationship between the changes in color values of scenic landscapes, and the corresponding shifts in viewers' preferences to those changed environments, was the focus of the presented research. Color modifications, either natural or based on some human intervention, provide visual clues that an environment has undergone some transformation. These color changes can occur at both the micro and macro scale, can having temporal dimensions, and can be a result of combinations of both physical landscape change, and shifts in an observer's perspective with respect to that landscape. The research reviewed two existing models and related them in an integrated program of scenic change analysis. The first, a bio-physical remote sensing model, identified the relationships between the existing bio-physical environmental conditions and measured color signatures of selected landscape features. The second, a psychophysical perception model, established relationships between the landscape's bio-physical attributes and measured perceptual responses to those environments. By merging aspects of each model, the research related the changing scenic color patterns with observers' responses to those changed environments. The research methodology presented a program of scenic change analysis incorporating several technologies including (1) ground-based biological inventories, (2) remote sensing, (3) geographic information systems (GIS), and (4) computer visualization. A series of investigations focused on landscape scenes selected from a high elevation coniferous forest in southern Utah. Three initial scenic investigations compared (1) the impact of changing view angles on scenic color values, (2) color shifts due to changing sun-illumination angles within a day, and (3) color shifts due to changing biological conditions over a 12-month period. A fourth investigation measured the color changes caused by a spruce bark beetle outbreak, and developed a series of color signatures to simulate the color shifts indicative of an outbreak at different stages of development. These signatures were applied to digitized site photographs to produce a series of visualizations displaying different levels of beetle damage. The visualizations were then applied in a series of perceptual experiments to test the precision and reliability of the visual simulations.