Demographic groups' differences in visual preference for vegetated landscapes in urban green space

Although previous works concluded that demographic variables of observers have strong influence on landscape preference, the questions of “which demographic characteristic(s) has(have) greater effects on preference than others” and “what are the features of a landscape preferred by each of the demographic groups” are not answered clearly up to now. This study aims at answering the two questions through a visual preference assessment with 482 laypersons as respondents. The main results include: (a) education level and gender of respondents have a significantly influence on preference assessment; (b) “naturalness”, “growth status of plant” and “elements except plant” are the reliable predictors for the landscape preference of male; for female, the significant predictors are “degree of plant maturation” and “number of colors”, and (c) for the landscape preference of observers with elementary education, the significant predictors are “growth status of plant”, “safety” and “degree of plant maturation”; the observers with middle education and college education have the same predictors: “growth status of plant” and “number of colors”; and “naturalness” and “degree of plant maturation” are the predictors of participants with post graduate education. At last the practical implications of the results are discussed.