Preferences for a lake landscape: Effects of building height and lake width

Cities with lakes must balance the relationship between development and preservation of the natural landscape. Tall buildings are important in urban development, while landscape destruction and visual pollution caused by tall buildings have attracted more attention. Many qualitative or quantitative restrictions for building height have been designated along lakefronts. However, it is unclear whether the public accepts these restricted heights. This study aimed to assess the effects of building height and lake width on public preferences for lake landscapes. Two experiments were designed with two common lake scenarios. Three levels of building height crossed with three levels of lake width were presented in nine synthetic lake landscapes in each experiment, which were assessed by 50 participants using a psychological evaluation tool, namely the Affect Grid. The results showed that when lake width was within the Close View range with only trees on the other side of the lake, a lake landscape with the heights of buildings' visible part moderately less than average height of the trees contour was preferred over rigidly restricting that all buildings be barely visible. For lake landscapes with mountains in the background, it was found that a lake-wide threshold existed between 0.6 km and 1.8 km. Using this threshold, the Medium View range could be reclassified so that a lake width within this range might correspond to a particular type of building height restriction. These findings provide a reference for urban planners and suggest that lakes can be categorized on the basis of lake width and, in this category, building height can be restricted more appropriately.