Modeling Spaciousness in the Dutch Landscape: Fid-Bau Portal

Modeling Spaciousness in the Dutch Landscape

J. F. Palmer

The general goal of the landscape policy at the national level is to maintain and to develop the quality of Dutch landscapes, based on principles of identity and sustainability. Identity has to do with those landscape attributes that characterize an area and distinguish it from other areas. Spaciousness or enclosure is one criterium to determine a landscape's identity. The purpose of this research project is to develop and validate methods for classifying the enclosure or spaciousness of Dutch landscapes. Two general orientations to spaciousness are considered in this report. The first approach considers spaciousness an intrinsic physical landscape characteristic, like elevation of percent tree cover. The second orientation models viewed or perceived of openness or closedness in the landscape. The specific objectives of this study are to: (1) Establish a quantitative procedure to measure and map intrinsic landscape spaciousness. (2) Establish a quantitative procedure to measure and map viewed or perceived spaciousness in the landscape. (3) Demonstrate the relationship between calculated landscape spaciousness and the landscape spaciousness observed in the field.