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,,_"'.1 f 000066 1788 BROWN AND DANIEL: LANDSCAPE AESTHETICS OF RIPARIAN ENVIRONMENTS TABLE I. Photo Sample Dates and Flow Levels their willingness to pay for alternative flow conditions, represented by photographs taken the previous summer. The photos depicted flow in the river at eight ftow levels, from 50 to 1150 cfs (10410 32.6 m'/s), al eacb of four sites. Respon- dents were shown pairs of photos of the same scene at two flow levels and questioned about their willingness to pay, in the form of entrance fees or sales taxes, to have one as opposed to the other flow level. For anglers and shoreline recreationists, responses indicated a concave relationship of willingness to pay to flow level. similar to Litton's [1984] observations for the aesthetics of flow. In this study we focused not on willingness to pay but on scenic beauty per se. Scenes were presented to observers in two formats that dlffered in the degree to which they tended to focus observers' attention on flow rate. Different formats were used because different patterns of actual use of the river may enhance or diminish the user's awareness of varying flow levels. We hypothesized that (I) regardless of presentation format, scenic beauty would, as Liuon (1984J suggested, increase with flow to a point and then decrease at higher flow levels, but (2) flow would be more important in explaining variance in scenic beauty when the method of presentation focused attention on flow level. METHODS To explore the relationship between streamflow and public perception of scenic beauty we adapted psychophysical methodology [Daniel and Vining, 1983: Zube et al., 1982] that has often been applied to evaluate forest scenic beauty [e.g.. Schroeder and Daniel. 1981; Buhyoff et al., 1982; Ribe. 1990]. Briefly, this required (I) photographing numerous views along the Poudre River. each at numerous flow levels. (2) obtaining and scaling viewers' scenic beauty judgments of the scenes, (3) measuring numerous chal.'"acteristics or the scenes, including flow level. and (4) comparing viewers' scaled scenic beauty judgments with the measures of the scene characteristics to better '.:!"!derstand the influence of the characteristics on public perception of scenic beauty. We used a photographic medium to be able to present the alternative environmental conditions to the same observers under constant experimental conditions. Judgments of pho- tographs have repeatedly been found to correlate highly with judgments of onsite scenes (e.g.. ShurrleM..orth. 1980; Stew- art et al.. 1984], Representation of Environmental Conditions Twenty-two points along the 40-mi (64.4 km) stretch of the mainstem of the Cache La Poudre River within the wild and scenic area upstream or Fon Collins, Colorado. were se- lected for this study. Each point was photographed in the upstream and downstream directions, resulting in 44 sepa- rate views. No two views capture the same ponion of river. Obvious evidence of human interference (people. vehicles, bridges or buildings, roads, or power lines) was avoided in all views because an occasional incidence of such features would tend to bias the scenic beauty judgments. Points were located to capture the considerable variation in vegetation, topography, channel morphology, vantage point. and view distances within the wild and scenic area. The mix of scenes included, for example. the range from narrow, steep canyons of rock with little vegetation to wide valleys with much vegetation and little rock and the range Dale (1988) CFS' June 7 2643 June 14 2304 June 22 1975 June 30 1202 July 8 715 July 21 479 Aug. 25 373 Sept. 9 152 .Cubic feet per second (I cfs equals 2.832 x 10-2 m]/s) at the lower end of the inventoried stretch of river. measured at USGS gauge 06752000, located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) upstream oCTed's Place (turnoff (0 gauge is 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from Ted's Place; gauge is about 0.5 mile (0.8 km) downstream from Poudre Valley Canal diversion and low head dam) and adjusted for upstream diversions (Poudre Valley Canal, Monroe Gravity Canal. Fort Collins pipe- line). Bankfull flow is roughly 2500 cfs (71 m3/s). from the dry hillsides of desert vegetation at the downstream end of the canyon to forests of spruce. fir, and aspen at the upper end. Vantage points included at the water's edge, from bridges above the water, and from elevated slopes looking down on the river. View distances varied from near-view scenes, including only the width of the river, the slope, and the vegetation a few yards back from the river's far bank, to vista scenes showing the river in the foreground or mid- ground and far-off mountains in the background. Including the full mixture of scenes was necessary to determine whether or not the relationship of scenic beauty to flow was dependent on the particular characteristics of the surround- ing landscape. Previous psychophysical scenic beauty studies, which focused on forests, lakes, and other relatively passive scen- ery, have exclusively used still photography (usually color slides) to depict the scenes. However, because we were not confident that still photography would adequately represent the dynamic nature of streamflow in scenes of the Poudre River. we presented the scenes to viewers as video se- quences. Video images were recently shown to yield envi- ronmental quality judgments for passive scenery that were highly comparable to those of color slides [Vining and Orland, 1989], and thus appeared to offer no drawbacks, but video images offered the important potential advantage of depicting water movement. Photo points were carefully marked to facilitate capturing the same view each time the photographer returned to the site. Photo inventory days were selected to capture nearly the full range of flow levels encountered during the declining portion of the hydrograph of the 1988 runoff season. Scenes were photographed at eight flow levels, ranging from 2643 cfs (74.84 m'/s) on June 7 to 152 cfs (4.30 m'/s) on September 9 (Table I). Flow diminished 10 about 50 cfs (104 m'/s) later in the fall, but by then the leaves on deciduous trees had turned. dramatically altering the appearance of the vegeta- tion, so that such scenes could not be included with earlier scenes to evaluate scenic beauty. ' The order in which points were photographed on different occasions was systematically varied to avoid capturing a given view at the same sun angle each time. Clear, sunny days were preferred, but the weather in the Poudre Canyon is highly variable. and we found it impossible to always avoid cloudy weather and still photograph at the appropriate j. pph. photol Vid, a Son cordel obsen absent each s 12 s 0 dropp' 216 sc eight ( F10' sured strearr just U1 levels basin t levels estim;; Scenh Seer beaut~ actual rating able. I wide' scene would throu~ that ti' people thai .. scenic consic design type, . was J' The flow r. live sc the SC:l design thougl indica ismor same seasor the sit Rat scene~ requir used t. and L soned 20 ba!l preser more' The that dl