Heins, Jennifer.

The cartographic modeling process has the potential to handle the highly complex data, data interpretation processes, and analytical functions of human visual experience. Using this process to interpret psychological theory has four very important values for city or regional planners: 1) the results are consistently reproducible; 2) the process may be adapted to fit the current planning goals and priorities; 3) flowcharts combined with spatial descriptions serve as valuable communication tools for private group interaction and public meetings; and 4) open space can be evaluated more wholly using existing data to incorporate a new body of open space research. The goal of this thesis is to develop a tool that uses the cartographic modeling process to apply a theoretical model of the characteristics of natural areas people prefer. Such a tool could be used to identify preferred areas for preservation or development.

To identify the natural areas people prefer, Appleton's habitat theory was used because it is a psychological theory that identifies related physical attributes. A GIS cartographic model was created and then tested by using it to identify prospect, refuge and hazard on a study site. The Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle, Washington was selected as the study site. The hypothesis of this study was that there would be a positive correlation between an evaluation of the study site by experts in habitat theory and a similar evaluation of the site by the cartographic model. One hundred and ten photographs were taken and twenty were selected to be evaluated by the experts. These same twenty views were located in a map form and, using a cartographic model designed by the author, a series of comparative analyses were done evaluating the physical characteristics of the views. This evaluation was used to create rankings of prospect, refuge, and hazard. Finally, the expert rankings and the computer rankings were statistically compared.

The hypothesis that the computer model evaluations and the expert evaluations would agree was supported for the measures of prospect and hazard, but not the measure of refuge. In retrospect, there are a number of improvements that could be made to enhance the accuracy of the model. However, it does demonstrate the potential usefulness of the cartographic modeling process to identify experiential qualities of the environment and incorporate this information into a landscape evaluation process used to influence planning decisions.