INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW

According to Litton (1986), we are primarily visual animals, thus the complexities of visual aesthetics are part of our visual perception. It is pertinent to understand that the foundations of visual project analysis lie within the aesthetics of the landscape. Of all the efforts of trying to understand the complexity of aesthetics, all are an attempt to understand the complexity by simplifying it. In order to build a better environment, we need to understand nature and its complexity. The complex diversity of the environment itself makes the analytical problem difficult. Complexity in nature is the result of continuous adaptations of change (Felleman, 1986). However, according to Couclelis (1985) the description of complex system need not to be themselves complex, let alone complicated. In order to understand the complexity, we need to simplify it, but still maintain its integrity. Since human is part of the environment, they change the environment by adding, eliminating and preserving. In our built environment, we need a better understanding of our visual surroundings. Visual Analyses are our attempt to simplify with integrity the complexity of our visual surroundings.

In the United States, visual corridor analysis has become a significant part of visual analysis. Ever since cars have been introduced to the United States, they have changed the way Americans experience the landscape. Americans perceive the landscape different through the windshield of a car. The roadways are not just for getting people from one place to another anymore, but it becomes a form of pleasure for drivers, for the sense of just driving. This applies to scenic drives with no traffic congestion on highways.

However, pleasant scenery along the highways could decrease the frustration that drivers experience during traffic. The fact that the car is here to stay inspired Smithson (1983) to study the Netherlands country side via automobile. She described her experience of the landscape as she saw through her Citroen windshield as a part of the planning process. Appleyard (1964) noted that while motorists derive some enjoyment speed and motion, they devote considerable portion of their perceptual activity to the roadside when pass through a road with an attractive landscape. However, according to Kent (1993, p.1), "although pleasure driving was rated an outdoor pastime second only to walking (US Dept. of Transportation, 1988), little research has focused on how a driver and passengers experience the landscape."

Priestley (1983) produced an overview ofthe field of visual analysis and management by analyzing the bibliographic citations accompanying the papers published in the proceedings of "Our National Landscape" conference (Elsner and Smardon, 1979). By categorizing the twenty most-cited works with core literature (See Table. 1), over fifty percent of the citation reflected the landscape architect's approach to visual analysis (landscape inventory and assessment, management agency system, and landscape impact studies/landscape impact prediction and assessment). One third of the citations were works in environmental psychology and physiology. Only three percent of the citations were works in technologies for landscape assessment.