In Pursuit of Eye Tracking for Visual Landscape Assessments

Visual quality and impact assessments have historically relied on experts to formally evaluate the visual properties of a landscape. In contrast, environmental psychologists have studied subjective landscape preferences using ratings and surveys. These two approaches represent, respectively, the “objectivist” and “subjectivist” paradigms within visual landscape research. A gap, however, exists between these approaches: actual observation behaviors. In this paper, we argue for the inclusion of eye-tracking research in visual landscape assessments as a critical bridge between objective landscape qualities and subjective visual experiences. We describe the basics of eye-tracking methods and data types to introduce the role of eye movements in landscape preference formation. Three-dimensional immersive virtual environments are particularly useful for collecting these types of data, as they allow for quantification of the viewed environment’s spatial and scene metrics in addition to providing eye-tracking capabilities at sufficient resolutions. These environmental and behavioral data can then be consolidated and analyzed within existing GIS platforms to draw conclusions about environmental influences on observation behaviors. While eye tracking may eventually contribute directly to the practice of visual quality or impact assessments, the near-term benefits of this work will most likely center around contributing to the objectivity and defensibility of assessments through validation and methodological recommendations.