The Psychology of Landscapes: An Integrative Framework

Landscapes shape and are shaped by human psychology. This paper introduces the Landscape Features Framework, a two-level framework that operationalizes landscapes as (a) low-level, modality-specific features (e.g., visual, acoustic, olfactory, haptic) and (b) high-level, structural features (e.g., land dover, topography, accessibility, resource availability). The framework presents how landscape types (forests, coastal areas, cultivated land) can be systematically studied as a conglomerate of low- and high-level landscape features that influence and are influenced by psychological outcomes. The paper outlines how the framework relates to existing theories that link psychology to landscapes and conclude by presenting future research avenues that apply our framework.