Visual aesthetic quality refers to the perceptual evaluation of landscape elements and features, such as color, movement, and pattern, by a human observer 23, 24. Therefore, improving its visual aesthetic quality is the key to improving landscape quality 19– 22. Moreover, it emphasizes their biodiversity and ecological sustainability 10, 16. Therefore, it is highly important and urgent to study ways to improve the quality of landscape and promote the ecological benefits of urban slope forests through the selection and configuration of tree species 17, 18.Ī large-scale urban slope forest landscape may be primarily appreciated from a relatively long distance, since it may be difficult for residents to walk into it and experience the comprehensive visual, auditory, taste and touch. The rapid expansion and construction of many mountainous cities in China have caused damage to the slope forests inside and around them, resulting in a decrease in landscape quality 12, 13, ecological stability and biodiversity 14, 15. Thus, China’s national strategy is to aggressively work toward improving the quality of urban slope forest landscape, scientifically select tree species, and adjust the pattern of distribution of tree species, so that residents can see the beautiful slope forest landscape from the city 16. In particular, the mountainous areas of China comprise more than two-thirds of the area of land in this country 11.

The 84 tree species in the superior visual aesthetic quality forests primarily displayed 10 types of color changes that varied as green, yellow, blue, red, withered yellow, withered red and gray.Īs urban populations and areas increase, slope forests within or around cities become increasingly important for the well-being of residents and urban sustainability 1– 3. They have become a focus of global attention as a nature-based solution 4– 7. However, these slope forests in cities have been disturbed with urban expansion 8– 10. Different combinations of color features can result in high visual aesthetic quality. Diverse and balanced color patches or a dominant color patch contrasted by many small patches with interspersed color components also highlighted the superior visual aesthetic quality of slope forest features. The results showed that the forests with superior visual aesthetic quality were more green, red, and yellow, had moderately higher saturation and value, more obvious color contrast, and diverse colors with primary and secondary contrast. We analyzed both the composition of tree species and the changes in color for each species of tree in nine forest sites that exhibited superior visual aesthetic quality. This study investigated the visual aesthetic quality of the color dynamics of a natural slope forest in Jiaozi Mountain, China in the autumn. However, such research is critically lacking. Therefore, it can provide aesthetic rules and a reference to configure local tree species to support their visual aesthetic quality, ecological sustainability and native biodiversity restoration in a local urban slope forest. This is particularly true for the autumn color of slope forest, which is very attractive to the public. An exploration of the relationship between the change in color of a natural slope forest and its visual aesthetic quality enables the implementation of the configuration of superior aesthetic tree species. Color is a crucial visual element to examine when viewing this large-scale slope forest landscape from a long distance. Urban expansion leads to changes in the visual aesthetic quality and ecological degradation of the surrounding slope forest landscapes.

Colors of autumn 94 name