Earticle

There is little information about appropriate greenspace structures to satisfy aesthetic function in Korea. The purpose of this study was to analyze Korean's aesthetic preferences for greenspace structures concerned with urban tree plantings of an areal type to explore desirable greenspace landscapes. The study considered 5 structural variables of greenspace which were species composition, tree density, tree size, vertical and horizontal structure, and tree layout pattern. A photo-questionnaire was prepared through color simulations of different landscape types for each structural variable. Preference responses of an interval-scale rating from 214 respondents were statistically analyzed between landscape types and between respondent groups. Respondents preferred greenspace landscapes with diverse tree species to single species, higher tree density to lower density, larger trees to many smaller trees, multilayered and grouped plantings to single-layered and sparse plantings, and informal pattern to formal pattern. These preferences tended to be relatively higher for educated specialist and student groups than for other generalist group. Thus, multilayered and dense plantings in natural pattern including larger trees of diverse species, which are similar to ecological plantings, are recommended to increase aesthetic function of greenspace.