The Landscape Assessment Scale: A New Tool to Evaluate Environmental Qualities

This study contributes to the growing interest in evaluating environmental qualities and characteristics for the enhancement of social and individual well-being by introducing and validating the Landscape Assessment Scale (LAS), a standardized tool designed to assess key environmental qualities across both natural and urban landscapes within metropolitan settings. The scale comprises 30 items related to 10 key environmental components: coherence, complexity, ephemera, imageability, naturalness, safety, visual scale, stewardship, disturbance, and historicity of places. In study 1, the LAS was first tested on 327 participants, who evaluated either a natural (N = 176) or urban (N = 151) environment. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed three correlated factors: Landscape Disharmony, Landscape Organized Complexity, and Landscape Naturalistic Impact. In study 2, participants (N = 185) were asked to select and to assess two environments (natural and urban) using the shortened LAS and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to investigate the invariance of the LAS factor structure in both natural and urban environments, and the correlational analysis was used to investigate LAS convergent validity. The CFA supported the three-factor structure and showed significant correlations between LAS and PRS components, supporting convergent validity. By capturing key perceptual dimensions that are relevant across landscape types, the LAS offers a practical and scientifically robust tool for informing evidence-based urban planning and landscape design.