Perspectives on Landscape Aesthetics for the Ecological Conservation of Wetlands

Wetlands are increasingly being destroyed, and a major contributory factor is the lack of the knowledge of their importance. Studies have demonstrated that healthy and aesthetic ecological landscapes might promote public awareness regarding resource protection, thereby leading to wetland conservation. In this study, reports on evolutionary theory and information-seeking preference hypothesis were reviewed to identify the ecological aesthetics of wetlands. The review highlights the importance of three aspects of ecological aesthetics. The first is the relationship between land-use and landscape changes based on the foundation concept of how structure influences landscape ecology, i.e., the concept of ecological aesthetics for landscape-scale planning. The second is the relationship between the ecological health of wetlands and the human cognitive wetland landscape, i.e., healthy wetlands might have high aesthetic value. The third is related to the correlation between physical landscape and ecological attributes, and its effect on the aesthetics of wetlands. In particular, 13 factors related to ecological quality were found to influence peoples' perception of the ecological aesthetics of wetlands. Wetland conservation remains a considerable challenge, and some of the available viewpoints reviewed in this study might aid improvement of the ecological aesthetic value of wetlands, thereby promoting their management and conservation.