Scenery assessment: scenic beauty at the ecoregion scale.

Scenic quality is an important amenity on public lands in the interior Columbia basin (hereafter referred to as the basin). People’s interests in and expectations about ecosystems can help establish desired aesthetic conditions for the varied landscapes found in the basin. This paper, a portion of the social science assessment for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project, explains the procedures used to inventory scenic quality throughout the basin by using two primary indicators: landscape character and scenic condition. Landscape character is expressed as landscape themes, which portray the overall images of a large geographic area. Scenic condition is measured in degrees of scenic integrity, which express various levels of alteration to the landscape by humans to natural-appearing landscapes. Most landscapes in the basin are forests and shrub-grasslands having a predominantly natural appearance.

Urban and rural developments visually dominate relatively few of the basin’s landscapes although they are highly visible where they do occur. The overall scenic integrity of landscapes in the basin remains at a relatively high level with over 80 percent dominated by natural-appearing views.