LANDSCAPE AESTHETICS OF RIPARIAN ENVIRONMENTS - RELATIONSHIP OF FLOW QUANTITY TO SCENIC QUALITY ALONG A WILD AND SCENIC RIVER

The relationship between flow quantity and scenic quality was measured for a "wild and scenic" river in Colorado. Respondents' scenic beauty judgments of video sequences depicting the river at flow rates from 120 to 2650 cfs (3.40 to 75.0 m3/s) were scaled to an interval scale measure of perceived scenic beauty following psychophysical scaling procedures. Regressions of scenic beauty on variables describing flow and other site characteristics showed scenic beauty to increase as flow increased up to about 1100-1500 cfs (31-42 m3/s) and then fall as flow continued to increase. Optimum flows for scenic beauty typically occur for two short periods each year, during the ascending and descending portions of the annual late spring peak runoff season. Flow explained from 10 to 25% of the variance in scenic beauty, depending on how much emphasis the scenic beauty judgment format tended to place on flow.