RESEARCH PLAN
ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL
AND CULTURAL TOURISM AREA IN KYOTO CITY, JAPAN
Muhammad Zainul Islami
INTRODUCTION
Background
Traveling is a fun activity for anyone. The beauty
of a region's landscape that motivates tourists to
visit the sights. Ogilvie (1933) says that tourist is
all persons who satisfy two conditions, that they are
away from home for any period of less than a year,
and second, that while they are away they spend
money in the place they visit without earning it
there. One of the most popular areas visited by
tourists is Kyoto City. In 2015, 56.84 million
tourists visited Kyoto (The Asahi Shimbun, 2017).
Kyoto City is one of the popular tourist destinations
in Japan, especially for historical and cultural
tourism. There are 17 UNESCO World Heritage
Sites in Kyoto Prefecture based on Official Web
Site of Kyoto Prefecture (2018).
Aesthetics are closely related to the visual
appraisal, because of the appearance of an object is
automatically judged by its visual appearance.
Humans always do the perception and
interpretation of the environment. The process of
perception and interpretation is a series of human
actions as an effort to get a representation of the
environment so that humans can determine the next
action on the environment. Thus it is necessary
knowledge of perception and correct interpretation,
so that man can establish the right action in
managing the environment. (Simonds, 1983).
Aesthetic value can be one environmental
measuring tool, because the human senses are able
to capture and distinguish the surrounding
environmental conditions through the sense of
sight, hearing or smell (Foster, 1982). The beauty
of the environment as one of the means of fulfilling
the aesthetic needs to be studied, so the
environment can be managed well.
One way to assessing the quality of the
environment is using Scenic Beauty Estimation
method (SBE) and Semantic Differential method
(SD). SBE method is the assessment of beauty
based on the results of human interaction with
nature, namely as a form of perception of the
landscape through the sense of sight (Daniel and
Booster, 1976). SD method is an assessment
performed to measure or to know a person's or a
group's perception of an object being examined
based on an impression by a given adjective, in
which the adjective is contradictory or resides on
two different poles. It is usually called bipolar
adjective, in which two adjectives contradict each
other. (Osgood et al, 1957).
Therefore, the existence of historical and cultural
tourism areas need to be studied proportionally
through a visual analysis related to the character of
the landscape, especially in the area of Kyoto City
which is very popular visited by tourists. The goal
of this research is to interpret the correlation
between environmental aesthetics and landscape
character of historical and cultural tourism area in
Kyoto City.
Research Purposes
The study conducted with the aim: to identifying
historical and cultural tourism areas in Kyoto City;
to identifying the landscape character of historical
and cultural tourism areas in Kyoto City; to
analyzing the aesthetic quality of the landscape in
the historical and cultural tourism area of Kyoto
City; and to analyzing and interpreting correlation
between the aesthetic quality of the landscape
tourism with its landscape character in Kyoto City's
historical and cultural tourism area.
 Benefits of Research
The benefits to be gained from this research is to
enrich science, especially the science of
environmental aesthetics, landscape visual analysis,
especially in historical and cultural tourism areas,
and research results can serve as a reference for
other areas in developing historical and cultural
tourism areas in the future.
Research Framework
Kyoto City is one of the most popular historical and
cultural tourism destinations in the world. Many
tourists who come to visit due to the high aesthetic
value of the environment in the tourism area of
Kyoto City. Therefore, it is necessary to do an
analysis of the environmental aesthetics in the
historical and cultural tourism of Kyoto City in
order to know the character of what landscape
makes this area has a high aesthetic value of the
environment. The research framework of this
research shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Research Framework
METHODS
The Study Area
The study conducted in Kyoto City, Kyoto
Prefecture. The observed locations are some
historical and cultural tourism areas that listed as
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Figure 2 shown a
map of research sites based on Kyoto Cycling Map
(KyotoEcoTrip, 2018).
Figure 2 Research Location
Research Methods
This research uses survey method for collecting
character data of tread and taking landscape photos
of historical and cultural tourism area. Photo
analyzing using the Scenic Beauty Estimation
(SBE) method, presented by Daniel and Boster
(1976). SBE method is using to assess the aesthetic
quality of the landscape. Total of 10 landscape
settings will be aired in front of the respondents
from the students of Graduate School of Global
Environmental Science Kyoto University to assess
the beauty of the landscape.
Landscape character assessment was conducted by
analyzing respondents' perceptions of the
landscape of historical and cultural tourism areas
based on their responses to landscape conditions
that were aired using the Semantic Differential
(SD) method developed by Osgood, Suci, and
Tannenbaum (1957). Respondents are asked to rate
landscape conditions based on bipolar adjectives
according to their perceptions. This adjective may
also express a phrase (a group of words) with the
intent to describe the condition of the landscape
assessed. Figure 3 shown the research method
scheme.
Assessment by SBE method starts from the
grouping of aesthetic questionnaire data per site or
location based on the rating scale from 1 to 10.
Furthermore, each place or location calculated the
number of frequencies, cumulative frequency,
cumulative opportunity and z value for each rating
of the scores obtained. SBE formulation used in the
calculation is:
SBEx= [Zix-Zis] x 100

Figure 3Research Method Scheme
Where SBEx is the value of the x-landscape
estimate, Zix is the mean value of z of the x-
landscape, and Zis is the average z-landscape value
used as the standard. The value of Z formulated as:
𝑥−𝜇
𝑍=
𝜎
𝜎 2 is a mean concentration measure.
Σ(𝑥𝑖 − 𝜇)
𝜎2 =
𝑁
The N value is the number of populations. Trust
interval for μ; s is known, if x is the middle value
of the sample of size n taken from a population and
the variety σ2 is known then the confidence interval
(1-α) x 100% is:
𝜎 𝜎
𝑥 − 𝑧 𝛼⁄2 < 𝜇 < 𝑥 + 𝑧 𝛼⁄2
√𝑁 √𝑁
The calculation results used for grouping beauty
levels using the normal distribution. The level of
landscape beauty grouped into high, medium, and
low. The classification of beauty classes is done
using the standard of Daniel and Booster (1976),
namely high (SBE>20), medium (-20<SBE<20),
and low (SBE<-20).
The next assessment using the SD method. SD
method is a method of appraisal using adjective
bipolar to describe the condition of each character
of the landscape. The questionnaire filling is to give
a score on a number of bipolar adjectives that are
respondents' impressions of the landscape object
being assessed. The results of respondents grouped
according to their adjectives then tabulated in
percent units for the measurement of their diversity.
After that, the results of all respondents are
calculated using the formula below:
∑𝑛𝑖=1 𝑋𝑖𝑗
𝑋𝑖𝑗 =
𝑛
Where Xij is the average score given by the
respondent to the picture for the criterion j, Xij is
the score given by each respondent for the i-picture
criterion j, n is the total number of respondents, i is
the picture (1,2,3, ......., N ), and j is the criterion
(1,2,3, ...... .., n).
After getting an average score for each adjective
that describes the ecological character of each
landscape. Then the average will be plotted on the
graph so that the perception of each character is
known.
REFERENCE
Daniel TC, Booster TC. 1976. Measuring
Landscape Aesthetics: The Scenic Beauty
Estimation Method. USDA Forest Service
Research Paper Rm.
Foster HD. 1982. Environmental Aesthetics.
Victoria Univ. Pr. Canada.
Kyoto Eco Trip. 2018. Kyoto Cycling Map.
https://kyoto-option.com/english/map/ [27 April
2018].
Kyoto Prefecture Web Site. 2018. World cultural
heritage List of cultural assets of ancient capital
Kyoto. http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/isan/index.html
[27 April 2018].
Ogilvie F. 1933. The Tourist Movement: An
Economic Study. London: PS King and Sons.
Osgood C, Suci G, and Tannenbaum P. 1957. The
Measurement of Meaning. Urbana: University of
Illinois Press.
Simonds JO. 1983. Landscape Architecture. New
York: McGraw Hill.
The Asahi Shimbun. 2017. Kyoto residents now
complain about hordes of overseas tourists.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ2017062700
01.html [27 April 2018].
 Example of Questionnaire

Scenic Beauty Estimation Questionnaire Semantic Differential Questionnaire

Put cross mark (X) on the assessment column provided based on your Put cross mark (X) on the assessment column provided based on your
perception of the historical and cultural tourism areas. perception of the historical and cultural tourism areas.

Score Landscape - I
Picture
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Landscape - I Adjectives +3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 Adjectives
Landscape - II Calm Noisy
Warm Cool
.
Strong Weak
.
Safe Dangerous
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. Dynamic Static
Landscape - n
Landscape - II

Adjectives +3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 Adjectives
Calm Noisy
Warm Cool
Strong Weak
Safe Dangerous
. .
. .
. .
. .
Dynamic Static