Thesis supervisor: prof Tõnu Oja (University of Tartu), prof Hannes Palang (University of Tallinn)
Oponent: prof Liisa Tyrväinen (Finnish Forest Research Institute)
Summary
Values are increasingly discussed in our societies today. The controversies of values dominate the discussions in governance and decision-making processes. Landscape values have been studied by many authors from different viewpoints. There are several methodologies to assess the landscape values and each of them is good for different purposes. There is no single suitable method and comparative research on suitability of methods is shallow.
The main objectives of this doctoral thesis are:
- to compare different methods for assessment of landscape values;
- to identify the appropriateness of the value assessment methods for different planning and management purposes;
- to analyse the relevance of the applications of monetary equivalent for landscape recreational values.
The main results of the thesis are presented in seven attached published papers.
All analysed in the thesis methods do have their strengths and weaknesses and there is no universal method. The research carried out allowed us to evaluate suitability of different methods for different tasks.