500 Naturwissenschaften
Mobile Eye Tracking in Landscape Architecture: Discovering a New Application for Research on Site
(2018)
This chapter presents the process of establishing a laboratory for mobile eye tracking focussing
on real-world, open-space environments within the field of landscape architecture at
the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (D) as well as the latest results from the feasibility
study ‘Point de Vue’, which defines the basis for qualitative interaction analyses in
landscape architecture. Eye tracking is a tool that has been used extensively in the domains
of psychology, marketing, usability and user experience in remote and mobile applications,
but has rarely been used in real-world open spaces because of technical limitations. To
check the possibilities of mobile eye tracking as a new application in open spaces, several
exploratory tests and a feasibility study with long-term experiments have been carried out
in urban settings as well as in world famous parks such as ‘Grosser Garten’ in Hannover (D)
and ‘Stourhead’ in Wiltshire (GB). These experiments have shown extraordinary results that
enable us to use mobile eye tracking as a new tool in open space research to gain knowledge
about how people act, react and interact in open-space environments. Being able to see and
understand what catches one’s eye and the response to it will be a guide to better design.
The global climate system is currently warming due to the increase in CO2 emissions caused by humans. Technically oriented efficiency strategies are seen more frequently as solutions to reach the European Union’s maximum two degrees Celsius target. Companies play an important role in limiting climate change and must either prepare for such consequences or adopt new strategies such as the sufficiency strategy.
This article will discuss how the sufficiency strategy and the promotion of sufficient living in the context of the tourism industry can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. Most common approaches toward sufficient living found in literature will be identified, analysed and discussed. Based on chosen keywords, the most common approaches were identified through a literature review of relevant journals from 1989 to 2014. Four main research fields that can promote sufficient living and reduce CO2 emissions were identified. Based on the prospects of the companies, it is apparent that sufficient strategies are not only able to support a market-orientated corporate management but also promote sufficient living and thus reduce CO2 emissions.