Assessment of Society’s Perceptions on Cultural Ecosystem Services in a Cultural Landscape in Nanchang, China

Abstract

Ancient villages are a unique landscape of cultural heritage with both tangible and intangible culture, which provide rich ecosystem services for human beings. Assessment of society’s perceptions on cultural heritage landscapes can improve the integration of cultural heritage values into decision-making processes that affect landscapes, thereby contributing to maximizing the benefits people receive from cultural ecosystem services. Based on this premise, a new sense-based hierarchical assessment framework for a cultural landscape of ancient villages in China from the perspectives of experts and the public was developed in this study. Field research was conducted by the experts to preliminarily extract the evaluation indicators by identifying and refining the characteristics of the landscape perception units based on the classification of village’s landscape resources. The public indicators as supplements were determined by the semantic and social networks generated with ROSTCM tool post-processing, which followed crawling public comments on the tourism platforms with Python. The findings indicated that visual stimulation (57.36%) is the strongest, while touch perception is the weakest (3.56%). The proportion of hearing, smell, and taste was 21.52%, 12.05%, and 5.53%, respectively. Furthermore, people consider variety, historicity, culture, and localism as the core themes of perception in their landscape experiences. The value and usefulness of the sensory experiences for cultural landscape assessment and for decision-making in the context of cultural ecosystem services are discussed.

1. Introduction

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) refer to the intangible benefits obtained by people from ecosystems through spiritual satisfaction, entertainment, and aesthetic experiences [1]. It is well recognized that CESs is intangible, partly subjective and tied to human interactions with landscape and social value systems rather than objectively assessable indicators like other ecosystem services, which makes assessment of CESs challenging and sometimes overlooked [2]. The cultural landscape heritage contributes significantly to the provision of CES and human local identity, which strengthens the relationship between people and environment and influences decision-making. So far, ecosystem service research has mostly concentrated on the biophysical investigation of the ecosystem’s potential to provide services and the monetary value of these services [3,4]. However, people pay insufficient attention to the values, attitudes, and significance behind the social needs of ecosystem services [5]. The study found that the importance of ecosystem to society is tied to individual values and preferences that outweigh monetary estimates [6]. These values and preferences need to be included in the planning process [7].

Previous research has demonstrated that perception is easily influenced by the observer’s personality, location of observation, and socioeconomic profile, which leads to subjective bias in aesthetic quality evaluation [8]. Daniel [9] emphasized that public health and economic wellbeing may be impacted if landscape users’ expectations are not in line with reality. Therefore, the public perceptions require the greatest consideration for decision-making in landscape planning and development. On the other hand, the ecosystem service framework regarding landscape aesthetics as an essential cultural ecological service further paid more attention to the significance of landscape experiences [10]; consequently, assessing landscape quality serves as an essential component in integrating cultural ecosystem service into the management of landscapes.

It is generally accepted that landscapes include not only a physical level, but also a perceptual/cognitive level. Daniel et al. [11] and Buhyoff et al. [12], pioneers in the early research on the assessment of landscape aesthetics, proposed the scenic beauty estimation (SBE) method and the law of comparative judgment (LCJ) method, based on the principle of human aesthetic consistency from the perspective of psychophysics, which opened the prelude of landscape resource assessment research. Ode et al. [13] investigated the relationship between human aesthetic preference and visual perception of landscape, proposed a method for capturing visual characteristics using landscape perception indicators, and established a link between landscape aesthetic theory and visual indicators. Increasing the involvement of all five senses of visitors has been demonstrated in studies to promote a good travel experience [14,15]. Even so, studies on the sensory aspect of landscape experiences have generally concentrated on the impact of certain senses, such as visual perception.

Recent study on tourism experiences recommends that, in addition to vision, landscape perception should involve nonvisual perceptions such as senses of smell, taste, hearing, and touch [16]. For example, Henshaw’s research on smellscape shows that perceiving the scent of the landscape surroundings helps better characterize people’s emotional and psychological processes [17], and importantly, smell is the sense most closely tied to a memory [18]. Gan et al. [19] used a regression equation to calculate and compare the contribution of visual preference and auditory preference to landscape multisensory evaluation. They concluded that, in most landscapes, vision often dominates landscape perception evaluation, but attention should also be paid to the contribution of hearing in the entire landscape perception evaluation process. Additionally, the influence of local cuisine on the appraisal of landscape resources is self-evident, particularly in specific cultural landscape experiences; the culture and distinctiveness of food would considerably boost visitors’ aesthetic delight [20]. Likewise, Fan and Xie [21] studied rural landscape experience under the embodied paradigm and discovered that tourists could gain more aesthetic experience by physically perceiving ancient building materials or characteristic plant textures.

The specific objectives of this study are reflected in the following aspects: (1) develop an assessment indictors framework for cultural landscapes from the perspectives of experts and the public through two different methods; (2) reveal the potential link between multisensory perception, behavior experience, and landscape preference in cultural landscapes; and (3) investigate the perception processes of different sensory experiences and their contributions to landscape assessment.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Research Area

The Anyi ancient villages with a total area of 3 square kilometers is in Nanchang city of China, and initially created during the Tang Dynasty (dates back about 1400 years). It comprises three natural villages, namely Luotian, Shuinan, and Jingtai, as shown in Figure 1. In the ancient villages of Anyi, there are more than 120 traditional structures from the Qing and Ming dynasties, with the earliest buildings dating back more than 1400 years. The villages are rich in historical and cultural landscape resources and favorable conditions for the development of cultural tourism. In 2013, it was selected to the list of “China’s Second Batch of Ancient Villages”, and in 2018, it certified as a “National 4A Level Scenic Spot” and a “National 5A Level Rural Tourist Spot”. It is generally believed that these landscapes provide important ecosystem services, such as science, education, heritage, entertainment, cultural characteristics, and aesthetics [1].

2.2. Research Framework

In this study, the evaluation indicators of Anyi ancient village landscapes are constructed from the dual perspectives of experts and the public with the purpose of reducing the influence of judgment bias. Toward that end, the survey was carried out in two parts, as shown in Figure 2. In the first part, a 9-member expert group identified typical landscape representations of ancient villages through field investigation, classified landscape resource components from various sensory dimensions, and determined the typical landscape representation of ancient villages. The investigators were all doctoral candidates recruited from universities in Nanchang, China, who were working on landscape architecture, geography, ecology, and tourism research, with five females and four males participating. The experts then extracted the perceptual characteristics of the landscape based on perception analysis [22,23], and extracted the preliminary evaluation indicators based on the perceptual characteristics (Appendix A).

The second part, for the public-led indicators, an exploratory analysis of the characteristics and formation process of the public perception image of Anyi’s ancient villages was performed by combining semantic network analysis [24]. and the grounded theory approach [25]. Specifically, data mining was carried out on travel websites related to the ancient villages in Anyi, followed by semantic network analysis with ROSTCM [26]. Afterward, the materials were coded step by step utilizing grounded theory to determine the perceptual image generation process. Then, the perception categories were identified that the public paid more attention to, and these were included in the public evaluation indicators, following which the supplementary evaluation indicators were extracted.

The final evaluation indicators were then developed by integrating the major indicators from experts and the supplementary indicators from the public. The weights of evaluation indicators were then calculated to assess the degree of their impact on ecosystem service perception. Afterward, the definition, basis, and attributes of the indicators were determined by experts according to the relevant national regulations and literature, or combined with field research and expert ratings. Thus, the evaluation indictors system for ancient village landscape quality based on sensory experience was established.

2.3. Data Collection

Data collection by experts was conducted through field investigations, which has the benefit of gathering data and information in a highly complete and comprehensible way. The objective of on-site inquiry is to assess the sensory perception of ecosystem cultural services in the ancient village using landscape experience. Based on the experience of five senses, the typical landscape elements of the ancient villages were determined and analyzed according to the elements of village composition. In surveys, geography, architecture and facilities, environment, water, vegetation, and human activities are all components of the visual experience. Wind, water, animal noises, and human voices are examples of hearing experience aspects. The scent of the surroundings and the smell of food are the most common smell experience factors. The flavor of food is an aspect of taste sensation. Elements of temperature and texture are tactile experience components. Then, the specialists recognized the characteristics of landscape elements in accordance with the sensory experience of the landscape, and extracted the assessment indicators based on evaluation criteria for rural landscape resources of China [22].

In addition, the public-based samples were selected by Python v3.10 to collect UGC (user generated content) information from travel notes and comments (from 2017 to 2022) about Anyi ancient villages from six Chinese tourism E-journals, namely, Qunar “https://www.qunar.com”(accessed on 20 December 2022), Ctrip “http://www.ctrip.com”(accessed on 20 December 2022), Fliggy “https://www.fliggy.com”(accessed on 20 December 2022), Tuniu “https://www.tuniu.com”(accessed on 20 December 2022), Travel Go “https://www.ly.com”(accessed on 20 December 2022), and Ma-feng-wo “http://www.mafengwo.cn”(accessed on 20 December 2022) and Sina microblog (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter). There were 412 travel notes and microblogs, 14,833 comments, and 1627 photos posted in total. The recorded UGC text information was then converted into an ANSI-coded TXT file, and the text’s high-frequency terms, co-occurrence words, and social semantic network diagram were finally analyzed using ROSTCM v6.0 software [26].

In terms of data analysis techniques, the grounded theory constant comparative method was employed to make sense of how the public articulated their feelings about what they experienced [25]. The transcripts were initially coded line by line to identify core themes in users’ statements. Following that, focused coding created an even more systematic analysis and category of codes. In the process of thematic coding, categories were compared after thorough consideration of the data to create themes and subthemes. Then, Holsti’s reliability procedure was employed to check the reliability of the categories [27].

2.4. Analysis of Indicator Weights

The weights of all evaluation indicators were calculated to investigate the influence of multisensory dimensions on perceptual experience. The analysis followed the fuzzy Delphi method [28] to assign importance levels to the evaluation indicators on a 9-point scale. For example, as given in

Table 1. Pairwise comparison scale.

Scoring	Verbal Scale	Explanation
1	The equal importance of both elements	Two elements contribute equally
3	Moderate importance of one element over another	Experience and judgment favor one element over another
5	Strong importance of one element over another	An element is strongly favored
7	Very strong importance of one element over another	An element is strongly very dominant
9	The extreme importance of one element over another	An element is favored by at least an order of magnitude
2, 4, 6, 8	Intermediate values	Used to compromise between two judgments

, make a pairwise comparison of its subordinate indicators and give points according to their prominence [7]. Subsequently, the weights of indicators at all levels were determined with the analytic hierarchy procedure (AHP) [7] under the hierarchy structure model, as illustrated in Figure 3, and a consistency check was performed with yaahp v2.8 software [29].

3. Results

3.1. Expert-Based Indicators Extraction and Analysis

Landscape perception evaluation indicators of ancient villages based on expert judgment are obtained via field inquiry to depict characteristics of the Anyi ancient villages. A total of 35 evaluation indicators were then extracted after the selection of aesthetic objects, investigation of aesthetic perception, and refining of aesthetic qualities (

Table 2. Evaluation indicators selection based on experts.

Sense	Perception Objects	Characteristics of Perception Experience	Evaluation Indicators Extraction (35 in Total)
Visual	Geography	Terrain: is it rich and varied Geomorphology: degree of singularity and rarity	Terrain diversity, geomorphic peculiarity
	Construction and facilities	Overall: degree of style unity; degree of intact protection; traditionality (sense of historical age); the number of scales Layout: is it clever Modeling: unique characteristics; the degree of craftmanship Materials: whether there are regional characteristics Color: coordination of collocation Vignette: degree of finesse; beautiful degree Implication: the implication of architectural shape, color, and decorative pattern on the inheritance of traditional culture	Global consistency, protection integrity, long history, quantitative scale, layout ingenuity, modeling singularity, exquisite craftsmanship, material characteristic, color coordination, pattern exquisite degree, cultural inheritance degree
	Environment	Environment: cleanliness Landscape elements: richness	Cleanliness, landscape richness
	Water	Type: diversity, rarity	Type diversity, type rarity
	Plants	Overall: coverage rate; species diversity; seasonal variation diversity; hierarchy Color: diversity Collocation: coordination	Vegetation coverage, type diversity, seasonal variation, plant hierarchy, color diversity, collocative coordination
	Human activities	Appreciation (artistic), activation and inheritance (cultural)	Artistic appreciation, intangible cultural heritage inheritance degree
Auditory	Wind, water, and animals	Volume, harmony, fun, unique characteristics	Sound harmony, sound singularity
	Trader’s cry, sing songs, and musical instrument	Musical artistry; degree of cultural inheritance	Sound artistry, sound cultural attributes
Olfactory	Environment	Degree to which nostalgia is evoked; the degree to which empathy arises	Nostalgic empathy
	Food, snacks, and flows	Degree of aroma; the degree of attraction	Smell aromaticity, smell attraction
Taste	Food and snacks	Degree of green, ecological, and healthy; the degree of regional characteristics	Green and ecology, regional culture
Touch	Feeling in hands, feet, and body	Degree of visualization of texture and texture	Texture visualization

).

It is observed that vision dominates all senses and about 71.4% of evaluation indicators are provided by visual sense. Landscape assessment begins with an understanding of visual aesthetics, and people seem to rely more on visual senses than other sensory aspects. This is because people’s visual sense conveys the most information and communicates the most intuitive feelings to the viewer [30]. In this sense, the visual traits are strongly expressed in Anyi ancient villages. The winding arrangement of pavilions, platforms, and structures provides visitors with variable visual stimulation. Furthermore, using varied colors in the environment will prompt visitors to have various visual impressions and psychological hints. The mottled historic structures, for example, often remind people of profound cultural legacy and the vicissitudes of history. Another critical component influencing people’s visual feelings is the effect of light and shadow, which often induces powerful emotional thoughts in visitors. In terms of auditory sense, wind and rain, plant leaves, water, and other sounds are often employed in classical garden design to establish and set off the ambiance of the landscape experience. For example, the “Listen to the Rain” Pavilion and the “Stay and Listen” Pavilion in Suzhou Humble Administrator’s Garden of China are both well known for their soundscapes. When one hears a sound, he or she tends to assign meaning to it, even perceiving the physical characteristics of the source of the sound [31]. In this sense, the auditory experience engulfs one’s endless reverie and aids in reducing daily stress and tension.

Likewise, the touch experience often provides the experience with more authentic sensations [32]. Touching a water surface, for example, may detect cold and warm; touching flowers and plants can connect the four seasons, and touching historic structures can recollect the ups and downs of history. It has been proven that the impression created by smell lasts the longest in mind [33]. Distinct scents have different impacts on the experimenter’s physiology and psychology. A particular fragrance may evoke emotions deep in people’s memories, such as a loving grandmother’s recollection or the aftertaste of sweet love. Plant, wet soil, and fruit fragrances are so profoundly engraved in our minds that I can smell freshly mowed grass after typing this line. In addition, taste sense and garden landscape appreciation are inextricably linked. Garden landscape taste stimulation is realized through a combination of experience behaviors and eating activities in a specific landscape environment [34]. Tasting plum wine under the plum tree, moon cakes on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and unique local rural dishes in the ancient village, for example, are all easy ways to lift people’s spirits and emotions.

3.2. Public-Based Indicators Extraction and Analysis

3.2.1. High-Frequency Keywords Analysis

Table 3. Top 100 high-frequency terms.

HF Words	Freq.	HF Words	Freq.	HF Words	Freq.	HF Words	Freq.
Rural community	240	Suitable	57	Satisfaction	36	Old people	25
Scenic spot	219	Play	55	Protection	35	Ming and Qing dynasty	25
Tradition	182	Residence	54	Countryside	35	Online	25
Convenience	155	Ancient building	53	Eating	34	Develop	25
Scenic area	141	Whole	53	Taste	34	Residences	25
Local	124	Environment	51	Cheap	34	Ancient village	25
Culture	108	Feeling	51	Choice	34	On the road	24
Millennia	103	Air	48	Facilities	34	Mileage	24
Policy	88	View	48	Old trees	32	Free range eggs	23
Feature	83	Ancient	48	Gateway	32	Enjoy	23
History	83	Preserve	48	Past	32	Fresh	23
Deserved	78	Simplicity	43	Snacks	31	Big tree	23
Tickets	77	Farmland	43	Breath	31	Spectacular	22
Scenery	74	Pool	42	Insufficient	30	Driving	22
Village	71	Beautiful	41	Next	30	Delicious	22
Worth	69	Time	41	Weather	30	Railway station	22
Friend	69	Local delicacy	41	Recommendation	30	Antique	22
Heritage	68	Traffic	41	Service	29	Overall	22
Happiness	67	Amusement	40	Weekend	28	Season	22
House	67	Hamlet	40	Village entrance	28	Appreciate	21
Buildings	65	Walk	40	Tourist	27	Joyful	21
Timesaving	63	Interesting	40	Local	27	Ticket price	21
Tour	63	Villager	38	Experience	27	Ancient path	21
Area	62	Quiet	37	Guide	26	Ancient well	21
Ancient town	61	In village	37	Children	26	Reserve	21

lists the top 100 high-frequency terms in decreasing order. Existing research has shown that the high-frequency words may serve as an essential indicator of preference ratings, reflecting the relevance of characteristics and values [24]. Furthermore, it can be seen from the high-frequency words that the people mostly employ objective terms to characterize their cognitive experience of multisensory interaction.

In this research, the Word Segmentation and Net Draw technologies in ROSTCM v6.0 software were applied to visually construct the co-occurrence network structure of high-frequency terms in order to further investigate the association between keywords and subjective experiences, as shown in Figure 4. The words at the heart of the network are used most frequently among the 412 trip posts, while comments on the network’s perimeter express the response and experiences related to the Anyi ancient villages.

3.2.2. Process of the Public Indicators Representation Based on Grounded Theory

Based on the high-frequency words in Table 3 and the co-word network in Figure 4, a total of 476 valid public samples were screened. Using grounded theory (three-stage coding) to conceptualize and categorize the samples, and constructing the analysis category for the research subject, that is, seeking the core concepts that reflect the essence of factors and phenomena based on systematically collecting the original data without any premise and hypothesis, the core category was constructed through the relationship among concepts, as shown in

Table 4. The process of refining categories of public perception (examples).

Sample Fragment	Initial Coding (Open Coding)	Focused Coding (Axial Coding)	Thematic Coding (Selective Coding)
The thousand-year-old ancient village, mainly built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties…	Millennium; Ancient Villages; Ming and Qing Dynasties; construction predominated	Long history; grand scale; Ming and Qing Dynasties; construction predominated	Architecture: a sense of age, scale, and volume
It is said that the site of the village was chosen by ancestors who fled here…	Village; ancestors; fled	Distribution pattern; humanity’s history	Overall layout: a sense of order, narrative, and cultural
There is a lotus pond in the village…	Lotus; pond	Water plants; water landscape	Landscape type: diversity
There are beautiful yellow rape flowers in the village…	Yellow; beautiful; rape flower	Beautiful color; ornamental plants	Plant color: diversity
The quaint buildings have a charm, and the reconstructed buildings seem inferior…	Quaint; ancient building; reconstructed buildings seem inferior	Iconic building; the importance of conservation	Landmark building: conservation integrity
Country-style cuisine is delicious. I ate special fried fish…	Meal delicious; special fried fish	Delicious dishes; feature snacks	Taste experience: the degree of delicacy and regional characteristics
The ancient tree is said to have symbolic significance…	Ancient tree; symbolic significance	Ancient and famous trees; special meaning	Ancient and famous trees: age, quantity, meaning
The decorative stone carvings on the gates of residential houses are so exquisite…	Gates; decoration; exquisite stone carving	Building decoration; exquisite	Building decoration: delicacy and exquisiteness
The path is full of bumps and hollows. We picked peaches and bought a lot of goodies…	Path; bumps and hollows; pick peaches; goodies	Tactile texture; picking experience; eating experience	Tactile and taste experience: participation in landscape
The sounds of birds and frogs remind me of my childhood…	Birds and frogs; birdsong and croak; a recollection of childhood	Birds chirping; stimulate nostalgia	Auditory experience: nostalgic and associative

. It is worthy to note that the established category system must satisfy the requirements of reliability, mutual exclusion, and completeness simultaneously to ensure that all high-frequency words can be found corresponding in the category system, and that all high-frequency words can be found corresponding in the category system [25].

3.2.3. Reliability Check of the Categories

As shown in

Table 5. The reliability of the categories. (Hybridity—indicator that contains broad properties; Overlap—indicator that coincides with expert’s; Supplement—indicator that should be included in assessment system).

Category	Reliability	Indicator	Category	Reliability	Indicator
Tourist experience	0.961	(Hybridity)	Environmental Vision	0.929	Visual visibility (Supplement)
Large scale	0.95	(Overlap)	Landscape diversity	0.963	(Overlap)
Traditional culture	0.944	(Hybridity)	Well preserved	0.955	(Overlap)
Rational layout	0.896	(Overlap)	Ancient and famous trees	0.94	Ancient trees (Supplement)
Landmark building	0.945	Landmark scale (Supplement)	Cultural inheritance	0.926	(Hybridity)
Long history	0.946	(Overlap)	Road texture	0.849	Texture distinctness (Supplement)
Multicolored	0.875	(Overlap)	Clean Air	0.937	Physical comfort (Supplement)
Excellent decorated	0.934	(Overlap)	Food experiences	0.956	Food delicacy (Supplement)
Good moral	0.891	(Synthesis)	Countryside interest	0.952	Rural fun (Supplement)
Hydrophilic participation	0.8	Hydrophilic Participation (Supplement)	Folk art performance	0.881	(Overlap)
Water clarity	0.856	Water clarity (Supplement)	Nostalgic association	0.861	Trigger imagination (Supplement)
Environmental coordination	0.803	Rustic sense (Supplement)

, the 23 perceptual categories were extracted that the public has given more attention to and were included in the public assessment indicators. The Holsti’s reliability procedure was then used to check the reliability of the categories, and the average reliability is 0.9135, with all themes more than 0.8, showing the credibility of assessment indicators based on the public that were surveyed for this research [27].

3.3. Weight Calculation and Visualization of Assessment Indicators

After a thorough examination of experts and the public indicators, and removing categories unrelated to the study topic such as policy, population, and economics, 46 assessment indicators from D1101 to D5104 were eventually included in the assessment of landscape quality. There are 35 indicators from the specialist and 11 indicators from the public.

Figure 5 visualizes the indicator contribution from two adjacent layers with a Sankey diagram, in which the size of the bar corresponds to the weight of the indicator. In terms of hierarchy, overall, it is clear from the illustration of the Sankey diagram that there is a comparable hierarchical response with respect to the five senses. It is clear from Figure 5 that visual perception still dominates in the subtarget layer in this investigation (57.35%), which conforms to the results of other studies [16]. The other sensory experiences are hearing (21.52%), smell (12.05%), taste (5.53%), and touch (3.56%).

Moreover, the results found that out of all the characteristic indicators, 11 indicators, such as D1206: Landmark scale, D1302: Rustic sense, D1303: Visual visibility, D1404: Interactivity, D1403: Water clarity, D1507: Ancient trees, D3202: Rural fun, D4103: Food delicacy, D5102: Texture distinctness, D5103: Trigger imagination, and D5104: Physical comfort, were generated from the big data of “public perspective”. These indicators are closely related to the most direct perception of the human body, and easily obtained through observation or somatosensory means. Notably, as many as five of the eleven items were re-extracted from nonvisual experiences, clearly indicating that the public is concerned not only with direct perception but also with the combined effects of nonvisual senses. Therefore, in the context of resource conservation, landscape resources that do not need to be processed or less processed by thinking and experience are particularly important in protecting the aesthetic value of ancient villages.

In addition, it is evident that indicators related to regional air, water source, and temperatures (humidity), such as D1303 Visual visibility, D1403 Water clarity, and D5104 Physical comfort, have been widely valued by the user, reflecting the close relationship between aesthetic perception and environmental protection. At the same time, the research also found up to five duplicate indications (public-based vs. expert-based) in the criteria C12: buildings and facilities, which are D1202: Protection integrity, D1203: Long history, D1204: Quantitative scale, D1205: Layout ingenuity, and D1211: Beautiful pattern. These indicators cover nearly all the aspects of C12. This phenomenon demonstrates the significance of architectural and facility criteria in the landscape resources of ancient villages, as well as the concentrated embodiment of the aesthetic value. Likewise, Landscape richness (D1304) in criteria C13: Environment; Color diversity (D1505) in criteria C15: Vegetation; and Artistic appreciation (D1601) in criteria C16: Human activities, are also common concerns in the two perspectives. These findings indicate that in the study of aesthetic perception of ancient villages, a colorful natural environment and magnificent cultural activities can attract the attention of various groups, which is equally essential in the development and conservation of ancient villages and should be given priority.

By way of contrast, it is shown that the four visual experience items C12, C13, C14, and C15 all include more than four characteristic indicators. Significantly, the fact that the C12 and C15 involve up to 12 and 7 indications, respectively, ranking first and second overall and accounting for 41% of all indicators, illustrates the substance of their influence on individual preference perception.

3.4. Indications with High-Level Influencing Sensory Perception of CES

3.4.1. Indicators of Visual Experience

Figure 5 shows that the three visual landscape elements of C11, C12, and C13 contribute greatly to the visual experience. More specifically, topography may influence people’s perception of space and vision, as well as the regional microclimate and the functional structure of the land [35]. Therefore, C11 can be regarded as the visual element that directly influences the aesthetic perception of ancient villages’ interior and exterior environments. The buildings and facilities of C12 illustrate the crystallization of human civilization and include rich cultural resources. Historically, they have experienced the succession of dynasties, witnessed the changes in history, and reflected the distinctive folk customs. In this sense, it is an unrenewable and irreplaceable historical and cultural treasure that distinguishes ancient communities from other usual villages.

Within the C12 criterion, the sequence of the weight values of the 12 indicators from high to low follow: D1201: Unity, D1202: Protection integrity, D1203: Long history, D1204: Quantity scale, D1205: Layout ingenuity, D1206: Landmark scale, D1207: Peculiar shape, D1208: Exquisite workmanship, D1209: Material characteristic, D1210: Color coordination, D1211: Beautiful pattern, and D1212: Cultural inheritance (Figure 6). This ranking demonstrates that people prefer the instinctive formal beauty of unity and integrity, followed by a sense of time and place such as age and size, and then the specifics of arrangement, shape, workmanship, materials, and colors. It is worth mentioning that the weight value of indicator D1206 is 0.0105, which surpasses 52% of the characteristic indicators, indicating the critical position of landmark buildings in preference perception. This is because landmark buildings are often located in prominent places and have distinctive shapes. In addition, they are a full reflection of an ancient village’s evolution, symbolize the village’s overall attributes, and may be remembered and preached as a public sign. As a result, landmark buildings serve as an aesthetic card in developing and protecting ancient villages, and attention should pay to their publicity, protection, and image creation.

Likewise, the sequence of the weighted values of the seven indicators within the C15 criterion from high to low follow: D1501: Plant coverage, D1502: Species diversity, D1503: Seasons change, D1504: Plant hierarchy, D1505: Color diversity, D1506: Collocative coordination, and D1507: Ancient trees. It would suggest that plant coverage is a significant predictor of people’s perceived preferences. In other words, once vegetation coverage reaches a certain level, it can better draw users’ attention. At that point, people’s aesthetic preferences will focus on the overall changes in plant communities, such as species, time and space, color, etc. Therefore, it is suggested that special attention should given to the combination of evergreen and deciduous; broadleaved; and coniferous; and tree, shrub, and grass communities on the premise of retaining the original plant covering while conserving and maintaining ancient village landscape resources. In this context, it is important to focus on the collocation of different ornamental types of plants such as leaves, flowers, and fruits. Apart from that, the various layers of plant structure, such as the horizontal canopy closure, vertical canopy closure, and sparse and open types, should also be considered. It worth to noting that D1505: Ancient trees, like landmark buildings, are also the symbol of ancient villages, and the only characteristic indicator from the perspective of the general public within the C15 criterion. The appearance of these historical relics is likely to significantly activate people’s patriotism and national consciousness, which is also the primary cause for the effect of public perception preferences.

3.4.2. Indicators of Nonvisual Experience

Regarding the nonvisual senses, indicator D2101: Sound harmony (0.1412) is only second to the visual indicator D1101(0.1810) in terms of weight, as outlined in Figure 6. It is confirmed that people seem to be more sensitive to their auditory preferences, and that harmonious sounds are related to peace and comfort, which may help to enhance people’s perception preferences. Additionally, within the olfactory perception, the weight value of characteristic indicator D3101: Nostalgic empathy (0.0878) ranks third and has the most potential influence on personal perception preferences. This is attributed to the solid historical flavor of ancient buildings. What seems to happen is that olfactory perception creates a dynamic and reproducible landscape image known as the smellscape. A smell can be the potential to guide people across time and space and locate them in memory, that is, the perception of smellscape is discontinuous, fragmented in space, and accidental in time. But so far, strangely, no one seems to understand how the brain finally processes and expresses these smells [31]. Still, smells have been shown to have a significant impact on the way the brain recalls memories. Moreover, the findings of this paper also suggest that it is essential to evoke the atmosphere of cultural heritage actively.

Furthermore, in terms of cognitive demands for the foodscape, indicators such as D4101: Green and ecology, D4102: Regional culture, and D4103: Food delicacy are the focus of attention, and people construct the memory space through various related physical practices and ritual customs. In touch experiences, the top two most often mentioned are D5101: Texture image (0.0199) and D5102: Texture distinctness (0.0094), which are regarded as the most memorable experience by the visitors. As early as the fourth century BC, Aristotle proposed in his theory of perception that touch is the first of the five senses in a hierarchical order, with the other senses adding to the sensitivity of touch perception [31]. Accordingly, touch can present an actual image of the inherent essence of the things; thus, the mottled appearance of the ancient villages would be indicative of the characteristics of their long history and culture.

4. Discussion

This study proposed a hierarchical framework of multisensory indicators for the evaluation of cultural heritage within an ecosystem services context. The results show that the value significance of cultural landscapes for people’s welfare is potentially large, and the developed framework can capture such complex values. In addition, there were strong indications that the senses are the initial physical channel via which the experience process takes place, and all feelings are essential in perception experience, but not equally so. By comparison, the vision has the strongest sensory impression, whereas the touch experience has the weakest. Key findings in this case study demonstrated that the perceptual indicators developed are not only conducive to the scientific assessment of ecosystem service value, but also to the protection and quality evaluation of cultural landscape resources.

4.1. General Perception Experience Findings of CES in Ancient Village Landscapes

In the field of general perception experience in ancient village landscapes, the visual sense ranked first, highlighting the significance of visual perception in landscape perception evaluation, which is consistent with the conclusion of Agapito [16]. Obviously, human visual perception is the straightforward of the five senses to acquire environmental information, while strengthening the visual impact of the landscape would undoubtedly enhance the sensory experience of users [30]. By comparison, touch experience came in last, which also validates the existing research conclusion from Chen [36]. Considering that some touch values can be recognized without even touching experience, tactile qualities are often difficult to understand [16]. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrated there are some landscape elements, such as ancient buildings, old facilities, brick, and stone, which were in fact better appreciated by tactile sensory.

This study shows that hearing is second only to vision in the impact of public perception experience. It is confirmed that people seem to be more sensitive to their auditory preferences, and that harmonious sounds are related to peace and comfort, which may help to enhance people’s perception preferences. In Chinese classical garden design, the sounds made by wind, rain, plant leaves, water, etc., are frequently employed to create artistic conception. For example, the “Listen to the Rain” Pavilion and the “Stay and Listen” Pavilion in Suzhou Humble Administrator’s Garden are both famous for their soundscapes [7]. According to research conducted by the Natural Healing Program in Sweden, natural sounds play an active role in healing, assisting persons suffering from stress-related mental diseases to achieve better recovery effects. Sound has an influence on a person’s experience and behavior in sensory perception, and it may play a different function in a healing environment, which can favorably enhance the recovery process [19].

Furthermore, among respondents, olfactory experience was a factor that influenced people’s perceptual preferences. The smell of old woods was highly praised by respondents, which would be attributed to the strong historical flavor of ancient buildings. Taylor [37] argued that the impression brought by olfactory sensory lasts the longest in memory. Different odor stimuli have different effects on the physiology and psychology of the experimenter, and a particular smell can evoke emotions deep in people’s memory, such as the memory of a history or the aftertaste of a traditional culture.

Concerning taste perception, the overall trend in emotional responses to the tastescape was proved to be positive [38]. Our research findings also support this viewpoint, as the original ecology and regional cultural attributes of food are of great concern to people. People’s taste experiences have an association to the overall effects of other senses, and a tasty flavor experience has a significant promoting effect on positive perception of the surroundings. Furthermore, taste perception and garden landscape enjoyment are inextricably linked. Taste stimulation is easier produced by a mix of experience behaviors and dining activities in a specific landscape context [20].

The results of the analysis also indicated that five senses are closely related to the natural and geographical aspects of the landscape, and to the unique historical and cultural components. Some of those elements are rich in inspiring multiple senses at the same time, such as ancient architectural communities related to vision, smell, hearing, and touch, as well as local food associated with smell and taste, and water referred to hearing and touch, while opera performances and the hawking sound stand out due to auditory experience.

4.2. Values of Multisensory Landscape Experience in Assessment and Decision-Making

Long-term interactions between humans and nature have created unique cultural landscapes that are well recognized for delivering significant ecosystem services [37]. The different landscape experiences that individuals have are an essential aspect of this cultural ecosystem service. It is vital to comprehend how nature benefits society and why people appreciate ecosystem contributions to human well-being.

Many studies have shown that the experience people receive from the landscape is an important part of cultural ecosystem services, which are widely acknowledged as being of great importance but frequently disregarded in landscape assessment research and decision-making [7]. A hierarchical framework of multisensory indicators is proposed for the evaluation of China’s cultural heritage within an ecosystem services context. The advancement of this methodology is found in paying greater attention to the public’s own views on landscape experience, rather than only expert judgments. This does not mean that the opinions of specialists are unimportant for landscape perception evaluation; rather, we assume that human’s perceived experience for landscapes has not been well investigated and evaluated.

Our results show that the ancient village landscape provides rich CES for the user, and it is of great significance for landscape planning to measure it from the perspective of public perception. The ancient village landscape offers a range of aesthetic characteristics that may be perceived through vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The sensory experience of the landscape connects diverse groups’ understanding and perception of CES [39]. In this study, terms of diversity, historicity, and imaginability are the characteristics of positive perception, which are closely related to the elements of historical buildings, heritage buildings, historical sites, and cultural sites of ancient villages [40]. Our findings emphasize the importance of heritage architecture and heritage culture in providing a historical background for CES in the region, while ancient architectural complexes, historical culture, and ancient trees are considered important factors in providing diversity and imagination [41]. Understanding people’s perception preferences in landscape planning and decision-making is therefore valuable in maintaining landscape hotspots and developing regional culture in accordance with local conditions.

Furthermore, some research supports the view that society’s perception preferences for landscape environment and culture play a significant role in forming and supporting the value of ecosystem services [10,39]. In terms of awareness of the positive perception of landscape environment, the comprehensive effect of physiological and psychological response to the sensory experience is supposed to be comfortable. As a result, in landscape management and decision-making, people should be more concerned about the coordinated relationship between stakeholders’ perceptions of the surroundings, with the goal of creating a multisensory environmental space and improving people’s participation and comfort in the landscape experience.

4.3. Limitations and Suggestions

It has been challenging to conduct quantitative assessment for CES due to the subjectivity and nonconsumptive nature of their creation and acquisition [10]. This study illustrates the possible connections between visitors’ multisensory perception, behavioral experience, and landscape preference in the cultural landscape of the ancient village, and provides a new concept for landscape perception evaluation within the context of CES.

Compared with studies of landscape perception evaluation using photographs, the proposed framework with objectively assessable indicators eliminates possible bias and professional incompetence in acquiring and selecting photographs. However, the results and methodology still have limitations. First, the extraction of evaluation indexes did not consider the influence of climate, weather, and surrounding environment of ancient villages on a macro scale. Second, it is unable to collect users’ social information such as gender, age, occupation, and education due to privacy protection; therefore, this study does not fully explore the influence of these factors on CES perception. Moreover, there insufficient survey samples in the public statistics for elders, kids, and persons with impairments. Online platforms are accessible, yet most users are youthful and middle-aged in China [42]. Further studies could be carried out in conjunction with negative experiences for sensory perception such as unsightly scenery, uncomfortable noise, and unpleasant smell. Additionally, it is suggested to integrate multisource data and methods, such as combining online review data with questionnaire survey methods [7], to supplement the perception data from elders, children, and other groups who do not often post online comments.

5. Conclusions

The major findings of the study emphasize how landscape experience may add more cultural heritage value to the evaluation of the cultural landscape. Furthermore, the results also demonstrate the magnitude and worth of landscape experiences, as well as a possible link between public multisensory perception, behavioral experience, and landscape preference.

These results reveal that visual stimulation is the greatest in ancient village landscapes, which is consistent with general research conclusions. Following sensory perception is hearing, smell, and taste, while touch perception is the weakest. In addition, ancient buildings and ancient infrastructure such as wells, old trees, and traditional culture are the ones that people tend to focus on, and these landscape elements also best convey the value of CES in ancient villages. It is worth mentioning here that although visual perception dominates in the landscape experience of ancient villages, its contribution (57.36%) is smaller than that reported in previous surveys [24,30,36,42]. This is because the historical relics of ancient villages are the core landscape elements carrying CES, and the proportion of nonvisual perception elements is higher than that for general urban or forest landscapes, as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6.

Nonetheless, our study also has some limitations, such as insufficient sample coverage, a lack of participants’ personal information, and a failure to consider negative perceptions, which require further investigation and detailed exploration in future research. In conclusion, it is believed that this study can help to improve the integration of cultural heritage values in decision-making processes and serve as a reference for the creation of more objective and evaluable indicators for other CES.