This book is an outcome of the Visual Values Workshop in 1982. It presents the ongoing research on state-of-the-art techniques and applications to address the human perception of changes in visual aesthetic resources and to assign psychological, social, and economic measures of value to visitors.

Foreword -- Preface -- Introduction -- Defining the Experience -- Defining the Recreation Experience -- Shaping the Visual Experience: Historic Origins of Wilderness and Desert Aesthetic -- Interpretation and Visitor Values -- Measuring Visual Perceptions -- Human Perception of Visual Air Quality (Layered Haze) -- Effects of Visual Range on the Beauty of National Parks and Wilderness Area Vistas -- Implications of NCAR's Urban Visual Air Quality Assessment Method for Pristine Areas -- Psychophysics, Visibility, and Perceived Atmospheric Transparency -- Visual Resource Management Systems -- The Bureau of Land Management's Visual Resource Management System -- Assessing the Reliability, Validity and Generalizability of Observer-Based Visual Impact Assessment Methods for the Western United States -- Objective Evaluation of Visual Values -- Social and Psychological Approaches to Value Assessment -- A Role Theoretic Analysis of Scenic Quality Judgments -- Visual Air Quality Values: Public Input and Informed Choice -- Social Research Methods for Public Land Managers -- An Examination of Methodologies for Assessing the Value of Visibility -- Two Examples of Psychological Assessment of Visual Values -- Assessing the Effect of Visual Air Quality Degradation on Visitor Enjoyment -- Potential Contributions of Canonical Analysis to Visual Value Research -- Altering the Visual Quality of a Recreation Resource and Activity Displacement -- Economic Approaches to Value Assessment -- The Value to Visitors of Improving Visibility at Mesa Verde and Great Smoky National Parks -- Economic Valuation of Potential Scenic Degradation at Bryce Canyon National Park -- Priorities for Economic Analysis of Visibility Values -- Existence and Bequest Value -- Existence Value in a Total Valuation Framework -- Unrevealed Extramarket Values: Values Outside the Normal Range of Consumer Choices -- Management Perspectives and Case Studies -- Managing Our Visual Resources -- The Importance of Visibility P