Landscape quality assessments using deep learning

Summary

Landscapes are an ever-present aspect of life, and whether for daily living or for relaxation, the qualities of landscapes influence the individuals that use them. They are important contributors to the health and well-being of humans and provide a number of important ecosystem services. Therefore, there is a need to map the qualities of our landscapes. Landscape qualities can be studied visually through photographs, with the help of AI models. Research performed in this thesis focuses on making assessments more broadly accessible, and easier to use. It introduces interpretability methods which make models easier to understand, tests methods for modelling using only a handful of examples, and studied methods which make use of multiple information sources to provide new insights and new ways of mapping and exploring landscape qualities.