Zu, Jiang, and Zhao evaluated preferences for landscapes that varied by season. They report that “Seasonality is a typical feature of landscapes in temperate regions. Seasonality’s effects on visual aesthetic quality (VAQ) are widely recognised but not well understood. . . . 10 sample sites were selected to represent the diversity of urban green spaces in Xuzhou, eastern China, which has a typical temperate monsoon climate. Photographs of the 10 sites were acquired in eight typical months to capture seasonality. Online surveys were used to evaluate the VAQ of the photographs. . . . The results indicated that: (1) the autumn landscape was the most preferred, and the winter landscape was the least preferred; (2) there was a significantly inverted U-shaped relationship between year-round VAQ and seasonal diversity.”
Wenyan Zu, Bin Jiang, and Jingwei Zhao. 2022. “Effects of Seasonality on Visual Aesthetic Preference.” Landscape Research, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 388-399, https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2022.2039110