A Landscape Evaluation For Plant Communities In Several Urban Parks In Wuhan

Several urban parks had been selected as research parks distributed in Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou. After plots being set in32representative communities, each species in a plot was investigated, for instance, the species composition, vertical layer structure, community type, and ornamental characteristics and so on, then photos were taken as well.The coordination of the landscape and the structure of a community were evaluated by means of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and in order to do this work, an evaluation system was set up. First, evaluation indice were selected, then score criteria were determined; then, each index weight was calculated; at last the coordination of the landscape and the structure of a community was evaluated.With method of Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) the scenic beauty value was judged for a plant community. Each plant community photo was scored by non professional and professional judgment persons, after all photo scores standardized, then the scenic beauty value was calculated. For the last step, several representative communities were taken as examples, a community were analyzed from the landscape and the structure coordination aspects. From researcher, following results were obtained:There were76species, which was belonged to65genera in48families in32communities. The main vertical structure community type was "arbor-shrub-herb", and the main community types were broadleaved evergreen and broad leaved deciduous mixed forest and broadleaved evergreen mixed forest.For the community coordination evaluation of the landscape and the structure, the number of I grade and Ⅳ grade were2and3, respectively. The rest were II grade and III grade, about84%. This showed that the community coordination was in mid level for communities of urban parks in Wuhan.Although the difference among different judgment persons for scores given to a community photo, the scenic beauty value for different judgment persons was in consistency. With high scenic beauty value, plant community of plot#2in Guqintai Park and plant community of plot#5in Zhongshan Park were very popular. Although there were difference between AHP and SBE, the results of two methods showed consistency. Because both AHP and SBE can be used to evaluate the quantity of a community independent, with AHP and SBE a community can be evaluated and analyzed, and some suggestions can be given for improvement or rebuilt.