Scenic Beauty Evaluation of Forests with Autumn-Colored Leaves from Aerial and Ground Perspectives: A Case Study in Qixia Mountain in Nanjing, China

In recent years, on-site visitation has been strictly restricted in many scenic areas due to the global spread of COVID-19 pandemic. “Cloud tourism”, also called online travel, uses high-resolution photographs taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as dominant data source and attracted much attention. Due differences between ground observation perspectives, landscape elements that affect beauty colored-leaved forests are quite different. this paper, Qixia National Forest Park Nanjing, China, was chosen case study area, best viewpoints were selected combining tourists’ preferred viewing routes with a field survey, followed evaluation (SBE) autumn-colored leaves 2021 from perspectives. The results show (1) can be obtained through spatial overlay five factors: elevation, surface runoff, slope, aspect, distance road; (2) factors influencing perspective terrain changes, forest coverage, composition, contrast, condition human landscape, recreation frequency; (3) is strongly influenced average diameter at breast height (DBH), color leaves, ratio tree species, canopy width, fallen leaf coverage. research provide scientific reference for creation management measures leaves.