Beyond scenic views

Abstract

Visual landscape research on heritage landscapes has expanded rapidly since 1995, yet its themes, study objects, and methods remain dispersed across disciplinary traditions. This review synthesizes 203 peer-reviewed studies published between 1995 and 2025 using a three-layered analytical framework that combines thematic coding, VOSviewer-based keyword co-occurrence analysis, and exploratory cross-dimensional Sankey mapping. Thematic coding shows that the field is concentrated around analysis/evaluation and management/conservation themes, with study objects dominated by formally recognized and spatially bounded heritage landscapes and methods centered on perception-based empirical approaches, GIS-based analysis, digital documentation, mixed methods, and multi-criteria evaluation. Keyword co-occurrence and cross-dimensional mapping further show that these distributions are organized through recurring but uneven theme–object–method associations. Three gaps are especially evident: perceptual and spatial evidence are often weakly coupled; less formalized, everyday, hybrid, and cross-scalar heritage landscapes remain underrepresented; and visual evidence is inconsistently translated into assessment, planning, and management contexts. Based on these findings, the review develops a review-derived organizing synthesis that relates research themes, heritage landscape types and scales, and methodological approaches. This synthesis clarifies the current structure of visual heritage landscape research, identifies underexplored intersections, and provides a basis for more transparent comparison and future empirical work.