COMPLEXITY AS A DETERMINANT OF PREFERENCE AND A PREDICTOR OF PARK VISITATIONS

Sa？etak This paper critically questions the way landscape complexity is defined and the dimensions of its assessment. Its goal is to help develop a more sophisticated assessment of the levels of landscape complexity and to define basic groups of indicators to determine what could be considered as the “optimal degree of complexity”. The research combined three methods: the observational method, the counting method and survey research. The conducted research shows that the state of high complexity is more optimal than the state of intermediate or low complexity in the design of parks for recreational use. The results have also shown that to fully evaluate complexity it is necessary to take into consideration both the visual and functional indicators of the complexity of parks as well as some of their dynamic dimensions