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This paper addresses questions of affective responses of residents of rural Arizona to changes in proximate community and riparian landscapes and the congruence of their perceptions of change with physical measures of change in those landscapes. Based on findings and concepts from previous studies, perceptions of change were assessed using a mail survey. Physical measures of land use and vegetation change were obtained from aerial photography for two points in time spanning approximately 13 years and were analyzed using a geographic information system. Significant differences were found in perceptions of change in the community and riparian landscapes. In contrast with previous findings, a majority of respondents found the changes as either improving or having no effect on landscape quality. Those who were more frequent users of the riparian landscape tended to be more aware of changes in it. The findings also suggest challenges for planners and resource managers working in rural areas adjacent to riparian landscapes.Environmental designers and planners are agents of environmental change. There has been little systematic investigation, however, of how the users of such changed environments perceive and respond to these planned changes ). There has been even less attention paid to the perceptions of and responses to the seemingly unplanned, incremental, sometimes disjointed, and frequently rapid changes associated with the conversion of rural agricultural, grazing, and wooded landscapes to rural suburban landscapes. These changes are frequently preceded by the cessation of farming and the apparent transformation of farmlands to seemingly natural areas.This paper begins to explore perceptions of change in rural landscapes. It is based on data from one of a series of studies that span approximately eight years, each of which addressed--among a number of questions-how residents of Arizona perceive and/or respond to changes in the landscape.

/ Not all landscapes are equal; they vary in noncommodity and commodity values. Landscapes that are endowed with the full range of values challenge managers to balance competing demands of special interest groups. Within desert areas, riparian landscapes most frequently encompass this full range of values and have been subjected to competing demands and conflicting uses for centuries. This article reports on a mail survey of the perceptions, attitudes, and opinions of the general public and special interest groups toward a riparian landscape in the Sonoran Desert. A specific point of inquiry is the relative position of professional resource managers compared with other groups on issues such as land use planning, appropriate management prescriptions, and appropriate land uses adjacent to riparian areas. Discriminant analysis of response data reveals significant differences among several special interest groups and the general public, and identifies an important challenge for the managers who are more aware of the fragility of arid lands and riparian ecosystems, and of threats to their continued productivity posed by rapid urban expansion.

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