Seeking references about validity of Visual Preference Survey methodology

Factual Questions
1

Howdy. I keep reading about visual preference surveys as a survey method. (An example is at whatmichiganwants.com) I’ve googled and may have missed what I’m looking for. Unfortunately, I really don’t have access to academic research like through the jstor database.

Can anybody point some research or papers or whatnot regarding the validity of this methodology? That’d be a big help. Thanks.

2

I’m sorry I don’t have any pointers on the validity of Visual Preference Surveys, but I wanted to let you know that this is becoming a popular common tool for environmental planning purposes. Through my work, I know two municipal agencies and one other joint agency effort that have used VPS to engage the public and find out what they like/dislike in things like parks, open space, urban planning, proposed projects that have beneficial/detrimental environmental impacts.

I don’t know if you can contact them about the methodology of VPS’s, but here’s the company that one of the agencies I know used; they’ve done VPS and public polling for various purposes, such as to gauge whether there will be enough public support for a ballot measure:
Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates

3

I never got around to emailing the firm linked to above. I did email the firm that trademarked “Visual Preference Survey” and received no reply. I emailed the lead researcher from the What Michigan Wants survey and he told me that visual surveys, the non-trademarked term, is for educational purposes rather than research. I replied, asking why his methods were educational yet his report included phrases like “research hypothesis.” I haven’t heard back. I’ve emailed Campoli, half of the writing duo that put out two working papers for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy where they present a catalogue of images varying by density to be used in visual surveys. I haven’t heard back. Finally, I’ve emailed the director of the Univ. of Wyoming’s Survey Research Center. That was Friday. I’m curious whether he’ll respond.

All-in-all, I’ve found zilch. That, and I’m forgetful about emailing the firm linked to above.