Cues to care: A systematic analytical review

Placing environmentally beneficial elements into human-dominated landscapes can be challenging if the resulting landscape appearance does not align with cultural values. To address this challenge, Nassauer introduced cues to care (CTC) as landscape elements for design, and, in three foundational papers, she developed theories to explicate mechanisms of their potential social and environmental effects. These underlying perceptual, cultural, and social mechanisms are immediate recognizability, communication of caring human intention or presence, and a consistency with local cultural traditions or social norms for landscape appearance. To identify trends and opportunities in CTC scholarship and implementation, we examine relationships among CTC and their mechanisms by reviewing literature citing any of the three foundational papers. We note: 1) what CTC were identified, and 2) which of the three underlying mechanisms were described. Our analysis shows that first, many more papers include CTC as landscape elements than examine their underlying mechanisms; second, CTC and their mechanisms are interpreted with different emphases across study topics that are loosely associated with disciplines; and finally, land use/landcover (LULC) contexts influence choices of CTC. These differences suggest that greater consideration of mechanisms of CTC in scholarship could enhance their effectiveness in design and management. We discuss the related potential for CTC to be used as boundary objects for communication among disciplines, practitioners, and stakeholders - specific to locales and applications. With this more critical perspective on their use, CTC could become more effective in providing cultural ecosystem services and protecting ecosystem services more broadly.