ABSTRACT
The natural landscape is an indeterminate object; it almost always contains enough diversity to allow great liberty in selecting, emphasizing, and grouping its elements, and it is furthermore rich in suggestion and in vague emotional stimulus. Natural landscapes are indeterminate and promiscuous. There is no parallel problem concerning appreciation of art. With traditional works of art people typically know both what and how to appropriately aesthetically appreciate. Nature is not art and it is not people's creation. Rather it is the whole natural environment, the natural world. It surrounds people and confronts them, in Santayana's words, indeterminately and promiscuously, rich in diversity, suggestion, and stimulus. Various art-based models of appreciation have often been accepted as the basis for deciding what and how to aesthetically appreciate in nature. Natural Environmental Model (NEM) acknowledges Santayana's assessment of natural environments as indeterminate and promiscuous, so rich in diversity, suggestion, and vague stimulus that they must be composed to be appreciated.
