Awareness Level of Environmental Aesthetics on KNUST Campus, Kumasi, Ghana: A Descriptive Account

Abstract

An interest in the aesthetics of the environment is part of a broader response to environmental problems, and creating public awareness is a pragmatic positive action towards environmental issues. The purpose of this paper is to find the level of awareness and perception of the beauty of the natural as well as the built environments of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) campus, Kumasi, Ghana, aimed at promoting environmental protection. The study provides a descriptive account of the awareness of environmental aesthetics through the employment of a quantitative methodology. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to students and staff as the sole data collection instrument and analysed to identify whether or not people were aware of the aesthetic aspects of the environment and whether or not this awareness could impact positively on the protection of the environment. A significant gap in the literature regarding the awareness of the nature of environmental aesthetics was identified. The criticality that such conscious awareness of the beauty of the environment is asserted, with a view towards illuminating various aesthetic elements in various environmental goods and working towards improved aesthetic natural and built environments.

Keywords: awareness, environmental aesthetics, built environment, natural environment