We all benefit from products and services that come with being a part of the global ecosystems. Not only do these benefits include the simpler aspects of living, such as food and water but also include mitigation of floods or sea-level rise. Another important ecosystem service that hits directly on a planner's agenda are cultural or social benefits. For instance, recreational opportunities, heritage or historical value, and the predominate focus this research - landscape aesthetics. For this research, we focus on research questions that require empirical surveys, new technologies and visualizations to demonstrate and understand how people value and measure the provision of cultural ecosystem services.
Keywords: aesthetics, visual quality, impact analysis, landscape preference, trade-off analysis, forests, community values
Publications
- An Empirical Assessment of the ArcPro Visual Magnitude Viewshed Plugin. In Proceedings of Visual Resource Stewardship 2020: pp xx-xx
- Visualization Tools for Visual Impact Assessments: A study of existing technologies. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 5-2020. (link)
Presentations
- Visualization Tools for Visual Impact Assessments: A study of existing technologies. Digital Landscape Architecture 2020 (remote presentation)
- Determining Agricultural Land Use Change and Evaluating Ecosystem Services in the Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area, Utah IALE-NA Quebec, Canada, May, 2020 (remote presentation)
- Wasatch Front Planning 2050: Growth Meets Hazard. International Geodesign Collaboration 2020. Redlands, CA. February, 2020.
- An Empirical Assessment of the ArcPro Visual Magnitude Viewshed Plugin. Visual Resource Stewardship Conference: Seeking 20/20 Vision for Landscape Futures. Argonne National Laboratory. October 2019.
- Conducting Viewshed Assessments with the ArcGIS Visual Magnitude Plugin. Visual Resource Stewardship Conference: Seeking 20/20 Vision for Landscape Futures. Argonne National Laboratory. October 2019.
- Municipal Tree Planting: A Strategy for Carbon Sequestration and for Creating a Resilient Region. Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. October 2019, Greenville, SC.
- Visualizing Landscape Impacts: The development and application of a new spatial analysis tool. Visual Resource Stewardship Conference. Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Ill., November 7-9 2019.
- An Evaluation of the Influence of Nature on Stress and Arousal Using Wearabels. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 2017. Beijing, China, May 2017.
- A Spatially Explicit Analysis of Ecosystem Services in Clayoquot Sound, BC. Association of American Geographers 2015 Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, April 2015.
- Mapping Cultural Ecosystem Services and Aesthetics to Inform Landscape Planning Decisions. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 2015. Manhattan, KS, March 2015.
- Landscape Planning and the Human Perspective: A visual quality analysis method. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 2015. Manhattan, KS, March 2015.
- A New Visibility Analysis Toolset. ESRI International User's Conference. San Diego, CA, July 2014.
- A Planning Tool for Natural Resource Management in Scenic Landscapes. ESRI International User's Conference. San Diego, CA, July 2013.
- Comparing Scenic Quality of North American Highway Drives. ESRI International User's Conference. San Diego, CA, July 2012.
- A GIS Tool for Managing Visual Quality in British Columbia. ESRI Internaitonal User's Conference. San Diego, CA, July 2012.
- Measuring the Visible Effects of Harvesting: Calculating Percent Alteration. ESRI International User's Conference. San Diego, CA, July 2012.
- Visual Magnitude: A New Tool for Visual Landscape Management and Planning. IUFRO Forest for People Conference. Alpbach, Austria, May 2012.
- New Geographical Information Systems tools for Scenery Management. National Association of Environmental Professionals. Portland, OR, May 2012.
- Ecosystem Services: An Approach to Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. University of British Columbia, Meeting on New Campus Sustainability Plan. 2009.
- Visual aesthetics and forest harvest design: an automated approach. ESRI International User's Conference. San Diego, CA, 2008.
Thesis
- New Techniques and Tools to Evaluate Cultural Ecosystem Services (March 4, 2019-June 30, 2023)
- Cultural Ecosystem Services of Agroecosystems Along the Wasatch Front, Utah. Tiffany Woods, Utah State University (2020)
Funding
- Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station, Seed Grant ($53,000)
- UAES Project, UTA-1440 (~ $3,500 yearly)
- Kansas State University Water Seed Grand Program to stimulate interdisciplinary research ($11,250)
Awards
- Integrated modeling and assessment of forest harvest patterns. National Science and Engineering Research Council, Discover Grant 2009-2014 ($120,000).
- Improving TimberWest's Forest Management in Visually Sensitive Areas. National Science and Engineering Research Council 2012-2013 ($25,000).
- Operationalizing Resilience over the Long-term: Learning from Ecosystem Baselines. Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions Resilient Ecosystems 2011-2012 ($50,000).
- Managing visual resources in visually sensitive regions within TFL 52. National Science and Engineering Research Council 2011 ($25,000).
- Managing aesthetics in visually sensitive areas: quantifying percent visible alteration. National Science and Engineering Research Council, Undergraduate Student Research Award 2011 ($4,500).
- Managing aesthetics in visually sensitive areas: understanding preferences for shape design. National Science and Engineering Research Council, Undergraduate Student Research Award 2011 ($4,500).
- Developing a cumulative effects model of forest aesthetics at the landscape level: automating the spatial design and planning of variable retention, Forest Investment Account (FIA) - Forest Science Program 2006-2007 ($40,000).
Studio Sponsorship
- Evaluating Ecosystem Services for Park City and Summit County. Park City Office of Sustainability ($15,000).
Referred Articles
- Applications of Visual Magnitude in Forest Planning: A Case Study. Forestry Chronicle. 2015.
- A route-based visibility analysis for landscape management. Landscape and Urban Planning, 111, pp 13-24. 2013.
- Automating Harvest Design for Visual Resource Management. Landscape and Urban Planning, 90 (1-2) pp 86-94. 2009.
Non Referred Articles
- New Geographical Information Systems tools for Scenery Management. In proceedings of National Association of Environmental Professionals, Visual Resource Track. Portland, OR., May 2012 [Abstract Submission Referred].
- Towards more aesthetic forestry. Branchlines, 20 (2). 2010.
Posters
- Operationalizing Resilience Over the Long-term: Learning from Ecosystem Baselines. Climate Change Solutions: The Road Ahead (PICS Annual Forum). Victoria, BC June, 2012.
Patents and Copyrights
- Visual Quality and Ecology Statistics. An original GIS/Spatial Analysis software package designed to assess landscape patterns for purposes of ecology and visual quality. Contains over 7500 lines of code. Includes spatial problem-solving utility using Artificial Intelligence. 2011.
- Harvest and Retention Planner. A software module built upon the ArcGIS framework, design for automating harvest design for purposes of visual quality. 2007.
Image Gallery
