Stephen R.J. Sheppard

Guidance for crystal ball gazers: developing a code of ethics for landscape visualization

Abstract Computer visualization of landscapes in three or four dimensions constitutes a “crystal ball” capable of showing us views into the future. This paper discusses the risks of the growing but unstructured use of these landscape visualizations as a popular decision-making and public communications tool in planning. The author argues that we need to establish a framework for guidance and supporting resources for the use of landscape visualization, including accepted procedures, training, appropriate databases, and a communication network for users. In particular, it is argued that the preparers of visualizations — whom we can think of as the “crystal ball gazers” who conjure up and interpret the imagery — need to be governed by a code of ethics for defensible landscape visualization. Drawing on research on visualization effectiveness and validity, as well as anecdotal evidence from professional practice, the paper identifies potential problems associated with emerging visualization technologies, and reviews the needs for, progress toward, and potential benefits of a support infrastructure for visualization preparers and presenters. A framework for guidance and support of visualization practitioners is proposed, in the hope of improving the chances of ethical practice and scientific validity in the use of these systems. Pending more comprehensive findings from the considerable body of research which is needed on this subject, an interim code of ethics is presented, for consideration, testing, and amendment by other researchers and users. It is suggested that such a code include broad principles and guidance on ethical conduct in producing visualizations, presenting them to viewers, and analysing responses to them from users as feedback. Implications for future research and practice are provided, with an emphasis on the urgent need for researchers to monitor and evaluate the use and influence of landscape visualizations in practice.

Forests and landscapes: linking ecology, sustainability and aesthetics.

Part 1 Aesthetics preference for sustainable landscapes - seeing and knowing. Part 2 Beyond visual resource management - theories and assumptions on visual quality and ecology. Part 3 Landscape ecology - perspectives on forest sustainability. Part 4 Visual simulation of forested landscapes - techniques and theories.

Science for action at the local landscape scale

For landscape ecology to produce knowledge relevant to society, it must include considerations of human culture and behavior, extending beyond the natural sciences to synthesize with many other disciplines. Furthermore, it needs to be able to support landscape change processes which increasingly take the shape of deliberative and collaborative decision making by local stakeholder groups. Landscape ecology as described by Wu (Landscape Ecol 28:1–11, 2013) therefore needs three additional topics of investigation: (1) the local landscape as a boundary object that builds communication among disciplines and between science and local communities, (2) iterative and collaborative methods for generating transdisciplinary approaches to sustainable change, and (3) the effect of scientific knowledge and tools on local landscape policy and landscape change. Collectively, these topics could empower landscape ecology to be a science for action at the local scale.

Multiple-Case Study of Landscape Visualizations as a Tool in Transdisciplinary Planning Workshops

This paper presents a transdisciplinary multiple-case study, set in Switzerland, that was part of the European Fifth Framework Program project VISULANDs—Visualization Tools for Public Participation in Managing Landscape Change (2003–2005). The project sought production of new visualization tools enabling public participation in landscape management. In cooperation with workshop participants, researchers constructed three-dimensional (3-D) landscape visualizations to represent various scenarios of landscape change. The planning objective was to develop sustainable solutions for landscape-related planning problems in tourism, agriculture, and forestry. Two of the case studies produced implemented results. The research objective was to analyze the effectiveness of landscape visualization as a tool in transdisciplinary workshops with external researchers and local stakeholders. The research illustrates how the interactive construction of different types of landscape visualization may contribute to solutions for planning problems on local to regional scales through transdisciplinary knowledge construction, dialogue, and consensus building.

Ancient Values, New Challenges: Indigenous Spiritual Perceptions of Landscapes and Forest Management

ABSTRACT The spiritual values of indigenous peoples represent a challenge for forest managers to understand and integrate in their management activities. This article reports on the results of research with the Cheam First Nation of British Columbia to explore their spiritual perceptions of forested landscapes. Cheam conceptions of spirituality are deeply rooted in ancient narratives and myths that describe the land as a gift from the Creator for the material and spiritual benefit of the Cheam people and their human and nonhuman neighbors. Cheam participants emphasized the need for respectful land use, and described general landscape conditions consistent with such use. Particular forest-based spiritual activities require careful treatment of key landscape conditions around sacred sites, to ensure the continued viability of traditions still important in contemporary Cheam life. With further research, tangible indicators of culturally appropriate and respectful forest use could be developed into guidelines for forest management to protect spiritual values.

Visual Climate Change Communication: From Iconography to Locally Framed 3D Visualization

Climate change is an urgent problem with implications registered not only globally, but also on national and local scales. It is a particularly challenging case of environmental communication because its main cause, greenhouse gas emissions, is invisible. The predominant approach of making climate change visible is the use of iconic, often affective, imagery. Literature on the iconography of climate change shows that global iconic motifs, such as polar bears, have contributed to a public perception of the problem as spatially and temporally remote. This paper proposes an alternative approach to global climate change icons by focusing on recognizable representations of local impacts within an interactive game environment. This approach was implemented and tested in a research project based on the municipality of Delta, British Columbia. A major outcome of the research is Future Delta, an interactive educational game featuring 3D visualizations and simulation tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation future scenarios. The empirical evaluation is based on quantitative pre/post-game play questionnaires with 18 students and 10 qualitative expert interviews. The findings support the assumption that interactive 3D imagery is effective in communicating climate change. The quantitative post-questionnaires particularly highlight a shift in support of more local responsibility.

Downscaling and visioning of mountain snow packs and other climate change implications in North Vancouver, British Columbia

This paper provides an overview of a collaborative study on visualizing climate change at the local scale. A conceptual framework has been developed, in which local scenarios and visualizations of climate change impacts and response were created to facilitate local dialogue on incorporating climate change into long-term planning and implementation of community development decisions. As part of a larger effort to generate a new integrated participatory visioning process, this paper describes a case study of the District of North Vancouver which created visualizations of changing mountain snow and landscape conditions, and provides new insights on issues and dilemmas in using realistic landscape visualizations to depict scientific modelling projections, local responses to climate change, and uncertainty. Results from this study suggest that the visualizations, and subsequent dialogue sessions, did influence emotional response to climate change as well as self-assessed understanding of adaptation and mitigation response options. However, there is a need to test this visioning process with larger heterogeneous groups of participants in order to better assess its effectiveness in enabling dialogue on local responses to climate change.

Tool or Toy? Virtual Globes in Landscape Planning

Virtual globes, i.e., geobrowsers that integrate multi-scale and temporal data from various sources and are based on a globe metaphor, have developed into serious tools that practitioners and various stakeholders in landscape and community planning have started using. Although these tools originate from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), they have become a different, potentially interactive and public tool set, with their own specific limitations and new opportunities. Expectations regarding their utility as planning and community engagement tools are high, but are tempered by both technical limitations and ethical issues [1,2]. Two grassroots campaigns and a collaborative visioning process, the Kimberley Climate Adaptation Project case study (British Columbia), illustrate and broaden our understanding of the potential benefits and limitations associated with the use of virtual globes in participatory planning initiatives. Based on observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with stakeholders and community members using an interactive 3D model of regional climate change vulnerabilities, potential impacts, and possible adaptation and mitigation scenarios in Kimberley, the benefits and limitations of virtual globes as a tool for participatory landscape planning are discussed. The findings suggest that virtual globes can facilitate access to geospatial information, raise awareness, and provide a more representative virtual landscape than static visualizations. However, landscape is not equally representative at all scales, and not all types of users seem to benefit equally from the tool. The risks of misinterpretation can be managed by integrating the application and interpretation of virtual globes into face-to-face planning processes.

Predictive Landscape Portrayals: A Selective Research Review

Landscape portrayals are widely used to simulate the appearance in perspective of proposed modifications to the landscape. This paper reviews some simulation-related research which may contribute to an analytical framework for creating and validating landscape portrayals. A number of criteria for evaluating simulations are drawn from two important approaches. The first is to analyze peoples responses — that is, the equivalence of responses to simulations with responses to reality. The second is to analyze the simulation image — the accuracy with which a portrayal replicates actual visual properties. Various studies have examined simulation validity by using several response dimensions, and have found both high and low response equivalence. Relatively few studies have attempted to appraise image properties, although methods of doing this appear to be available. Sources of inaccuracy and the poor representativeness of portrayals are postulated as threats to simulation validity. Research directions of practical significance are suggested by the potential benefits of relating image properties to responses; this is the crucial step towards estimating the validity of landscape portrayals before the depicted development is constructed.

The Role of Energy Visualization in Addressing Energy Use: Insights from the eViz Project

Energy has become an important topic for policy makers, industry, and householders globally (e.g., IEA-International Energy Agency, 2015). Changing the way we generate and use energy could make a huge contribution to reducing carbon emissions and help address climate change. There is also concern over energy security where energy is imported from other countries. Fluctuations in energy prices affect industry and householders and are linked to fuel poverty, especially in vulnerable households (Liddell and Morris, 2010).