Landscape change: Perceptions and physical measures

This paper addresses questions of affective responses of residents of rural Arizona to changes in proximate community and riparian landscapes and the congruence of their perceptions of change with physical measures of change in those landscapes. Based on findings and concepts from previous studies, perceptions of change were assessed using a mail survey. Physical measures of land use and vegetation change were obtained from aerial photography for two points in time spanning approximately 13 years and were analyzed using a geographic information system. Significant differences were found in perceptions of change in the community and riparian landscapes. In contrast with previous findings, a majority of respondents found the changes as either improving or having no effect on landscape quality. Those who were more frequent users of the riparian landscape tended to be more aware of changes in it. The findings also suggest challenges for planners and resource managers working in rural areas adjacent to riparian landscapes.     

Walking to school: Community design and child and parent barriers

The roles of community design and parent and child perceptions of walkability to school are tested for associations with walking in three communities: a walkable new urbanist community, a mixed community (standard suburban community where the walk to school traversed part of the new urbanist community), and less walkable standard suburban community. Perceived environmental barriers to walking to school are measured and compared for fifth graders (n = 193) and their parents (n = 177). Results showed that children and parents often agreed on walking barriers, except an interaction showed that — in the less walkable community — parents perceived worse barriers than did their children. Perceptions of barriers increased from walkable, to mixed, to less walkable communities. Students walked more when they attended the school in the walkable community, they lived near school, parents and children perceived fewer barriers to walking, and children had lower BMI scores, net of demographic controls. Thus the walk to school is embedded within multiple types of supports, all of which should be addressed to encourage walking to school.     

Creating and validating GIS measures of urban design for health research

Studies relating urban design to health have been impeded by the unfeasibility of conducting field observations across large areas and the lack of validated objective measures of urban design. This study describes measures for five dimensions of urban design - imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity - created using public geographic information systems (GIS) data from the US Census and city and state government. GIS measures were validated for a sample of 588 New York City block faces using a well-documented field observation protocol. Correlations between GIS and observed measures ranged from 0.28 to 0.89. Results show valid urban design measures can be constructed from digital sources.     

Landscape Metrics for Assessment of Landscape Destruction and Rehabilitation

This investigation tested the usefulness of geometry-based landscape metrics for monitoring landscapes in a heavily disturbed environment. Research was carried out in a 75 sq km study area in Saxony, eastern Germany, where the landscape has been affected by surface mining and agricultural intensification. Landscape metrics were calculated from digital maps (1912, 1944, 1973, 1989) for the entire study area and for subregions (river valleys, plains), which were defined using the original geology and topography of the region. Correlation and factor analyses were used to select a set of landscape metrics suitable for landscape monitoring. Little land-use change occurred in the first half of the century, but political decisions and technological developments led to considerable change later. Metrics showed a similar pattern with almost no change between 1912 and 1944, but dramatic changes after 1944. Nonparametric statistical methods were used to test whether metrics differed between river valleys and plains. Significant differences in the metrics for these regions were found in the early maps (1912, 1944), but these differences were not significant in 1973 or 1989. These findings indicate that anthropogenic influences created a more homogeneous landscape.     

Elevator availability and its impact on stair use in a workplace

Consistent success in encouraging stair climbing on public access staircases contrasts with equivocal evidence for effectiveness in worksites. This paper tests whether contextual factors may affect stair/elevator choice. The study investigated the impact of elevator availability, pedestrian traffic (number using the elevator and stairs per minute), building occupancy (total individuals in the building) and time of day on stair ascent and descent in a workplace. Stair and elevator choices were monitored by automatic counters every weekday during two phases. In a natural experiment, days with four available elevators were compared with days when three elevators were available. Stair use increased for three elevators compared to four. Increasing building occupancy was associated with increased stair use, whilst increasing pedestrian traffic and time of day was associated with reduced stair use. A follow-up study revealed complimentary effects of building occupancy and time of day on elevator waiting times, indicating that increased stair use by contextual factors reflects increased elevator waiting times. In contrast, shorter waiting times are likely when momentary pedestrian traffic is high and later in the day. Crucially, the magnitude of the effects of these contextual factors was ten times larger than previously reported effects of stair climbing interventions.     

合理规划城区绿地构建景观安全格局 --以吴家山城区绿地规划为例

运用城市生态规划的原理及方法,对吴家山城区绿地进行了规划。包括城市的组团式规划、控制性组分规划、非控制性组分规划、生态平衡构架规划四部分。通过规划,实现吴家山生态城市景观结构和功能的匹配及能流、物流的畅通,使绿地系统上升成为城市生态环境质量的调控系统来建设。     

Living in grey areas: Industrial activity and psychological health

The main goal of this paper was to explore the relationship between living in industrial areas and individual’s level of psychological health. Using a quasi-experimental design main findings suggest that, regardless of the type of industry that is operating, there was a significant association between living in industrialized areas and decreased levels of well being, optimism and use of active coping strategies. However, results on anxiety and depression were especially high in areas associated with air pollution. Moreover, there was also a significant association between more subjective meanings of place and psychological health. According to a reality-orientation criterion, evidences showed that when individuals live in industrial areas perceptions of their places as industrial are associated with lower depression, anxiety and psychiatric symptoms.     

Surveys of historic parks and gardens

The United Kingdom offers some of the finest designed parks and garden landscapes in the world and, whilst there is a wide range of skills and a wealth of literature on the subject, there is little evidence of official effort to systematically record historic sites. This, it is argued, is a factor in the continuing decline of many examples. This paper records an attempt at a comprehensive examination of one county — Cheshire — begun in 1970. The method is described and the results discussed in some detail. Some suggestions are put forward for improvements to official incentives for site owners.     

Landscapes and environments on the island of Ouessant,Brittany, France: From traditional maintenance to the management of abandoned areas

For about 50 years the desertion of areas by traditional activities has led to an important evolution of landscapes and environments on the island of Ouessant. The study of this evolution has been undertaken at different spatial and temporal scales. On one part of the island, a scientific investigation carried out at the scale of the parcel enabled the form of the landscape in 1850 to be compared with that of 1985. On the whole island, the evolution of spatial organization and land use was compared between 1950 and 1985. For each of three main ecological environments, vegetational successions after the decrease of agriculture have been studied along with their future potential changes. This work highlights some considerations about the present management of the environment in relation to the major objectives of island environmental policies.     

Housing areas — factors that need to be considered in the site layout and design process

The lack of any particular character in much new low‐rise housing is seen as resulting in the lack of attention paid to the detailing of space between buildings. The landscape architect's role in overcoming “placelessness” is considered, and the information needs of designers is discussed. The paper also offers some notes for the designer on user needs.     

黄河中上游能源化工区重点产业发展战略生态风险评价

结合黄河中上游能源化工区重点产业发展战略生态风险宏观性、综合性、复杂性的特点,论文以生态风险景观评价方法及3S技术等为研究手段,综合考虑重点产业发展战略人为风险源及自然风险源,以生态风险受体和终点选择、风险源分析、暴露危害分析、生态风险综合评价及生态风险分区为评价步骤,揭示了重点产业发展战略潜在生态风险空间分异特征。研究结果表明：黄河中上游重点产业战略实施区可划分为三类生态风险监控区,生态风险重点监控区自然风险源分布集中,重点产业人为风险源和自然风险源交织在一起,极易发生生态风险放大效应,生态风险次重点监控区自然生态风险源分布较单一,局部重点产业人为风险源强度增强,将增加区域生态风险水平,生态风险监控区自然生态风险源分布范围较小,潜在生态风险水平相对较低。论文探索了战略环评生态风险评价方法和评价思路,为国内重点产业发展战略生态风险评价提供了借鉴。     

Grouping Lakes for Water Quality Assessment and Monitoring: The Roles of Regionalization and Spatial Scale

Regionalization frameworks cluster geographic data to create contiguous regions of similar climate, geology and hydrology by delineating land into discrete regions, such as ecoregions or watersheds, often at several spatial scales. Although most regionalization schemes were not originally designed for aquatic ecosystem classification or management, they are often used for such purposes, with surprisingly few explicit tests of the relative ability of different regionalization frameworks to group lakes for water quality monitoring and assessment. We examined which of 11 different lake grouping schemes at two spatial scales best captures the maximum amount of variation in water quality among regions for total nutrients, water clarity, chlorophyll, overall trophic state, and alkalinity in 479 lakes in Michigan (USA). We conducted analyses on two data sets: one that included all lakes and one that included only minimally disturbed lakes. Using hierarchical linear models that partitioned total variance into within-region and among-region components, we found that ecological drainage units and 8-digit hydrologic units most consistently captured among-region heterogeneity at their respective spatial scales using all lakes (variation among lake groups = 3% to 50% and 12% to 52%, respectively). However, regionalization schemes capture less among-region variance for minimally disturbed lakes. Diagnostics of spatial autocorrelation provided insight into the relative performance of regionalization frameworks but also demonstrated that region size is only partly responsible for capturing variation among lakes. These results suggest that regionalization schemes can provide useful frameworks for lake water quality assessment and monitoring but that we must identify the appropriate spatial scale for the questions being asked, the type of management applied, and the metrics being assessed.     

Land use changes and net primary production in the Georgia,USA, landscape: 1935–1982

Land use since 1935 was quantified for Georgia, USA, and for a sample of 20 counties from the major physiographic regions within the state. Statistical data on crop production, pasture productivity, and forest growth were used to estimate net primary production. Appropriate harvest indices (ratio of crop yield to total plant production) were used to correct crop yield data for different decades. Net primary production (NPP) of the Georgia landscape increased from 2.5 to 6.4 tonnes/ha from 1935 to 1982, but varied considerably among land uses and physiographic regions. NPP in the piedmont and mountains reached a plateau between 1960 and 1982, but the upper and lower coastal plains showed a continued linear increase in NPP. In all regions, NPP rose most between 1960 and 1982, coinciding with increases in inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation. Natural ecosystem NPP for Georgia is approximately 16–18 tonnes/ha, and the estimated actual NPP is thus considerably less than the potential. Spatial and temporal patterns of NPP may be a useful basis for evaluating the biological performance of a landscape.     

School building condition,school attendance,and academic achievement in New York City public schools: A mediation model

Little is known about how the condition of school facilities affects academic outcomes. This study examines the role of school attendance as a mediator in the relationship between facilities in disrepair and student grades in city and state tests. Data on building condition and results from English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics (Math) standardized tests were analyzed using a sample of 95 elementary schools in New York City. Variables relevant to academic achievement such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, teacher quality, and school size were used as covariates. In run-down school facilities students attended less days on average and therefore had lower grades in ELA and Math standardized tests. Attendance was found to be a full mediator for grades in ELA and a partial mediator for grades in Math. This study provides empirical evidence of the effects of building quality on academic outcomes and considers the social justice issues related to this phenomenon.     

Traffic noise and executive functioning in urban primary school children: The moderating role of gender

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between noise and school children's executive functioning (EF). The study included 311 children (146 boys and 165 girls) aged 7–11 years, who lived in the center of Belgrade. Teachers rated children's EF on a standard scale evaluating their ability to work independently in a focused manner to achieve an end goal as well as children's ability to follow directions carefully. Residential noise exposure was estimated in three daytime intervals, one evening interval and two nighttime intervals in the middle of the streets where children lived. School noise exposure was measured on three different school days in front of children's schools. Socioeconomic status (mother's highest level of education and family income) was used as a statistical control. There were no significant main effects of ambient noise levels on EF, however, a significant interaction indicated adverse noise impacts on boy's EF. We discuss possible reasons for male EF vulnerability to noise.     

Cognitive attributes and aesthetic preferences in assessment and differentiation of landscapes

The increasing pace and scale of landscape changes involve objective measurements in order to estimate the effects of changes on people's landscape preferences in a meaningful way. In the literature, some attempts have been made to provide a more conceptual base related to landscape preferences. These concepts and their indicators need to be tested empirically in different contexts and landscape types. In the present study, different items related to theoretical concepts of both aesthetic preference and cognitive rating were examined. They were combined in an in situ questionnaire, which was conducted among undergraduate students in geography during two different field excursions. Stimuli consisted of 11 landscape vistas selected during the excursions. All vistas represent rather rural landscapes but they vary with regard to relief, degree of urbanisation, and degree of agricultural land use. Statistical analysis of all data yielded significant correlations between aesthetic and cognitive ratings. However, these correlations did not appear to be very strong. When considering landscape vistas separately, the relations between all cognitive ratings seemed to vary. Further, not all cognitive aspects had an equal predicting value for aesthetic preference. Moreover, this predicting value appeared to vary between different landscape vistas. The groups of interrelated cognitive aspects could not be associated consistently with theoretical concepts. The results demonstrated the inconsistencies existing between the contents of the theoretical concepts and the indicators found within the landscape. The findings argued for the necessity to distinguish between different ratings and landscape types instead of using unitary preference measures and generalized data when studying landscape preference.     

Effects of habitat and landscape fragmentation on humans and biodiversity in densely populated landscapes

Landscape fragmentation has often been seen as an only ecological problem. However, fragmentation also has a societal perspective, namely, in how humans perceive landscape fragmentation and in how landscape fragmentation potentially influences human well-being. These latter aspects have rarely been addressed so far. The inter-relationship of ecological and human dimensions of landscape fragmentation becomes especially evident when looking at the landscape where most people in industrial countries live, namely in suburban and urban areas. In these areas, landscape planners and environmental managers are confronted with the problem that landscapes should fullfil various functions, often with conflicting goals, e.g. nature reserves to enhance species richness vs. recreational areas for city-dwellers. We reviewed the ecological and sociological literature relevant for fragmentation in suburban and urban landscapes. In an interdisciplinary approach, we evaluated whether there are similarities and dissimilarities between the ecological and the human aspects of landscape fragmentation. We found important similarities. An example is that for both, humans and biodiversity, the loss of semi-natural areas has more drastic effects than the fragmentation of these areas per se. However, there are also relevant differences. We concluded that in densely populated landscapes a shift from responsive planning to an intentional design of environments is therefore needed.     

Walking routes to school in new urban and suburban neighborhoods: An environmental walkability analysis of blocks and routes

We assessed environmental and perceptual correlates of walking and walkability for fifth graders from three communities attending two schools: A new urban/LEED-ND pilot community, mixed, and standard suburban community. Irvine-Minnesota Inventory (IMI) walkability audits showed that new urban blocks provided more traffic safety, pleasurability, crime safety, density, and diversity. New urban routes offered greater traffic safety, accessibility, pleasurability, crime safety, and diversity, but suburban routes had greater housing density, net of controls (parental education, rooms in the home, home ownership, parent preference for child to walk to school). Parents and children perceived new urban routes to be more walkable and children walked more when they lived on more walkable routes. The suburban hierarchical street design exposed children to varied traffic safety conditions by funneling their walks from cul-de-sacs to arterials. The new urban routes to a centrally located school passed by pleasant open spaces, suggesting how community organization can create better walking conditions.     

A hybrid scheme for comparing the effects of bird diversity conservation approaches on landscape patterns and biodiversity in the Shangan sub-watershed in Taiwan

This work utilizes bird survey data, regression modeling, land-use modeling and landscape metrics to evaluate the effects of various spatial bird diversity conservation approaches on land-use allocation, land-use patterns, and biodiversity in the Shangan sub-watershed in central Taiwan. A survey of the distribution of species revealed that bird species are concentrated in the central and western parts of the sub-watershed. The results obtained using a Shannon-Weaver diversity regression model suggest that diversity of land-use increases the diversity of bird species. Logistic regression results verify that socio-economic factors determine the potential advantages of designating a particular type of land-use in certain parts of the study area. The results of land-use simulation modeling indicate that the eastern and southwestern areas of the sub-watershed will change most frequently between 2007 and 2017. Additionally, increasing the areas to protect bird diversity will effectively increase the patch size, habitat core area, edge effect and habitat connectivity. The Shannon-Weaver diversity regression model shows that protecting bird species diversity in large areas increases bird diversity. The proposed modeling approach is an effective tool that provides useful information for ecological planning and policymaking related to watersheds.