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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency established in 1946 through consolidation of the Grazing Service and the General Land Office, has exclusive responsibility for about 60 percent of all Federal, civil, and defense administered lands. Although the primary policy of the Bureau has been land retention and multiple-use--management, the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 strengthened and redefined this role. Now strongly worded legislation very explicitly states that a basic policy of the Bureau will be management of environmental values including, among...

This paper outlines a project level process (V.I.S.) which utilizes very accurate and flexible computer algorithms in combination with contemporary site analysis and design techniques for visual evaluation, design and management. The process provides logical direction and connecting bridges through problem identification, information collection and verification, visual evaluation, design development, management prescription development and periodic review. V.I.S. introduces sophisticated new algorithms for data verification and visibility, view quality, and topographic and visual slope and...

The Visual Landscape Type Classification method of the Route and Site Selection Division, Ontario Hydro, defines and delineates the landscape into discrete visual units using parametric and judgmental data. This qualitative and quantitative information is documented in a prescribed format to give each of the approximately 1100 Landscape Types a unique description. Utilizing the Landscape Types and evaluation criteria, an assessment can be made of the visual change to the landscape due to the introduction of transmission facilities. This paper elaborates on the effective application of...

SCS Landscape Resource Management (LRM) is the application of landscape architecture to SCS conservation activities. LRM includes but is not limited to visual resource management. LRM can be summarized in three principles: (1) SCS landscape architecture considers the landscape as a composite of ecological, social and visual resources; (2) SCS landscapes exist in the countryside or suburban setting rather than in wildland or wilderness; (3) The American public has expectations of country-side landscape resources that most likely differ from their expectations of all other types of landscapes.

The consultants were asked by the Power Plant Siting Staff of the Minnesota Environmental Quality Council to develop a methodology for evaluating the sensitivity of river-related recreational activities to visual intrusion by large coal-fired power plants. The methodology, which is applicable to any major stream in the state, was developed and tested on a case study river. The methodology involves two basic tracks: landscape character and recreational potential. The landscape character track defines and measures power plant visual characteristics and river-related landscape categories....

The growing public awareness of and participation in the visual resource decision process has stimulated interest to find improved means of accurately and realistically displaying proposed alterations. The traditional artist renderings often lack the accuracy and objectivity needed for critical decisions. One approach, using computer graphics, led to the MOSAIC system which is a special adaptation of photomontage techniques capable of meeting most of the requirements for realism, accuracy and cost. This paper briefly covers some of the early development and explains some of the more...

The focus here is on a functional approach to landscape aesthetics. People's reactions are viewed in terms of what sense they are able to make of the scene and what interest they are able to find in it. This analysis applies first to the two-dimensional space of the "picture plane," where the assessment is in terms of coherence and complexity. In addition to this "surface" analysis, there is a rapid and unconscious assessment of what one would experience if one were to proceed "deeper" into the scene. In this way inferences about the nature of the three-dimensional environment lead to...

The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory has developed a computer-assisted technique that can predict the visibility effects of potential energy sources in advance of their construction. This technique has been employed in an economic and environmental analysis comparing a single 3000 MW coal-fired power plant with six 500 MW coal-fired power plants located at hypothetical sites in southeastern Utah. As part of this analysis, area residents were asked to express their preferences for computer generated scenes depicting visibility degradation as well as indicate the importance of visibility...

Description, classification and delineation of visual landscape character are initial steps in developing visual resource management plans. Landscape characteristics identified as key factors in visual landscape analysis include land cover/land use and landform. Landscape types, which are combinations of landform and surface features, were delineated for management purposes by analyzing land resource data for a study area near Ames, Iowa. Then quality ratings and land use controls were developed for each landscape type in the study area. This approach is currently being used in several...

Drilling rigs, confined dredged material disposal sites power and sewage treatment facilities, and other built objects on or near shorelines have often created appreciable impacts on the aesthetic perceptions of residents and recreational users. Techniques for assessing such impacts that are reviewed in this paper include viewscape analysis for large-scale shore facilities, as employed in the Long Island Sound Regional Study and the visual impact analysis used in the Hart-Miller Islands Environmental Assessment for review of alternative spoil island location. Guidelines and design solutions...