Treesearch

In 2013 the National Park Service launched a visual resources inventory method designed to capture visual experiences accurately and consistently across diverse landscapes. In the inventory process, each view is mapped and described from the viewers' perspective. Views are also evaluated to capture scenic quality and importance to the visitor experience. Because of the scale of many park landscapes and the dynamic nature of visual resource pressures, park staff must be able to conduct inventories in a modular way. Inventory data can be used in spatial analysis to show where views overlap,...

This paper uses a Pennsylvania case study to discuss opportunities for using crowdsourced and georeferenced photography to aid in visual resource conservation and planning. Studies have shown that clustering of georeferenced photos indicates interest in a point of view within the landscape or a particular visual or cultural resource. This clustering can also aid in prioritizing visual resource conservation efforts by indicating preference for certain locations over others. The present research began by examining where in Pennsylvania people were taking photos using Google Earth imagery...

Island ecosystems provide habitat for many endemic species that may be threatened by nonnative species introductions. We examined nonnative freshwater turtle occurrences and diets to examine potential predation effects on native species in Kawai Nui Marsh, Oahu, Hawaii. No freshwater turtles are native to the Hawaiian Archipelago. The Pond Slider (Trachemys scripta) and Chinese Softshell (Pelodiscus sinensis) were the only turtles found in the marsh after 767 trap days. Trachemys scripta stomachs (n = 50) contained mostly the nonnative plant Commelina diffusa and nonnative snails (Pomacea...

The development of relatively simple gas-sensing devices with sensor arrays capable of constructing molecular profiles of complex Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) metabolites from clinical samples, based on production of healthy or disease-specific digital signature patterns, may soon help to revolutionize diagnostic procedures in clinical practice. This mini-review summarizes the development of recent portable electronic-nose (e-nose) technologies as new diagnostic tools with the potential for accelerating clinical procedures to facilitate non-invasive early disease diagnoses, improving...

Diverse objections have been raised to the prevailing North American practice of performing aesthetic landscape assessments via expert descriptions of formalist pictorial qualities. This paper explores compelling reasons for this situation such as constraints imposed by legal definitions and due process, as well as pragmatic and political issues. Examples from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the European Union show how these constraints and issues need not limit the form and content of assessments. Formalist pictorial aesthetics are noted as a safe and fundamental basis for public...

Smardon (1983) and Gobster et al. (2007) proposed development of a theory of ecological aesthetics whereby individuals could learn to value landscapes such as wooded wetlands for their intrinsic ecological value versus more surface artistic and culturally ingrained aesthetic values (Smardon 1983). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Project (2005) proposed the valuation of ecosystem services, defined as regulatory, provisional, ecosystem support and cultural services provided for us by nature, free of charge. The challenge here is: How can we use cultural ecosystem services derived from...

Background readings on scale plus 21 visual landscape assessment studies were examined to understand the nature and use of scale and its relationship to the visual environment. The objectives of this study were to: 1) describe the concept of scale as applied to visual assessments, 2) review scale use in selected visual assessments vis-à-vis landscape ecological scale, and 3) identify issues that need further research to better integrate scale into visual landscape assessments and landscape ecological theory. It recommends further research for defining, recognizing, and incorporating scale...

This paper investigates views along the George Washington Memorial Parkway between Washington, D.C., and Mount Vernon, Virginia, especially their role in transforming the Potomac River waterfront from land into landscape. It discusses the design of a narrative sequence of views by landscape architect Wilbur Simonson and its importance in the commemoration of George Washington, the ideological purpose of the parkway. It places this emphasis on views within the discourse of landscape painting and cultural geographic interpretation of landscape ideology, showing the complexities of landscape...

In 2012, the USDA Forest Service released a new planning rule that called for fundamental changes in how scenic resources are to be addressed during the forest plan revision process. While the original 1982 rule relied on expert-based assessments of scenic resources described in the Forest Service's 1974 Visual Management System (VMS), the new rule mandates defining valued "scenic character" on the basis of the 1995 replacement for VMS, the Scenery Management System (SMS). In SMS, scenic character is established in part through a constituent analysis that involves assessing stakeholder...

With a central mission to "… conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein … by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations," the National Park Service (NPS) has been entrusted with some of the most spectacular and historically significant landscapes throughout the country (National Park Service Organic Act 1916). The NPS has successfully addressed visual resource issues at multiple park units but each had to develop its own approach. Over the last several years, NPS has developed a program that establishes service-w...