A simplified method for quantifying environmental impacts in the landscape planning/design process

Abstract

Current Australian trends toward unquantified and discursive environmental impact statements can introduce subjectivity into the environmental impact analysis and evaluation process. This produces unnecessary difficulties when project options are to be compared as part of the landscape planning/design process. To eliminate these difficulties, as well as provide a means whereby objectivity and replicability can be achieved, a method is presented that was developed and found suitable for use in landscape architecture student studies. This simplified method was devised by adapting the well-established Battelle Environmental Evaluation System, in which environmental impacts are quantified and aggregated in “environmental quality units”. This makes possible the comparative analysis of planning/design options. By using a quantification (rather than a semantic) basis for the decision-making process, a preferred option optimising environmental quality is clearly isolated. In implementing this method, students develop limited areas of expertise, learning from interaction as they work through the method. A specific case study to which landscape architecture students applied this method, and the results of that study, are briefly described.