Abstract
More than 80% of the people in the USA and Canada live in cities. Urban development replaces natural environments with built environments resulting in limited access to outdoor environments which are critical to human health and well-being. In addition, many urban open spaces are unused because of poor design. This paper describes case studies where traditional landscape architectural design approaches would have compromised design success, while evidence-based landscape architecture (EBLA) resulted in a successful product. Examples range from school-yard design that provides safe levels of solar radiation for children, to neighborhood parks and sidewalks that encourage people to walk and enjoy nearby nature. Common characteristics for integrating EBLA into private, public, and academic landscape architecture practice are outlined along with a discussion of some of the opportunities and barriers to implementation.
Highlights
Landscape architecture’s historical roots run deep and wide, generally considered to reach back to the late 1800s in North America, and to older garden design throughout every continent but Antarctica
The field of evidence-based landscape architecture (EBLA) was recently introduced [5] and this paper continues the development of EBLA in two distinct ways: First, we look backwards to identify lessons from past uses of evidence in landscape architecture; second, we describe some recent and current cases of how evidence changes a landscape architecture project
This paper describes case studies where traditional approaches to design would have compromised successful outdoor spaces, while EBLA led to successful places
Summary
Landscape architecture’s historical roots run deep and wide, generally considered to reach back to the late 1800s in North America, and to older garden design throughout every continent but Antarctica. Amid rapid increases in urbanization, species extinctions, a hotter globe, climate and economic refugees, ubiquitous social-environmental data, machine-learning, autonomous vehicles, drone delivery, and artificial intelligence, landscape architecture will be challenged to address new practice priorities and processes. An emerging approach common to many arenas—including medicine [1], correctional institutes [2], environmental management [3], and health-care architecture [4]—is to use evidence to inform practice. The cases show how landscape architects sought, interpreted, judged, and applied evidence and in some cases changed their approach in light of evidence. A process for integrating EBLA into private, public, and academic landscape architecture practice is outlined along with a discussion of some of the opportunities and barriers to implementation
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