National Center for Landscape Intervention Proposed


LAF is continuing to explore the creation of a National Center for Landscape Intervention through the National Science Foundation (NSF).

In January of 2001, LAF held the Workshop in Landscape Change in Santa Barbara, California The 2001 Workshop in Landscape Change identified four major areas for pressing research: information technology; decision-making; landscape perception and assessment; and environmental and social science.

As a follow up to the workshop, participant Richard Aspinal, who is currently the Director of Geography and Regional Planning at NSF, arranged a meeting in January of 2003 to discuss the need for research in landscape intervention. The meeting took place between the NSF social science and engineering directorates and Jack Dangermond, Michael Goodchild, and Carl Steinitz. The meeting was well attended and generated interest and enthusiasm for the idea.

To continue the momentum created by the January meeting, LAF is currently developing a white paper entitled The Landscape Imperative that shapes the case for the national center.

If approved, the center would be hosted by a university or university consortium that would receive significant levels of funding for research, benefiting not only the host university, but the profession and communities across the world.

According to The Landscape Imperative, authored by Frederick R. Steiner, Michael Goodchild, and Bill Miller, “A transdisciplinary view is necessary but one grounded in the disciplines where past advances have occurred, that is, landscape architecture, environmental planning, and geography. This new kind of research is best organized through a national center that has sufficient clout and visibility to influence the field.”

LAF plans to continue to act as a catalyst for the creation of the center by staying in contact with the NSF, continuing to refine the white paper, and seeking publication of the white paper through a scholarly journal.