Abstract: LAND OWNERSHIP AND LAND USE DEVELOPMENT: THE INTEGRATION OF PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IN SPATIAL PLANNING AND LAND MANAGEMENT POLICIES Erwin Hepperle, Robert Dixon-Gough, Reinfried Mansberger, Jenny Paulsson, Józef Hernik and Thomas Kalbro. Editors. 2017. Zürich, Switzerland, vdf Hochschulverlag AG an der ETH Zürich. 371 pages. Print ISBN: 978-3-7281-3803-3, eBook ISBN: 978-3-72813804-0 (open access). doi: 10.3218/3804-0

Abstract: This article discusses two models of environmental simulation that emerged in landscape architecture with the rise of the environmental movement in the United States: Ian McHarg’s (1969) ecological method and Carl Steinitz and Peter Rogers’s (1968) systems analysis model of urbanization and change.1 Attempting to integrate a spectrum of environmental factors, both models reflect a wider use of systems thinking in design. In this way, the models exemplify tools to visualize (not control) complex environmental interactions. The models attempt not to obtain equilibrium but to insert a planning mechanism that could evolve with environmental conditions, allowing users a participatory and performative role in the computation. The models are compared based on explicit assumptions each makes about the human role in evaluating environmental information. By combining systematic and automated processing with human judgment, the models appear objective. The article argues that this appearance of objectivity was intended to validate the planning outcome(s) from each model (a matter of reassurance) and may have served, intentionally or unintentionally, as a means of promoting the changing landscape architecture profession in the 1960s and 1970s.

Abstract: The formation of the digital economy and the structure of the new points of economic growth takes place in Russia in the face of many challenges internal and external. Among questions of the budgetary perspective the special relevance is taken shape and methods of realization of the principles of the budgetary federalism in the sphere of the interbudgetary relations. The purposes of work consist in search of new technologies of development of interbudgetary relations in the context of the formation of the digital economy. Based on the analysis of the observed new trends in the dynamic indicators of intergovernmental transfers as one of the main tools for implementation of fiscal federalism, and the dynamics of the gross regional product, it is determined that the close linear relationship between them is missing. Analytical and theoretical results of the study showed that the existing system of interbudgetary relations does not promote objective economic conditions for independence of territorial budgets for execution of revenue and expenditure powers. The obtained results can be used to develop new technological bases of system of interbudgetary relations in the formation of the digital economy. For the effective development of interbudgetary relations in modern conditions it is expedient at the national level to develop and begin implementation of the project for implementation in daily practice of intergovernmental relations blockchain technology. Despite the fact that the blockchain technology is in an early stage of its development, however, it carries great potential for global change principles of functioning of many spheres of life. This, potentially, could become one of the leading projects of strategic national socio-economic development.

Abstract: This study explores the drivers of and constraints to conservation decision making and practice adoption among agricultural producers in two impaired Minnesota watersheds in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Concerns about nutrient management and non-point source nitrogen loading in the region prompted the study. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 30 farmers operating in the watersheds. Qualitative data analysis revealed multiple interacting drivers and constraints to conservation decision making and supported an inductive conceptual model anchored in three spheres of decision making: farming ethic, conservation practice appraisal, and conservation action. Finer descriptive analysis focused on the first two spheres revealed varying beliefs, levels of focus, and saliency involving dynamic thought processes of conservation decision making. Farming ethic encompassed multiple dimensions of farmer identity and values, social norms of farm management, and personal norms of conservation action. Appraisal dimensions were tied to resources, practice efficacy, risk and uncertainty, and autonomy. The model will enable policy makers and resource managers to better plan, design and manage conservation policies and programs. Study findings can inform nutrient management and enable better alignment with farmer decision-making processes.

Abstract: In this essay, I analyze representations of nature in the landscape architecture and architecture of the partially built Migratory Bird Village (MBV) project proposed near the Korean Demilitarized Zone. In an international context of conflicting political and economic agendas, this ecotourism project represents the particular contexts of local human and nonhuman populations. The project embeds within its design drawings, maps, and charts a grounded environmentalism responsive to local farmers, birds, and history. MBV demonstrates how landscape architects and architects can work with communities to value nature as a locally specific cultural and spatial condition. But, like other representation projects addressing biodiversity, this speculative project also demonstrates the perils of greenwashing. Despite the careful particularity of its ecological and social goals, the project replays an international greening style that portrays environmentally destructive development as natural. This formulaic eco-logic readily backfires by supporting associated territorial and capital growth more than the nature it represents. I draw on Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive analysis of nature’s cultural formulation to examine how the idealized representations of ecological design projects can act paradoxically to denature even as they naturalize environments.

Abstract: While historic photographs are a compelling resource and illustrate and supplement many studies, scholars of the landscape may be hesitant to draw conclusions from photographs themselves. Although the deceptive nature of photography is a substantial challenge to overcome, archival photographs can improve understanding of landscape history aspects that have received minimal scholarly attention because of limited supplemental documentation. This article offers a systematic approach to reducing this issue using a series of early photographs of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as an instructive example. In 1901, Andrew David and Howard Lytle published 46 residential portraits in The Elks’ Souvenir of Baton Rouge. Because none of the residences photographed for the Elks’ Souvenir exist in a recognizable form today, the residences and landscapes created during this formative period of postwar industrialization and homebuilding have been largely forgotten. This article describes the extent to which these properties can be understood by reviewing the physical context using the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and linking them with a new photo-analysis process. The proposed process should assist researchers and practitioners in arriving at a more thorough understanding of the sites depicted in historic photographs.

Abstract: On a narrow strip of land between the Mississippi River and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control levees in New Orleans, a squatters’ community called the Batture exhibits an unusual inversion of conventional assumptions regarding hazard awareness and development security. For a New Orleanian to willingly take up residence on the “wrong side” of the levee is to break the most fundamental rule of the city’s spatial economy and collective psychology. This article proposes the existence of a Batture Effect , a mode of insurgent citizenship whereby hidden environmental threats are made visible and small-scale architectural, urban, and psychological adaptation measures are tested. As an adaptive design strategy, organic in its development over time and responsive to the immediate needs of residents, the occupation of the Batture demonstrates a homesteader’s approach to land appropriation. In calling into question land-use and ownership, the urban planning process and its associated spatial agency, and the role of the individual in disaster preparedness, this guerilla urbanism suggests relevant lessons to the practice of landscape architecture and urban planning.

Abstract: Warren Manning (1860–1938) was a landscape architect and an American Society of Landscape Architects founding member. His work covers a broad spectrum: he worked on small residential lots as well as large regional plans. This article examines how a landscape architects’ involvement in regional planning affected the ways they viewed landscape. It uses as primary sources Manning’s writings that capture general perceptions of landscape: how it is understood, appreciated, and reconfigured into garden, city, or regional proposals. As the size of Manning’s commissions grew he distanced himself from the immersive qualities of gardens, yet he sought a vantage point that captured immediate impressions of regions. He discovered this vantage point through flight.

Abstract: Originally developed in California, earth-work terracing has proliferated worldwide as an expedient method for grading terrain for subdivision development. In Western Australia, terracing is now entrenched as conventional practice for facilitating suburban development on highly malleable coastal dunes. Although the adoption of international urban design models was partially intended to reduce topographic modification, retaining walls continue to increase in height and extent. To address this disjunction between theory and practice in current suburban development, this article tests landscape-based urban design mechanisms for improving the conservation and expression of natural topography on a coastal site in Perth, Western Australia. With the international growth of coastal suburbanization, the article contributes to the establishment of more topographically sensitive suburban planning practices on steep coastal settings.

Abstract: In this paper, one-dimensional heat equation subject to both Neumann and Dirichlet initial boundary conditions is presented and a spline Collocation Method is utilized for solving the problem. also Spline provides continuous solution in contrast to finite difference method, which only provides discrete approximations. It is found that this method is a powerful mathematical tool and can be applied to large class of linear and nonlinear problem in different fields of science and technology. Numerical results obtained by the present method are in a good agreement with the analytical solutions available in the literature.