Synopses & Reviews
A complete guide to digital tools for today's land plannerThe land planning process is a complex activity. Fortunately, an array of powerful tools are now available for performing the multitude of tasks that face the planner, from evaluating design alternatives for a particular use to visualizing the impact of a development proposal. This book introduces land planning professionals and those lay people interested in land planning decisions to the current technologies and how they can be applied in building a framework for planning and design as well as representing concepts and final proposals.
A guide for both practitioners trained in traditional hand techniques and for newer planners and students trained in digital techniques but lacking a clear understanding of process, Digital Land: Integrating Technology into the Land Planning Process:
Provides you with a range of sources where you can find digital data
Illustrates how to share, store, and manage data, and identifies the issues that you must confront—scale, data accuracy, resolution—before the data can be put to use
Describes the major categories of digital tools for processing data and guides you on how to choose the right tool
Outlines strategies and contexts for integrating the tools holistically into the decision-making process
Tools covered include:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Multimedia, Web technology, and digital video
Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
Image processing and more
3D modeling, rendering, and animation
Professional planners and designers, interested citizens, decision makers, resource managers, earth scientists, and students will benefit from this guide to the new tools for land planning—tools that allow you to see things you couldn't see before, incorporate data that was once inaccessible, make decisions based upon more than intuition, and explore the widest range of alternatives possible.
Synopsis
It?s your complete guide to design and planning as they relate to land and how digital technology fits into the process. Digital Land, Integrating Technology into the Land Planning Process, explains what digital tools are used to collect, assemble, and analyze information used to assess the suitability of both development and preservation. It also covers scales of planning -- including regional, community, and neighborhood projects -- and shows how digital tools can be used to complete those projects better and faster. Case studies offer sound examples of how digital and traditional tools were used in specific planning projects. This book is ideal if you make or are interested in decisions about the use of land in your neighborhood, community, or region.
About the Author
James L. Sipes, ASLA, is a landscape architect, Senior Associate with EDAW in Atlanta, Georgia, and a founding principal of Sand County Studios in Seattle, Washington. A contributing editor for Landscape Architecture magazine and Cadalyst magazine, and author of more than 300 articles on environmental and technology issues, Mr. Sipes holds a BLA from the University of Kentucky and an MLA from Iowa State University and has taught at several major universities, including Washington State University, University of Idaho, Cornell University, and The University of Oklahoma.
Mark S. Lindhult, FASLA, is a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and partner in The Berkshire Design Group, Inc., Northampton, Massachusetts. He has MLA and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BSLA from The Pennsylvania State University. He was the first computer editor for Landscape Architecture magazine and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.
Image Credits.
Preface.
Chapter 1 Introduction.
Background.
Framework for Understanding Digital Data.
Stakeholders in the Planning and Design Process.
Digital Tools for the Land Planning Process.
Chapter 2 Gathering Digital Data.
The Need for Valid Data.
Database Management System Software.
Geospatial Data.
Democratization of Data.
Mining for Data.
Digital Terrain and 3D Landforms.
Site Surveys.
Global Positioning System Technology.
Data Acquisition, Costs, and Management.
Conclusion.
Chapter 3 Sharing, Storing, and Managing Data Networking.
Networking.
Wireless Technology.
Storage and Backup.
Disaster Recovery Planning.
Managing CAD Data.
Case Study: Sasaki Associates.
Case Study: Geller Devellis, Inc.
Chapter 4 Processing Digital Data.
Management and Production.
Importance of the Internet to the Design Community.
Visualizing the Land.
Case Study: Burlington Project.
Conclusion.
Chapter 5 Integrating Digital Data.
Creating Maps.
CAD/GIS Integration.
Processing Images.
Tools for Urban Planning.
Case Study: Using Google Earth to Share Geospatial Information.
Community Mapping.
Interactive Web Technology: Public Participation in Cyberspace.
Dynamic Graphics.
Case Study: Sasaki Strategies.
Integrating Scientific Modeling and Simulations.
Case Study: Geller Devellis.
Conclusion.
Summary.
Trends.
Conclusion.
Web Resources.
References.
Index.