Plenary Lecture
Landscape Evaluation Criteria: Dispersed Expectations
Associate Professor Jon B. Burley
Landscape Architecture
School of Planning, Design, and Construction
Human Ecology Building
Michigan State University
USA
E-mail: burleyj@msu.edu
Co-author: Chunqing Liu
Abstract: Planners and designers are interested in understand respondent’s perceptions concerning the environment. In our study, we examined the criteria respondents indicated to assess landscape. We were interested in comprehending the simplicity/diversity of these responses. In our study we discovered that just a small sample of 71 respondents generated 65 criteria divided into 31 dimensions to evaluate environments. In other words, we found the criteria to evaluate environments to be complex and not uniform. These dimensions explained 80% of the variance in the respondents. We do not suggest that this list is definitive nor precisely represents the larger population. Rather, we suggest that such inconsistency means that agreement amongst respondents concerning how the landscape should be evaluated is dispersed. For planners and designers, this means that achieving agreement across numerous clients, stakeholders, and users requires successful implementation over an extensive programmatic list of expectations.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Dr. Jon Burley is a registered Landscape Architect, an MSU SPDC Associate Professor, and a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). He has accomplished professional planning and design work in the U.S., Canada, France and Nepal. Dr. Burley has published nearly 300 articles and abstracts related to landscape architecture and one book in reclamation planning and design. His work has been published in English, Chinese and French, and besides English, he can also speak French (somewhat) and a little Portuguese and Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese). Currently, he is a member of the Landscape International Scientific Committee for the World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society, Chair of the Land-Use and Planning Technical Division of the American Society for Mining and Reclamation (ASMR), and Associate Editor of the ASMR online journal. Dr. Burley has won numerous teaching, design and research awards, including a Fulbright to Portugal in 2003, the 2005 ASMR Reclamation Researcher of the Year Award, a 2011-2012 Invited Pre-eminent Researcher Award in France, and nine state and two national ASLA awards. He has international connections at Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China; Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal; and Agro-campus Ouest-Paysage, Angers, France. Dr. Burley is the past Chair of the ASLA International Professional Practice Network, past member of the AFB40 Landscape and Environmental Design Committee Transportation Research Board National Academies, past Chair of the ASLA Restoration and Reclamation Professional Practice Network, and past Chair of Chairs for the ASLA Professional Practice Network. At MSU, he works with visiting scholars and students from China, Portugal and France. He has lectured in Nepal, China, S. Korea, Sweden, Estonia, Portugal, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, U.S., the United Kingdom (U.K.), Turkey and Canada; and has led overseas studies in the U.K., France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Greece and Italy.
Research Interests: Wildlife habitat design, surface mine reclamation planning and design, landscape planning methods, landscape research methods, landscape theory, landscape ecology, environmental design, landscape hazards, visual quality assessment, conceptual design, international planning and design, and transportation planning and design.
Website: https://www.msu.edu/~burleyj/