Landscape Architecture Commons^™

Assessing Impermeable Surface Area Impacts On Modeling: Implications For The Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan In Omaha, Nebraska, Andrew D. Szatko

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The report looks at assessing the accuracy of estimating impervious surface areas (ISAs) by zoning code, the method utilized by the City of Omaha, Nebraska. A 101 acre subcatchment had all ISAs manually digitized and compared the actual with the estimated value. The subcatchment was then modeled with 10 percent decreases of ISAs to establish the relationship with peak flow rates and total volume in the combined sewer service area. The results show a significant relationship between the two that may provide insights into a new approach to manage CSO events with the integration of green infrastructure.

Social Interaction At The Maya Site Of Copan, Honduras: A Least Cost Approach To Configurational Analysis, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In this article, I employ least cost paths using GIS to measure the relationship between site configuration and social connectivity at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. I investigate two questions. First, did people of different social classes experience varying degrees of social connectivity? Second, did people living in different parts of the city experience difference degrees of social connectivity? Ultimately, the goal is modify traditional configurational analysis using least cost analysis (LCA) to identify how social hierarchy was embedded in landscapes and how ancient people may have strategically manipulated landscapes to structure social interaction and community organization.

A Health Impact Assessment Of Mixed Use Redevelopment Nodes And Corridors In Lincoln, Nebraska, Katie Clear

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Obesity is a growing threat to America’s health. The national rate of obesity is 34% (Health Consequences, 2011), and Lincoln, Nebraska is not far behind that trend at 20.7% (BRFSS, 2011). Increasing physical activity is one way to reduce weight gain, (Edwards, 2008) and further studies show that small changes to the built environment can induce people to use alternative and more active forms of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation (Edwards, 2008; Zheng, 2008). The 2040 Comprehensive Plan for Lincoln, NE includes language to create a more walkable community. The proposal is to redevelop existing areas within …

A Model Of Human Scale Tested On Rural Landscape Scenes, Richard K. Sutton

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Landscapes such as the Great Plains have been described as lacking human scale. This study developed a quantitative model of human scale and compared it with viewers' perceptions of visual structure. Visual structure was selected from the physical features of Otoe County, NE, forming boundaries, found as ground textures, vegetative screens, and topographic breaks and was depicted in photographs of landscape scenes. The model used and tested nine classes of scale based on grain and extent of the photos rated by viewers against those from the model. Viewers identified boundaries representing grain and extent that were synthesized into a viewer-perceived …

Media Modifications For Native Plant Asemblages On Extensive Green Roofs, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Great Plains and Midwestern regions might profit from selecting species representing nearby mid and short grass prairies, not the tall grass prairie. Such assemblages should exhibit needed characteristics desirable on low-input extensive green roofs to withstand stresses of: drought, heat, cold, nutrient deficiencies and wind before providing expected benefits. While published research, and its recommendations are inconclusive or negative regarding efficacy of native prairie species for extensive green roofs, establishment data gathered in this study demonstrates placing native plant assemblages for extensive green roofs into modified media significantly improves their establishment and growth.

In the short-term soil doughtiness limits plant …

Selfish Form, Selfless Nature, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Tension exists between the use of technology and human connection to nature. While architectural design begins in the imitation of nature and attempts to solve human/nature problems, its final forms too often have more to do with technology than with nature. So much so the natural conditions at building sites are too often ignored, minimized or trivialized, The culprit in all this is the human ego a master that must be served an becomes memorialized in built form.

Comments On Plan View Visual Assessment, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Plan view visual assessments ignore human horizontal orientation to the landscape.

Trees And Ice Storms: The Development Of Ice Storm–Resistant Urban Tree Populations (Second Edition), Richard J. Hauer, Jeffrey O. Dawson, Les P. Werner

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Severe ice storms occur every year in the United States and Canada, particularly in the midwestern and eastern regions of the United States. Along with fires and wind, ice storms are a frequent and major natural disturbance factor in eastern deciduous forests. Likewise ice storms are responsible for deaths and injuries of people and cause dramatic damage and tree loss to urban forests. Ice storms annually result in millions of dollars in loss, and potentially billions of dollars in losses for extreme and widespread ice storms. Damage to electric distribution systems, blocked roadways, and property damage from fallen trees and …

Visual Impacts On The Westward Vista At Nine-Mile Prairie And The Inadequacy Of The Les Power Line Siting Criteria To Address Them, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

The criteria utilized by the Lincoln Electric System (LES) do not account for impact to the historical, cultural, biological and aesthetic settings traversed by large high-voltage power lines. This paper describes the impacts of such a proposed line at Nine-mile prairie near Lincoln, Nebraska.

Hedgerow Management Plan, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This document and accompanying files describe the existing Osage-orange (Maclura pomifera) hedgerow at Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Nebraska. Analysis of the living pioneer artifact found most trees in good to very good condition and sprouts near 75-80 years of age. A management plan and directs the propagation and prunning of the hedge for interpretation and natural resource value.

Aesthetics Of Urban Streams, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This is a power point summary of an research study. Scenes of urban and urbanizing streams were rate by paired semantic differentials and subjected to factor analysis. Four categories were recognized: Man-made hard surfaced, Man-made soft surface, Park-like, and Natural.

Landscape Ecology Of Hedgerows And Fencerows In Panama Township, Lancaster County, Nebraska, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This study investigated woody plant composition, structure, and biomass of hedgerows and fencerows, and for effects between human attitudes and managemnet practices. Fencerows arise as narrow strips of woody and herbaceous plants at feild margins and property boundaries. Hedgerows grow from intentional linear plantings. Exotic species wer more important in fencerow composition. Hackberry, Missouri goosberry, American plum, and white mulberry readily inhabited both fencerows and hedgerows. Woody plant exhibited clumped distribution in both hedgerows and fencerows. A moisture gradient emerged as a factor in distribution of species. Management caused a significant difference in speicies richness and biomass in both hedgerows …

Trees And Shrubs For Noise Abatement, David I. Cook, David F. Haverbeke

Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station: Historical Research Bulletins

The study, Trees and Shrubs for Noise Abatement, was a joint effort by the University of Nebraska and the U.S. Forest Service. The principal objective was to determine effective means for reducing traffic noise levels by the use of trees and shrubs, wherever intrusive noise is a problem.

Some Foreign Botanical Gardens And Parks, Charles E. Bessey

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Last summer I had the privilege of visiting a number of botanical gardens and parks in different parts of Europe. The American visitor abroad is constantly reminded of the abundance of parks and botanical gardens in not only the larger cities but even in the small cities and towns. Hyde Park, Regent's Park, St. James Park and Green Park, London; Kew Gardens; Thiergarten, Berlin; Prater Park, Vienna; Moscow; Kislovodsk; Vladikavkaz, Tiflis; Erivan; Batum; Odessa.

Coming now to our own city of Lincoln, a city which has many things about it which are very attractive, one'is made to drop his head …