Landscape Architecture Commons^™

The Santaquin Greenway System: Preserving The Future Of Santaquin Trails And Open Space, Ian Kola

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Santaquin residents value their open spaces, trails and gathering spaces. Greenways are a space-efficient form of open space that can ensure a community has access to these amenities.

This greenway master plan is a cumulative result of work compiled and completed by students from Utah State University’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning department, Santaquin residents, and city government. Extensive community engagement occurred through USU’s senior capstone and Charrette projects, and this master plan coincides with the planning conclusions made in these projects.

This plan represents a conceptual layout and design of a greenway system in Santaquin, UT. These plans are …

Empirical Evaluation Of Route-Based Landscape Experiences, Garet Openshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores a method of visual analysis that aims to create a more in-depth understanding of how individuals see and visually perceive their environment. Here we explore a geospatial tool, called Visual Magnitude, to assess road-based experiences. We aimed to provide evidence of a relationship between the tool and scenic rating preferences from a survey. The content of this thesis is split between two articles. The first article, contained in Chapter 2, focuses on optimizing the selection of viewpoints along route-based envrionments. In this study we ask the question is there an optimal sampling rate of viewpoints along a …

Developing And Piloting A Design Guide For Outdoor Classrooms In Utah, Derek Jenson, Jake Powell, David T. Anderson, Rose Judd-Murray

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The outdoor classroom design guide can help applicants successfully apply for the Utah Outdoor Classroom Grant introduced by the Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) in 2021. The design guide includes case studies, design resources, and critical information for community involvement from statewide locations and will serve as a free public resource.

Developing And Piloting A Design Guide For Outdoor Classrooms In Utah, Derek Jenson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Studies nationwide suggest that the use of outdoor classrooms in education benefits both students and teachers. In response, the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) established a grant to help fund the implementation of outdoor classrooms across the state of Utah. Interested schools and non-profit organizations may apply for this grant to fund outdoor classroom projects that will help transform their properties into outdoor learning environments.

One requirement for the application is to submit a site plan for the proposed outdoor classroom space. However, many interested applicants have little to no experience with landscape design and may struggle knowing how …

Development Of An Instructional Course On Fire-Protective And Low-Water Landscaping In Utah, Jordan Goff

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Because of climate change, population expansion, and other factors, both wildfire and drought are becoming pressing concerns in Utah. Home landscaping can reduce risk of damage from wildfire (fire-protective landscaping) and contribute to lower water use (low-water landscaping). While it is important for homes in the wildland-urban interface in Utah to have landscaping that is both fire-protective and low-water, best practices for the two are often taught in ways that make them seem mutually exclusive. This project used existing research and best practices to develop a learning experience to teach homeowners how to implement landscaping that is both fire-protective and …

Implementing A Digital Sharing Space In Online Studio Coursework In The Field Of Landscape Architecture, Elizabeth Braithwaite

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Landscape architecture education focuses on creating socially-rich environments for learning. Coursework in landscape architecture often is labeled as “studio learning.” These types of classes involve a high degree of collaboration and detailed critique. They create opportunities for students to interact with each other and their professors. When considering the adoption of online learning, a primary concern of landscape architecture professors is to maintain this high degree of social interaction in online classes.

This study explores the use of several platforms to facilitate social interaction in online landscape architecture coursework. These platforms include Canvas, Basecamp, and Conceptboard. Canvas is the learning …

Parametric Design In Landscape Architecture: Exploring Visual Scripting In Grasshopper As A Tool For Landscape Design Innovation, Derek Jenson

Student Research Symposium

Parametric design is a tool that emphasizes the relationships between elements in the design and modeling processes. It combines the power of visual computer scripting with the design process. Unlike the fields of architecture and engineering, parametric design has been relatively nonexistent in landscape architecture until very recently. The objective of this project is to explore how parametric design can be used as a functional tool in a typical landscape design project - in this case, a trail design. The result of this study is a coded model that can serve as a tool to improve design efficiency in professional …

Agricultural Ecosystem Services: Exploring Models And Methods For Scenario Development Along The Wasatch Front, Utah, Daniella Hirschfeld

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Asla Awards: Building A Stronger Landscape Architecture Program, Corinne Bahr

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Every year the American Society of Landscape Architects, otherwise known as ASLA, issues awards for exceptional designs and research in the field of Landscape Architecture. These awards include both Professional and Student awards. Our study analyzes 13,000 award-winning project images over the last 15 years to discover the common trends that create award winning projects. Recognizing these trends enables the USU Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning program, or LAEP, to set the bar high and help our students enter the field equipped to change the world. Our analysis of the creative flow, graphics, and styles in award winning projects can …

The Healing Landscapes Of Usu: Discovering Spaces Of Potential Mental Restorativeness: A Geospatial Analysis Of Usu Campus, Amelia H. Wilcken

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project focuses on understanding an alternative resource that can be intentionally improved upon to help address the mental health crisis on university campuses. With ample research showing how nature and being outside can help improve, or be restorative for, the mental state of individuals, this project developed an analytical method for understanding the restorative potential within the campus landscape as a whole and within districts. The analysis uses nine separate elements that make up the campus landscape: (1) trees, (2) landscape plantings (grass, planters, etc.), (3) art pieces, (4) benches, (5) water features, (6) sidewalks, (7) roads, (8) parking …

Adapting To Sea Level Rise: Insights From A New Evaluation Framework Of Physical Design Projects, Daniella Hirschfeld, Kristina E. Hill, Ellen Plane

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Designers and engineers are developing proposals for physical projects to adapt coastal sites to future sea level rise related threats. This puts pressure on local and regional decision makers to develop strategic frameworks for prioritizing, permitting and funding such projects. However, no systematic evaluation tools exist for the full range of these innovative designs. We build on the literature to develop an evaluation framework that synthesizes two different approaches to categorize these proposals and provide insight for coastal managers and decision makers. We apply this framework to physical projects that address sea level rise in their design around the San …

Augmenting The Site Analysis Phase Of The Design Process Using Virtual Reality And Drones, Brandon Blauer

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Virtual reality (VR) is a tool that has been utilized by designers for decades now. In most cases, VR has been utilized in the latter part of the design process. More specifically, VR has been used most commonly towards the design review phase of the design process where people are often looking for a final design suggestion. With regards to the design review phase, there have been many reports discussing the effectiveness of VR. However, there has been little to no research regarding the use of VR in the site analysis phase of the design process.

This thesis develops a …

The River, The Residents, And The City: A Holistic Vision Study For Logan River's Upper Reach, Lisa Aedo

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The three-mile Upper Reach of the Logan River starting at the USU Water Lab to the 100 East bridge has been negatively impacted by residential development and diversion for agriculture and industry. A task force comprised of faculty at USU, professionals, government and city officials, and concerned residents has developed a Conservation Action Plan focused on twenty-two baseline indicators which, if improved, can help rehabilitate the river. This thesis looks at the factors that created the current challenges and seeks to provide a holistic vision with design solutions to address said challenges in alignment with that Plan. A literature review …

Conserving Water Through Modular Planting Design: Water-Wise Templates For Ogden's Residential Front Yard Landscapes, Jessica Clements

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Due to the arid climate of the Wasatch front and the projected population growth in the next thirty years, water conservation is essential. Consequently, because the landscape consumes 60% of Utah residences’ purified drinking water, water-wise landscaping needs to be a priority. This thesis creates water-wise landscape templates that can be applied to the front yards of Ogden rental properties using a modular planting method. This study determines best practices by researching topics such as water-wise plants for Northern Utah, templates utilized in other areas, modular planting, and existing organizations with similar goals. This results in a user-friendly guide that …

An Indicator Based Transportation Sustainability Assessment In Regional Development: A Case Study For Cache County, Utah, Humaira Yusuf Nabeela

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evaluating sustainability for a key system like transportation can be vital for both planners and citizens alike, as planners provide the system and citizens use the system. A sustainable transportation system not only builds a prosperous economy, but it also ensures social equity and a healthy environment for years to come. There are differing scales of sustainability assessment, ranging from neighborhood to global. However, a sustainability scale between the local and national scale is not very common in practice. Therefore, this study offers a regional scale sustainability assessment for the transportation system that will address local changes while also reflecting …

Evaluating Planning And Management Of Natural Resources Within The Utah State Park System, Erin K. Mann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A change in management style, combined with increased visitation and the advanced age of guiding documents used to describe conditions and goals (known as Resource Management Plans) in Utah’s State Parks, are leading park managers to potentially not fulfill the objectives stated in their Resource Management Plans. Using a research tool known as “content analysis,” we analyzed the Research Management Plans of ten sample parks and found that written plans had strong priorities and goals regarding the care and management of natural resources. Significant findings included strong emphasis on resource protection, data collection, and research. Pre-written questions were asked of …

Chinese Gardens: Solutions For Urban Nature Deficit, Zachary K. Warner

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Research shows that time spent in nature is good for human health and well-being. However, as the world’s population becomes more concentrated in urban areas regular time in nature, especially extended time, is becoming more difficult to have. On the other hand, Chinese gardens can provide one solution to this problem because they have a unique way of providing a naturalistic space within a small area. Despite this fact, there aren’t many Chinese style gardens outside of China. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify possible barriers to using Chinese garden design principles and construction techniques, then address …

Designing Water Conservation Landscapes Using Local Water Audit Data, Logan Oates

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In 2016, Eagle Mountain City (EMC) entered into a collaborative agreement with Utah State University Extension to complete several water conservation projects. These projects include Water Checks, landscape water conservation publications, educational programs, and a water-wise landscape design for Eagle Mountain City Hall and a nearby roundabout.

The Water Check program is sponsored by Utah State University’s (USU) Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWEL) and offers residential water efficiency checks to EMC residents. Data collected from the Water Check program includes lot size, square feet (sf) of turfgrass, sprinkler types, sprinkler efficiency, and existing watering schedules.

This thesis examines the …

A Deep Dive Into Natural Swimming Pool Filtration: Living Walls As Technical Wetland Filters, Anna Farb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Vertical gardens such as living walls can filter air and water, in addition to cooling buildings, reducing noise, increasing urban biodiversity, providing food, and enhancing well-being. Natural swimming pools (NSPs) are an ecologically sound alternative to chemically treated pools, but they have not reached their potential in the U.S. We investigated whether a living wall could be integrated into an NSP system for water filtration purposes, given that the vertical filter would have to produce excellent water quality for human swimmers. This could be a novel landscape design, particularly in the cases of steep contours, urbanized sites with limited space, …

Resilient Golf Course Design: Renovating Eaglewood Golf Course To Improve Stormwater Management & Increase Wildlife Habitat, Foster Cook

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Earth is experiencing climatic changes globally, influencing issues such as reduced water availability, loss of native habitats for flora and fauna, increased resource demand and consumption by humans, continued dependency on carbon-based energy, rapid population growth and rising global temperatures. In order to combat and mitigate these issues, changes to our design habits will be required. Historically, golf courses have been viewed negatively with regard to environmental impacts, due to excessive water use, reliance on herbicides and pesticides and the carbon footprint associated with mowing. However, recent studies have shown that golf courses have the potential to positively impact …

Cultural Ecosystem Services Of Agroecosystems Along The Wasatch Front, Utah, Tiffany K. Woods

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Agroecosystems, including peri-urban systems, are important providers of a range of services. However, management of these systems has generally been based on the market value of crops, neglecting to capture the broader public goods that ecosystem services provide to stakeholders. While the ecosystem service framework (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA], 2005) has been adopted to measure the market and non-market values associated with these services, knowledge gaps persist, particularly with respect to the quantification and valuation of cultural ecosystem services (CES). In this paper, the determination of CES values assigned to agroecosystems by residents of two communities along the Wasatch Front, …

Usu Equine-Assisted Activities And Therapies Facilities Designed Master Plan, Lindsie C. Smith

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies (EAAT) is recognized as a therapeutic approach for persons with disabilities. The USU Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences Department provides EAAT instruction and services; however, they do not have the appropriate facilities to model best-practices in the delivery of these services. This design research entailed the development of a phased masterplan to support the instruction and delivery of equine-assisted activities and therapies in an innovative and accessible environment that supports animal-assisted intervention and natural equine behaviors.

The methodology used to approach the master plan design was derived from Norman K. Booth’s (1990) design process, as described …

Bookscapes: A Study In The Interconnectivity Of Landscape And Narrative Visualization And Communication In Landscape Architecture, Tonya Randall

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The fields of landscape architecture and literacy have the potential to be linked through a simulated environment. Through this connection, opportunity for education arises. This thesis creates and describes a program called Bookscapes, which presents a narrative inside a simulated landscape for the purpose of communicating landscape architecture/urban planning principles.

Bookscapes is a stand-alone computer program designed using theories in education and guidelines for virtual and restorative environments (including Huang’s elements, Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory for restorative environments, constructivist theory of situational learning) and the revolving design process in landscape architecture’s communication to clients through 3D modeling.

This thesis first …

Rural Sustainability In The Intermountain West, Mary L. Oliver

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Assessing the sustainability of communities is important for planners and citizens alike. Sustainability plays a central role in forming healthy, successful communities and in planning for responsible growth and development. Most current sustainability evaluations favor urban environments due to their high densities and resulting efficiencies, leaving rural areas labeled “unsustainable” because of their decentralized growth patterns. Characterized as “not urban,” they fall short of urban sustainability benchmarks (Isserman, 2005). The importance of rural sustainability to both small communities and regions leads to the question: how can rural sustainability be characterized and assessed?

This study applies a comparative assessment model to …

Dramatic Play Affordances Of Outdoor Settings For First And Second Grade Children With And Without Disabilities, Nicholas R. Leschofs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Unstructured play is crucial for children’s development. Dramatic play is play involving a transformation of objects, actions, or self-identity. During dramatic play, children may operate at more advanced cognitive levels than they do in non-dramatic play, thereby furthering their cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Interactions among children with and without disabilities are valuable opportunities to further a children’s development.

This study compared dramatic play behaviors among first and second grade children with and without disabilities to determine which play settings encouraged children to engage in quality dramatic play. Eighty-nine six-to-eight-year-olds were observed during lunch recess daily on an inclusive playground. …

Exploring Park Quality In Urban Setting With Environmental Justice, Alternative Measurements, And Social Interaction, Shuolei Chen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With rapid urbanization, urban green resources, such as parks have become important assets for quality of life in urban settings. Parks provide urban residents with both physical and psychological health benefits through various mechanisms such as physical activity and social interaction. Quality is an important non-spatial dimension of urban parks and has started to gain attention among researchers. To better understand park quality in an urban setting, additional knowledge should be explored. This dissertation studies the quality of urban parks from three different perspectives: 1) the equal distribution of park quality resources and its relationship to environmental justice issues, 2) …

Visualization Tools For Visual Impact Assessments: A Study Of Existing Technologies, Anthony J. Depriest, Tim D. Keane, Brent C. Chamberlain, Mark Lindquist

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

In the last few decades, digital technology has dramatically altered how visual resource management and visual impact assessments (VIAs) are conducted. The recent emergence of low-cost immersive technology offers a suite of tools that could facilitate the VIA process. However, to date there is limited empirical evidence evaluating how these emerging technologies could influence VIA. The research presented here begins to fill this gap by comparing immersive virtual environments to existing 2D photo-based methods for assessing the visual impacts of development. 23 participants familiar with VIAs rated the visual qualities of different scenes presented as 360° images, Google Earth and …

Empty Parks: An Observational And Correlational Study Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uavs), Keunhyun Park, Sungmin Lee, Dong-Ah Choi

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

If a neighbourhood park fails to meet the needs of its residents usage may decrease, which potentially makes the park vulnerable to crime and social disorder. Despite the popularity of studying park visitation or park-based physical activity, there is a lack of studies on factors associated with empty parks. This study explores factors related to the underutilisation of neighbourhood parks in Salt Lake County, Utah, USA, using a novel data collection approach – unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The findings from exploratory video analysis and inferential statistical modelling show that park programs and neighbourhood environments, as well as temporal aspects, are …

A Pedagogical Retrospective: Gamifying The Konza Prairie Through An Interdisciplinary Studio, Howard Hahn, Brent C. Chamberlain

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Recently we embarked on developing an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach that integrates concepts of virtual reality and gaming design to leverage these technologies’ potential to influence how we interpret, visualize, design and analyze environments. The approach was developed as part of an advanced studio at Kansas State University led by two professors and represented by students across three different disciplines: landscape architecture, education and computer science. The entire project consisted of a core studio, buttressed by a seminar and technical module. We refer to the courses and project as “Studio Konza.” This retrospective paper highlights why this effort was undertaken, what …

Flying High: A Case Study Of The Integration Of Drones Into A Landscape Architecture Curriculum, Benjamin H. George, Keunhyun Park

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, is becoming increasingly important to the field of landscape architecture, and universities need to adapt their teaching practices to prepare students to use this technology in practice. This article describes the creation of a Department-wide drone program to train students on the operation of UAVs and the other components that compose an unmanned aerial system (UAS). This program led to impacts in faculty decisions regarding projects, as well as broader curricular changes. While the program has been demonstrated to be both successful and sustainable, several hurdles have had to be addressed …