Landscape Pattern Analysis

These lecture notes were based on: Chen, X. and J. Wu. 2009. Sustainable landscape architecture: implications of the Chinese philosophy of “unity of man with nature” and beyond. Landscape Ecology 24: 1015-1026

As the world is increasingly dominated by humans, its ecosystems and landscapes have become ever more domesticated (Kareiva et al. 2007; Vitousek and Mooney 1997). One only needs to think of the exponential growth of the human population to be startled by the magnitude and change rate of anthropogenic influences on planet earth. The world population took more than 10,000 years to increase from 5 million to 1 billion by 1830, but the time interval to reach the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth billion decreased to 100, 30, 15, 13 and 12 years, respectively (Kaufman and Franz 1996; United Nations 2004; Wu 2008a). Rapid human population growth has resulted in pressing environmental problems around the world, including biodiversity loss, global climate change, land degradation, water and air pollution, and natural resource depletion. Most of the future population increase will occur in cities, and urbanization will continue even after human population has reached a steady state (United Nations 2004; Wu 2008a). As cities increasingly become the primary habitat for humans, our landscapes will be ever more designed (Wu 2008b). Thus, global sustainability will increasingly depend on proper designing, planning, and management of urban landscapes.

Landscape architects intentionally modify and create landscapes of different kinds and various sizes. The imprints and influences of landscape architects are especially profound and pervasive on urban landscapes across the world. These anthropogenic impacts, of course, do not stop at the physical limits of the designed landscapes. As the renowned architect Sim Van der Ryn put it:

“In many ways, the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used. Design manifests culture, and culture rests firmly on the foundation of what we believe to be true about the world” (quoted in McLennan 2004, pp. xiii).

While socioeconomic processes are widely recognized as the primary driver for land use and land cover change, the role of landscape architects in shaping our landscapes is yet to be fully appreciated by most ecologists.

Given the increasing need for sustainable development worldwide and the widely recognized transdisciplinary goals of landscape ecology (Naveh 1991, 2007; Potschin and Haines-Young 2006; Wu 2006), integration between landscape ecology and landscape architecture in theory and practice is imperative (Nassauer and Opdam 2008).

Landscape architecture, often defined as the art of spatially arranging land and objects upon it for human use and enjoyment, involves the design, planning, and management of landscapes and their constituent elements for a variety of purposes and on a range of scales. A comprehensive definition of landscape architecture by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA 2009) makes explicit the broad scope and diverse topics in this field:

“Landscape architecture encompasses the analysis, planning, design, management, and stewardship of the natural and built environments. Types of projects include: residential; parks and recreation; monuments; urban design; streetscapes and public spaces; transportation corridors and facilities; gardens and arboreta; security design; hospitality and resorts; institutional; academic campuses; therapeutic gardens; historic preservation and restoration; reclamation; conservation; corporate and commercial; landscape art and earth sculpture; interior landscapes; and more.”

Landscape architecture itself is an interdisciplinary enterprise that inherits traditions of the past, creates reality in the present, and anticipates changes in the future. Although some may argue that landscape architecture is really future-oriented as architects are always creating a future state of the landscape, traditional design principles and models often persist through time and across landscapes.

(1) When the world was not yet dominated by Homo sapiens, humans feared and worshiped nature.

(2) Beginning with the Age of Imperialism (1800-1914) and empowered by the Industrial Revolution, domination and appropriation became the prevailing theme in man’s interaction with nature.

(3) Currently, the dominant theme of the relationship between man and nature is one of reconciliation and harmony. This theme echoes the essential principles of "Unity of Humans and Nature", an ancient Chinese philosophy that was manifest in traditional Chinese garden and landscape design.

Landscape architecture has an important and unique role to play in developing and maintaining sustainability on local, regional, and global scales. Landscape architecture deals directly with the relations between humans and nature, and its theory and practice are influenced significantly by the philosophies and ideals about how humans should relate themselves to nature. Unity of Humans and Nature and its derivative design ideals can help facilitate the development of a sustainable landscape architecture. Although differences in the philosophical roots and design traditions between Eastern and Western landscape architecture will continue to exist (inevitably and rightly), interactions and integration between the two will continue to increase under the theme of sustainability and through the process of globalization.

Landscape ecology should play a critically important role in achieving this goal of developing and maintaining sustainable landscapes and regions (Naveh 2007; Wu 2006; Nassauer and Opdam 2008; Ahern 2005a, 2005b; Musacchio 2009; Forman 1990; Musacchio and Wu 2004; Forman 2008; Termorshuizen and Opdam 2009). Recognizing these needs as well as the cross-disciplinary nature of the field, Wu and Hobbs (2007) defined landscape ecology as an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary enterprise that integrates the science and art of studying and influencing the relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes on multiple scales. Landscape ecology needs to further develop its capacities to build bridges to other disciplines and to broaden and consolidate its transdisciplinary basis (Naveh 2007; Wu 2006).

Landscape ecology and landscape architecture need more interactions and further integration. As Golley and Bellot (1991) put it well: “there is a close relationship between landscape ecology and planning and design. We can move back and forth from one to the other, with landscape ecology providing information to the planner-designer, and the planned and designed landscapes serving as field experiments to test hypotheses for the landscape ecologist.” In particular, to promote the translation of scientific knowledge into practice on the ground, landscape ecologists need to work proactively with landscape architects to integrate pattern-process-scale and holistic perspectives into the design and planning of landscapes (Nassauer and Opdam 2008). Examples of such integration exist (e.g., Botequilha Leitao and Ahern 2002; Ahern 2005a, 2005b; Termorshuizen et al. 2007; Opdam et al. 2001; Ahern et al. 2006; Bastian et al. 2006), but much more effort is needed if landscape ecology and landscape architecture are to fulfill their expected responsibility in our common journey to sustainability.