Virtual Reality for Mutual Understanding in Landscape Planning
This paper argues that fostering mutual understanding in landscape planning is as much about the planners educating stakeholder groups as the stakeholders educating the planners. In other words it is an epistemological agreement as to the meaning and nature of place, especially where an effort is made to go beyond the quantitative aspects, which can be achieved by the phenomenological experience of the Virtual Reality (VR) environment. This education needs to be a bi-directional process in which distance can be both temporal as well as spatial separation of participants, that there needs to be a common framework of understanding in which neither 'side' is disadvantaged during the process of information exchange and it follows that a medium such as VR offers an effective way of overcoming some of the shortcomings of traditional media by taking advantage of continuing technological advances in Information, Technology and Communications (ITC). In this paper we make particular reference to this as an extension to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). VR as a two-way communication tool offers considerable potential particularly in the area of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). Information rich virtual environments that can operate over broadband networks are now possible and thus allow for the representation of large amounts of qualitative and quantitative information 'side-by-side'. Therefore, with broadband access becoming standard for households and enterprises alike, distributed virtual reality environments have great potential to contribute to enabling stakeholder participation and mutual learning within the planning context.
[1] United Nations (2002) Report of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August - 4 September
2002, United Nations Publications
[2] United Nations (2003) United Nations Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development, Resolution Adopted by the General
Assembly, A/RES/57/254, Fifty-Seventh Session, 21st February, 2003,
United Nations Documentation
[3] UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future: A
Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, November 1997,
EPD-97/CONF.401/CLD.l
[4] DiBiase, D. (1999) ÔÇÿEvoking the visualization experience in computerassisted
geographic education-, in Câmara, A. S. and Raper, J., Spatial
Multimedia and Virtual Reality, Taylor & Francis, London
[5] Bodum, L. (1999) ÔÇÿFuture directions for hypermedia in urban planning-,
in Câmara, A. S. and Raper, J., Spatial Multimedia and Virtual Reality,
Taylor & Francis, London
[6] Miller, D. R., Morrice, J., Horne, P. and Ball, J. (2007) Integrating
programmes of awareness and education for professionals and the
public, proceedings of Environment 2007, Abu Dhabi, 27 January - 2
February
[7] Ball, J. (2002) Towards a Methodology for Mapping ÔÇÿRegions for
Sustainability- using PPGIS, Progress in Planning, vol. 58 (2), pp. 81-
140
[8] Yigitcanlar, T. (2004) Constructing Online Collaborative Environmental
Decision Making Systems, UNU-IAS Working Paper No. 115
[9] Kneebone, R. (2003) ÔÇÿSimulation in surgical training: educational issues
and practical implications-, Medical Education 37 (3), pp. 267-277
[10] Alverson, D. C, Saiki, S. M., Caudell, T. P., Panaiotis, K. S., Sherstyuk,
A., Nickles, D., Holten, J., Goldsmith, T. E., Stevens, S. M., Mennin, K.,
Summers, S., Kalishman, J., Serna, M. L., Mitchell, S., Lindberg, M.,
Jacobs, J., Nakatsu, C., Lozanoff, S., Wax, K. D., Saland, L.,
Norenberg, J., Shuster, G., Keep, M., Baker, R., Buchanan, H. S.,
Stewart, R., Bowyer, M., Liu, A., Muniz, G., Coulter, R., Maris, C., and
Wilks, D. (2003) Distributed Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation
Development for Medical Education, J. of the International Association
of Medical Science Educators, 15 (1) pp. 19 - 30
[11] O-Brian Holt, P., Ritchie, J. M, Day, P. N., Simmons, J. E. L., Robinson,
G., Russell, G. T. and Ng, F. M. (2004) Immersive Virtual Reality In
Cable and Pipe Routing: Design Metaphors and Cognitive Ergonomics,
Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering
September 2004, Vol. 4 pp. 161 - 170
[12] Al-Kodmany, K. (2002) Visualization Tools and Methods in Community
Planning: From Freehand Sketches to Virtual Reality, Journal of
Planning Literature, 17 (2), pp. 189-211
[13] Hall, B. and Lam, P. (2004) The Internet and Public Participation in
Land Development Decision Support, in proceedings of 3rd Annual
Public Participation GIS Conference, July 18-20, University of
Wisconsin, Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
[14] Harrison, C., and Haklay, M., (2002) The potential of public
participation GIS in UK environmental planning: appraisals by active
publics, presented at The 98th AAG Annual Meeting, Los Angeles,
California, 19 - 23 March
[15] Sarjakoski, T. (1998) Networked GIS for public participation - emphasis
on utilizing image data, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,
22 (4) pp. 381 - 392
[16] Bertin, J. (1983) Semiology of graphics, diagrams, networks and maps,
The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI
[17] Office for National Statistics (ONS), Internet access and broadband
connections: by households and enterprises, 2006, (online) published 15
March 2007,
www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=1715&Pos=&ColRank=2&R
ank=1000, (Accessed 04 April 2007)
[18] Kay, J. J., Regier, H., Boyle, M., Francis, G. (1999) An ecosystem
approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity.
Futures 31(7): 721-742
[19] Papamichail, K. N. and Robertson, I. (2003) Supporting Societal
Decision Making: a Process Perspective. J. Multicriteria Decision
Analysis 12: 203-212
[20] Luz, F. (2000) Participatory Landscape Ecology - a basis for
acceptance and implementation, Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol.
50, pp.157-166
[21] Linehan, J. R. and Gross, M. (1998) Back to the Future, Back to Basics:
the social ecology of landscapes and the future of landscape planning,
Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 42, pp. 207-223
[22] Munda, G. (2004) Social multi-criteria evaluation: Methodological
foundations and operational consequences. Eur. J. Oper. Res 158: 662-
677
[23] Mayumi, K.., Giampietro, M. (2005) The epistemological challenge of
self-modifying systems: Governance and sustainability in the postnormal
science era. (Available on line at www.sciencedirect.com)
[24] Ravetz, J. (2004) The post-normal science of precaution. Futures 36:
347-357
[25] Sheppard, S. R. J. (2005) Participatory decision support for sustainable
forest management: a framework for planning with local communities at
the landscape level. Canadian J. Forest Research, 33(7): 1515-1526
[26] Appleton, K. and Lovett, A. (2003) GIS-based visualisation of rural
landscapes: defining ÔÇÿsufficient- realism for environmental decisionmaking.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 65, 117-131
[27] Lange, E. and Bishop, I. (2005) Communication, perception and
visualisation, in Visualization in Landscape and Environmental
Planning, Bishop, I. and Lange, E. Eds., Taylor & Francis, London,
2005, 3-21
[28] Macaulay Institute (2007) Virtual Landscape Theatre, (online)
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK: Macaulay Institute. Available from:
www.macaulay.ac.uk/landscapes/ (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[29] Google Maps (2007) Google Maps (online) USA: Google. Available
from: maps.google.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[30] Google Earth (2007) Google Earth (online) USA: Google. Available
from: earth.google.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[31] Nintendo (2006) Wii.com. (online) USA: Nintendo. Available from:
uk.wii.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[32] Sines, P. and Das, B. (1999) Peltier Haptic Interface (PHI) for improved
sensation of touch in virtual environments, Journal of Virtual Reality, 4
(4), pp. 260-264
[33] Cater, J. P. (1994) Smell/taste: odors in reality. In: Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics, 1994. apos; ÔÇÿHumans, Information and Technologyapos-.,
1994 IEEE International Conference on. 2-5 Oct 1994. USA: San
Antonio, TX, USA. vol.2, pp. 1781
[34] Linden Lab (2007) Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination. (online)
San Francisco, USA: Linden research Inc. Available from:
www.secondlife.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[35] GNU (2007) GNU Free Documentation License. (online) USA: GNU
Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF). Available from:
www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[36] Wikimedia Foundation (2007) Wikipedia. (online) St. Petersburg,
Florida, USA: Wikimedia Foundation. Available from:
www.wikipedia.org (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[37] Panoramio (2007) Panoramio - Photos of the World. (online) Spain:
Available from: www.panoramio.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[38] National Geographic Magazine (2007) National Geographic - photos,
videos, daily news stories, maps, environment, travel. (online) USA:
National Geographic Society. Available from:
www.nationalgeographic.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[39] Miller, F. J. (2002) "I = 0 (Information Has No Intrinsic Meaning)",
Information Research, Vol. 8 (1), paper no. 140 (Available at
http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper140.html)
[40] Pask, G. (1976). Conversation theory: applications in education and
epistemology. Amsterdam: Elsevier
[41] Laurillard, D. (1993). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for
the Effective Use of Educational Technology. London: Routledge
[42] Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., and Simon, H. A. (2000). Applications
and misapplications of cognitive psychology to mathematics education.
Texas Educational Review, Summer 2000
[43] Lester, J. (2006). Pathfinder Linden-s Guide to Getting Started in
Second Life. Paper presented at the Second Life Education Workshop at
the Second Life Community Convention
[44] Schank, R. C. (1999). Dynamic memory revisited. Cambridge University
Press
[45] Laing, R., Miller, D. R., Davies, A. M., and Scott, S. (2006) Urban
greenspace: the incorporation of environmental valuation in a decision
support system. Information Technology Construction (IT Con), 11,
Special Issue, Decision Support Systems for Infrastructure Management,
pp177-196, (also available on-line at
http://www.itcon.org/data/works/att/2006_14.content.01332.pdf as at
2/07/2007)
[1] United Nations (2002) Report of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August - 4 September
2002, United Nations Publications
[2] United Nations (2003) United Nations Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development, Resolution Adopted by the General
Assembly, A/RES/57/254, Fifty-Seventh Session, 21st February, 2003,
United Nations Documentation
[3] UNESCO (1997) Educating for a Sustainable Future: A
Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, November 1997,
EPD-97/CONF.401/CLD.l
[4] DiBiase, D. (1999) ÔÇÿEvoking the visualization experience in computerassisted
geographic education-, in Câmara, A. S. and Raper, J., Spatial
Multimedia and Virtual Reality, Taylor & Francis, London
[5] Bodum, L. (1999) ÔÇÿFuture directions for hypermedia in urban planning-,
in Câmara, A. S. and Raper, J., Spatial Multimedia and Virtual Reality,
Taylor & Francis, London
[6] Miller, D. R., Morrice, J., Horne, P. and Ball, J. (2007) Integrating
programmes of awareness and education for professionals and the
public, proceedings of Environment 2007, Abu Dhabi, 27 January - 2
February
[7] Ball, J. (2002) Towards a Methodology for Mapping ÔÇÿRegions for
Sustainability- using PPGIS, Progress in Planning, vol. 58 (2), pp. 81-
140
[8] Yigitcanlar, T. (2004) Constructing Online Collaborative Environmental
Decision Making Systems, UNU-IAS Working Paper No. 115
[9] Kneebone, R. (2003) ÔÇÿSimulation in surgical training: educational issues
and practical implications-, Medical Education 37 (3), pp. 267-277
[10] Alverson, D. C, Saiki, S. M., Caudell, T. P., Panaiotis, K. S., Sherstyuk,
A., Nickles, D., Holten, J., Goldsmith, T. E., Stevens, S. M., Mennin, K.,
Summers, S., Kalishman, J., Serna, M. L., Mitchell, S., Lindberg, M.,
Jacobs, J., Nakatsu, C., Lozanoff, S., Wax, K. D., Saland, L.,
Norenberg, J., Shuster, G., Keep, M., Baker, R., Buchanan, H. S.,
Stewart, R., Bowyer, M., Liu, A., Muniz, G., Coulter, R., Maris, C., and
Wilks, D. (2003) Distributed Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation
Development for Medical Education, J. of the International Association
of Medical Science Educators, 15 (1) pp. 19 - 30
[11] O-Brian Holt, P., Ritchie, J. M, Day, P. N., Simmons, J. E. L., Robinson,
G., Russell, G. T. and Ng, F. M. (2004) Immersive Virtual Reality In
Cable and Pipe Routing: Design Metaphors and Cognitive Ergonomics,
Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering
September 2004, Vol. 4 pp. 161 - 170
[12] Al-Kodmany, K. (2002) Visualization Tools and Methods in Community
Planning: From Freehand Sketches to Virtual Reality, Journal of
Planning Literature, 17 (2), pp. 189-211
[13] Hall, B. and Lam, P. (2004) The Internet and Public Participation in
Land Development Decision Support, in proceedings of 3rd Annual
Public Participation GIS Conference, July 18-20, University of
Wisconsin, Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
[14] Harrison, C., and Haklay, M., (2002) The potential of public
participation GIS in UK environmental planning: appraisals by active
publics, presented at The 98th AAG Annual Meeting, Los Angeles,
California, 19 - 23 March
[15] Sarjakoski, T. (1998) Networked GIS for public participation - emphasis
on utilizing image data, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,
22 (4) pp. 381 - 392
[16] Bertin, J. (1983) Semiology of graphics, diagrams, networks and maps,
The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI
[17] Office for National Statistics (ONS), Internet access and broadband
connections: by households and enterprises, 2006, (online) published 15
March 2007,
www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=1715&Pos=&ColRank=2&R
ank=1000, (Accessed 04 April 2007)
[18] Kay, J. J., Regier, H., Boyle, M., Francis, G. (1999) An ecosystem
approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity.
Futures 31(7): 721-742
[19] Papamichail, K. N. and Robertson, I. (2003) Supporting Societal
Decision Making: a Process Perspective. J. Multicriteria Decision
Analysis 12: 203-212
[20] Luz, F. (2000) Participatory Landscape Ecology - a basis for
acceptance and implementation, Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol.
50, pp.157-166
[21] Linehan, J. R. and Gross, M. (1998) Back to the Future, Back to Basics:
the social ecology of landscapes and the future of landscape planning,
Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 42, pp. 207-223
[22] Munda, G. (2004) Social multi-criteria evaluation: Methodological
foundations and operational consequences. Eur. J. Oper. Res 158: 662-
677
[23] Mayumi, K.., Giampietro, M. (2005) The epistemological challenge of
self-modifying systems: Governance and sustainability in the postnormal
science era. (Available on line at www.sciencedirect.com)
[24] Ravetz, J. (2004) The post-normal science of precaution. Futures 36:
347-357
[25] Sheppard, S. R. J. (2005) Participatory decision support for sustainable
forest management: a framework for planning with local communities at
the landscape level. Canadian J. Forest Research, 33(7): 1515-1526
[26] Appleton, K. and Lovett, A. (2003) GIS-based visualisation of rural
landscapes: defining ÔÇÿsufficient- realism for environmental decisionmaking.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 65, 117-131
[27] Lange, E. and Bishop, I. (2005) Communication, perception and
visualisation, in Visualization in Landscape and Environmental
Planning, Bishop, I. and Lange, E. Eds., Taylor & Francis, London,
2005, 3-21
[28] Macaulay Institute (2007) Virtual Landscape Theatre, (online)
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK: Macaulay Institute. Available from:
www.macaulay.ac.uk/landscapes/ (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[29] Google Maps (2007) Google Maps (online) USA: Google. Available
from: maps.google.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[30] Google Earth (2007) Google Earth (online) USA: Google. Available
from: earth.google.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[31] Nintendo (2006) Wii.com. (online) USA: Nintendo. Available from:
uk.wii.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[32] Sines, P. and Das, B. (1999) Peltier Haptic Interface (PHI) for improved
sensation of touch in virtual environments, Journal of Virtual Reality, 4
(4), pp. 260-264
[33] Cater, J. P. (1994) Smell/taste: odors in reality. In: Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics, 1994. apos; ÔÇÿHumans, Information and Technologyapos-.,
1994 IEEE International Conference on. 2-5 Oct 1994. USA: San
Antonio, TX, USA. vol.2, pp. 1781
[34] Linden Lab (2007) Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination. (online)
San Francisco, USA: Linden research Inc. Available from:
www.secondlife.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[35] GNU (2007) GNU Free Documentation License. (online) USA: GNU
Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF). Available from:
www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[36] Wikimedia Foundation (2007) Wikipedia. (online) St. Petersburg,
Florida, USA: Wikimedia Foundation. Available from:
www.wikipedia.org (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[37] Panoramio (2007) Panoramio - Photos of the World. (online) Spain:
Available from: www.panoramio.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[38] National Geographic Magazine (2007) National Geographic - photos,
videos, daily news stories, maps, environment, travel. (online) USA:
National Geographic Society. Available from:
www.nationalgeographic.com (Accessed 25 May 2007)
[39] Miller, F. J. (2002) "I = 0 (Information Has No Intrinsic Meaning)",
Information Research, Vol. 8 (1), paper no. 140 (Available at
http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper140.html)
[40] Pask, G. (1976). Conversation theory: applications in education and
epistemology. Amsterdam: Elsevier
[41] Laurillard, D. (1993). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for
the Effective Use of Educational Technology. London: Routledge
[42] Anderson, J. R., Reder, L. M., and Simon, H. A. (2000). Applications
and misapplications of cognitive psychology to mathematics education.
Texas Educational Review, Summer 2000
[43] Lester, J. (2006). Pathfinder Linden-s Guide to Getting Started in
Second Life. Paper presented at the Second Life Education Workshop at
the Second Life Community Convention
[44] Schank, R. C. (1999). Dynamic memory revisited. Cambridge University
Press
[45] Laing, R., Miller, D. R., Davies, A. M., and Scott, S. (2006) Urban
greenspace: the incorporation of environmental valuation in a decision
support system. Information Technology Construction (IT Con), 11,
Special Issue, Decision Support Systems for Infrastructure Management,
pp177-196, (also available on-line at
http://www.itcon.org/data/works/att/2006_14.content.01332.pdf as at
2/07/2007)
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:64012", author = "Ball J. and Capanni N. and Watt S.", title = "Virtual Reality for Mutual Understanding in Landscape Planning", abstract = "This paper argues that fostering mutual understanding in landscape planning is as much about the planners educating stakeholder groups as the stakeholders educating the planners. In other words it is an epistemological agreement as to the meaning and nature of place, especially where an effort is made to go beyond the quantitative aspects, which can be achieved by the phenomenological experience of the Virtual Reality (VR) environment. This education needs to be a bi-directional process in which distance can be both temporal as well as spatial separation of participants, that there needs to be a common framework of understanding in which neither 'side' is disadvantaged during the process of information exchange and it follows that a medium such as VR offers an effective way of overcoming some of the shortcomings of traditional media by taking advantage of continuing technological advances in Information, Technology and Communications (ITC). In this paper we make particular reference to this as an extension to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). VR as a two-way communication tool offers considerable potential particularly in the area of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). Information rich virtual environments that can operate over broadband networks are now possible and thus allow for the representation of large amounts of qualitative and quantitative information 'side-by-side'. Therefore, with broadband access becoming standard for households and enterprises alike, distributed virtual reality environments have great potential to contribute to enabling stakeholder participation and mutual learning within the planning context.
", keywords = "3D, communication, geographical information
systems, planning, public participation, virtual reality, visualisation.", volume = "1", number = "11", pages = "751-11", }
