A systemic design application for resources management in urban green spaces

Urban green spaces are often analyzed by the quantity of provided services, the kind of benefits they supply for the community and the human actions that modify the urban ecosystems. Moreover, urban green spaces and green infrastructures can produce important resources, even if these latter are not always considered during the preparation of management plans. To this extent, the Systemic Design can help to show the qualitative aspects of these resources and how they can be managed. Aim of this study is therefore to illustrate how a holistic approach like the Systemic Design can be applied to the management of urban green infrastructure, their ecosystem services and the raw materials and resources useful for the community.With an application to a real case, we will show how a Systemic Design approach is able to state resources' availability in a green urban area with the consequent identification of the area in which these resources can be employed. This identification is the essential prerequisite for the creation of a plan that stress the links among ecosystem services, resources and urban dwellers and the consequent best management practices, with particular emphasis on challenges related to climate changes and increasing urbanization.When necessary, Systemic Design can also provide viable indications to redesign a new context with different fluxes of materials and energy and can contribute to the creation of a set of new activities deeply connected with local green spaces. The final results can be identified in the creation of work tools for administrators and urban designers interested in the integrated management of green infrastructures and the suggestion of a new urban model, with stronger connections between society and territory, for more sustainable and resilient cities

Climate in architecture: revision of early origins

This dissertation expands the comprehension of the history of climate in architecture by examining the evolution of the architectural meanings, uses, representations, and simulations of climate between 1800 and the present by means of a historical critical analysis of two scientific artifacts that attempted to model climate for the first time in the fields of geography and architecture. The Naturgemälde (1799 – Alexander von Humboldt) was a type of infographic image that simulated conceptually climate as a global system. The Climatron (1954 – Victor Olgyay) was a laboratory machine that physically simulated climate to test building scaled-models. Primary data was collected in the places where both artifacts were created, and where related archival materials are currently held. The method of analysis compared the models against each other, against contemporary computer simulations of climate for architects, and against their early theoretical foundations. The dissertation reflected on the universality of science in architecture and the role of the places and the technology involved to produce knowledge about climate, while challenged the concept of climate in architecture. It endeavored to find more holistic scientific approaches to design-with-climate that consider hard data alongside art. The tangible outcomes are four articles advised by one of the committee members according to their expertise: MODELS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER explains the attempts to simulate conceptually and materially climate and weather in order to reduce their complexity to a human scale; ARCHITECTURAL INSIGHTS FROM EARLY DRAWINGS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER: NATURGEMÄLDE, ISOTHERMS, CLIMATE PORTRAITS, AND THE BIOCLIMATIC CHART, reflects about the paradox of drawing climate and weather; PACKAGING NATURE FOR ARCHITECTS: EARLY ORIGINS OF DESIGNING WITH NATURAL MORPHOLOGY AND CLIMATE, focuses on how ideas travel from environmental sciences into architecture; and UNDERSTANDING THE CHARACTER OF PLACE: HUMBOLDT’S PHYSIOGNOMY OF NATURE, VICTOR OLGYAY’S BIOCLIMATIC REGIONALISM AND THE OUTLINE OF A PHYSIOGNOMY OF CLIMATE examines, from an architectural standpoint, the role of the beauty of climate in the understanding of the character of a place

Improving Usability in Procedural Modeling

This work presents new approaches and algorithms for procedural modeling geared towards user convenience and improving usability, in order to increase artists’ productivity. Procedural models create geometry for 3D models from sets of rules. Existing approaches that allow to model trees, buildings, and terrain are reviewed and possible improvements are discussed. A new visual programming language for procedural modeling is discussed, where the user connects operators to visual programs called model graphs. These operators create geometry with textures, assign or evaluate variables or control the sequence of operations. When the user moves control points using the mouse in 3D space, the model graph is executed to change the geometry interactively. Thus, model graphs combine the creativity of freehand modeling with the power of programmed modeling while displaying the program structure more clearly than textbased approaches. Usability is increased as a result of these advantages. Also, an interactive editor for botanical trees is demonstrated. In contrast to previous tree modeling systems, we propose linking rules, parameters and geometry to semantic entities. This has the advantage that problems of associating parameters and instances are completely avoided. When an entity is clicked in the viewport, its parameters are displayed immediately, changes are applied to selected entities, and viewport editing operations are reflected in the parameter set. Furthermore, we store the entities in a hierarchical data structure and allow the user to activate recursive traversal via selection options for all editing operations. The user may choose to apply viewport or parameter changes to a single entity or many entities at once, and only the geometry for the affected entities needs to be updated. The proposed user interface simplifies the modeling process and increases productivity. Interactive editing approaches for 3D models often allow more precise control over a model than a global set of parameters that is used to generate a shape. However, usually scripted procedural modeling generates shapes directly from a fixed set of parameters, and interactive editing mostly uses a fixed set of tools. We propose to use scripts not only to generate models, but also for manipulating the models. A base script would set up the state of an object, and tool scripts would modify that state. The base script and the tool scripts generate geometry when necessary. Together, such a collection of scripts forms a template, and templates can be created for various types of objects. We examine how templates simplify the procedural modeling workflow by allowing for editing operations that are context-sensitive, flexible and powerful at the same time. Many algorithms have been published that produce geometry for fictional landscapes. There are algorithms which produce terrain with minimal setup time, allowing to adapt the level of detail as the user zooms into the landscape. However, these approaches lack plausible river networks, and algorithms that create eroded terrain with river networks require a user to supervise creation and minutes or hours of computation. In contrast to that, this work demonstrates an algorithm that creates terrain with plausible river networks and adaptive level of detail with no more than a few seconds of preprocessing. While the system can be configured using parameters, this text focuses on the algorithm that produces the rivers. However, integrating more tools for user-controlled editing of terrain would be possible.Verbesserung der Usability bei prozeduraler Modellierung Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, prozedurale Modellierung durch neue neue Ansätze und Algorithmen einfacher, bequemer und anwendungsfreundlicher zu machen, und damit die Produktivität der Künstler zu erhöhen. Diese Anforderungen werden häufig unter dem Stichwort Usability zusammengefasst. Prozedurale Modelle spezifizieren 3D-Modelle über Regeln. Existierende Ansätze für Bäume, Gebäude und Terrain werden untersucht und es werden mögliche Verbesserungen diskutiert. Eine neue visuelle Programmiersprache für prozedurale Modelle wird vorgestellt, bei der Operatoren zu Modellgraphen verschaltet werden. Die Operatoren erzeugen texturierte Geometrie, weisen Variablen zu und werten sie aus, oder sie steuern den Ablauf der Operationen. Wenn der Benutzer Kontrollpunkte im Viewport mit der Maus verschiebt, wird der Modellgraph ausgeführt, um interaktiv neue Geometrie für das Modell zu erzeugen. Modellgraphen kombinieren die kreativen Möglichkeiten des freihändigen Editierens mit der Mächtigkeit der prozeduralen Modellierung. Darüber hinaus sind Modellgraphen eine visuelle Programmiersprache und stellen die Struktur der Algorithmen deutlicher dar als textbasierte Programmiersprachen. Als Resultat dieser Verbesserungen erhöht sich die Usability. Ein interaktiver Editor für botanische Bäume wird ebenfalls vorgestellt. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Ansätzen schlagen wir vor, Regeln, Parameter und Geometrie zu semantischen Entitäten zu verschmelzen. Auf diese Weise werden Zuordnungsprobleme zwischen Parametern und deren Instanzen komplett vermieden. Wenn im Viewport eine Instanz angeklickt wird, werden sofort ihre Parameter angezeigt, alle Änderungen wirken sich direkt auf die betroffenen Instanzen aus, und Änderungen im Viewport werden sofort in den Parametern reflektiert. Darüber hinaus werden die Entitäten in einer hierarchischen Datenstruktur gespeichert und alle Änderungen können rekursiv auf der Hierarchie ausgeführt werden. Dem Benutzer werden Selektionsoptionen zur Verfügung gestellt, über die er Änderungen an den Parametern oder Änderungen im Viewport an einzelnen oder vielen Instanzen gleichzeitig vornehmen kann. Anschließend muss das System nur die Geometrie der betroffenen Instanzen aktualisieren. Auch hier ist das Ziel, das User Interface möglichst an den Bedürfnissen des Benutzers auszurichten, um Vereinfachungen und eine Erhöhung der Produktivität zu erreichen. Interaktive Editieransätze für 3D-Modelle erlauben häufig eine präzisere Kontrolle über ein Modell als ein globaler Parametersatz, der für die Erzeugung des Modells genutzt wird. Trotzdem erzeugen prozedurale Modellierskripte ihre Modelle meist direkt aus einem festen Parametersatz, während interaktive Tools meist mit hartkodierten Operationen arbeiten. Wir schlagen vor, Skripte nicht nur zur Erzeugung der Modelle zu verwenden, sondern auch um die erzeugten Modelle zu editieren. Ein Basisskript soll die Statusinformationen eines Objekts anlegen, während weitere Skripte diesen Status verändern und passende Geometrie erzeugen. Diese Skripte bilden dann ein Template zum Erzeugen einer Klasse von Objekten. Verschiedene Objekttypen können jeweils ihr eigenes Template haben. Wir zeigen, wie Templates den Workflow mit prozeduralen Modellen vereinfachen können, indem Operationen geschaffen werden, die gleichzeitig kontext-sensitiv, mächtig und flexibel sind. Es existiert eine Reihe von Verfahren, um Geometrie für synthetische Landschaften zu erzeugen. Ein Teil der Algorithmen erzeugt Geometrie mit minimaler Vorberechnung und erlaubt es, den Detailgrad der Landschaft interaktiv an die Perspektive anzupassen. Leider fehlen den so erzeugten Landschaften plausible Flussnetze. Algorithmen, die erodiertes Terrain mit Flussnetzen erzeugen, müssen aufwendig vom Benutzer überwacht werden und brauchen Minuten oder Stunden Rechenzeit. Im Gegensatz dazu stellen wir einen Algorithmus vor, der plausible Flussnetze erzeugt, während sich der Betrachter interaktiv durch die Szene bewegt. Das System kann über Parameter gesteuert werden, aber der Fokus liegt auf dem Algorithmus zur Erzeugung der Flüsse. Dennoch wäre es möglich, Tools zum benutzergesteuerten Editieren von Terrain zu integrieren

Landscapes in Flux. Book of Proceedings

Peer reviewed proceedings ECLAS 2015 Conference|21 to 23 September| Department of Landscape Architecture, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, EstoniaEvery scientific paper published in these Conference Proceedings was peer reviewed. All explanations, data, results, etc. contained in this book have been made by authors to their best knowledge and were true and accurate at the time of publication. However, some errors could not be excluded, so neither the publisher, the editors, nor the authors can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors and omissions that may be made. © All rights reserved. No part of these proceedings may be reproduced by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.Department of Landscape Architecture, Estonian University of Life Sciences On behalf of European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS

Graduate Internship in Agriculture Education - Central Valley High School

An in depth evaluation of the agriculture program for Central Valley High School in Ceres, C

Forest landscapes and global change. New frontiers in management, conservation and restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference

This volume contains the contributions of numerous participants at the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference, which took place in Bragança, Portugal, from 21 to 24 of September 2010. The conference was dedicated to the theme Forest Landscapes and Global Change - New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. The 128 papers included in this book follow the structure and topics of the conference. Sections 1 to 8 include papers relative to presentations in 18 thematic oral and two poster sessions. Section 9 is devoted to a wide-range of landscape ecology fields covered in the 12 symposia of the conference. The Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference register the growth of scientific interest in forest landscape patterns and processes, and the recognition of the role of landscape ecology in the advancement of science and management, particularly within the context of emerging physical, social and political drivers of change, which influence forest systems and the services they provide. We believe that these papers, together with the presentations and debate which took place during the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference – Bragança 2010, will definitively contribute to the advancement of landscape ecology and science in general. For their additional effort and commitment, we thank all the participants in the conference for leaving this record of their work, thoughts and science