An Atlas for the future National Park: Las Cumbres de la Sierra de Guadarrama

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.This research aims to create a digital atlas for the future National Park of ‘Las Cumbres de la Sierra de Guadarrama’ as a driving tool for knowledge and study of the territory, using a methodology that integrates Information Technologies (IT) such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Internet and the Web technologies, and providing access to geospatial information to the researchers, students and general public interested in the study of this protected area. The greatest challenge is to develop a database, implemented in a GIS, which enables the integration and processing of large amount of geospatial data that cover the area of interest, allowing for the description of its features, defined by a series of core datasets: administrative boundaries, demography, topography, hydrography, climate, vegetation, geology, land uses, protected areas, urban areas and transport network. However, the heart of the creation of the Atlas is the design and production of the digital cartography, which is essential for the communication and for an effective perception of information. The visualization of high quality maps, accompanied by text and photographs, through the creation of a digital Atlas embedded in a Web Site, is fundamental to ensure an optimum usability of available geographic information and plays an important role in the process of its dissemination, allowing the user to acquire a wide knowledge of the physical and human environment that characterize the National Park and its surroundings. In addition, the creation of the atlas and the generated geospatial information intended to be a support for natural environment management and conservation of the National Park, as well as for an efficient planning tool of new activities, favouring the sustainable development in the area

Representation and perception of mapped space

Reisen ermöglicht die Entdeckung neuer urbaner Erfahrungen und generiert Erinnerungen. Räumliche Zusammenhänge werden als mentale Karten, sog. „mental maps“ gespeichert und erlauben dem Menschen Navigation und Orientierung im urbanen Raum, wobei ein Abbild dieses Raumes entsteht. Kevin Lynch (1960) analysierte diese „mental maps“ und klassifizierte die abgebildeten Objekte in fünf Stadtelemente: Pfad, Knoten, Grenze, Stadtviertel und Wahrzeichen. Letztere sieht Lynch als bedeutendste Orientierungshilfe für Touristen (Lynch 1960). Vorliegende Masterarbeit verwendet diese Theorie und setzt sie in Relation mit der Repräsentation von kartiertem Raum durch einen speziellen Stadtplan, die USE-IT Stadtkarte für junge Reisende. Auf der Basis von Literaturrecherche und empirischer Forschung (Fallstudien Brüssel und Warschau) soll die Wahrnehmung von Raum durch junge Touristen analysiert werden. Dabei soll untersucht werden, inwiefern diese Wahrnehmung durch lokale Erlebnisse beeinflußt wird und ob dadurch ein facettenreiches (Ab-)Bild der Stadt kreiert wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigten keine eindeutigen Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Kartentyp und dem wahrgenommenen Stadtbild. Die meisten jungen Touristen nahmen ein Stadtbild wahr, welches von Sehenswürdigkeiten und symbolischen Werten geprägt war. Ortsspezifische Informationen der USE-IT Stadtkarten blieben ohne erkennbaren Einfluß auf die „mental maps“ der jungen Touristen.Traveling to unknown places initiate new urban experiences and memories in the human mind. Spatial knowledge can be stored as mental maps and allows the individual to navigate and orientate in an urban space and to a specific image of it. Kevin Lynch (1960) analyzed mental maps and classified those into five city elements: paths, nodes, edges, districts and landmarks. Landmarks present an important orientation reference to tourists (Lynch 1960). This thesis applies this theory and relates it to the representation of mapped space on a specific city map, the USE-IT map for young traveler. With literature review and empirical research in two case studies Brussels and Warsaw, the perception of space of young traveler shall be analyzed and studied, if it is influenced by the local experience and creates a multifaceted image of the city. Results showed no correlation between the used map and the perceived city image, as they presented a strong landmark-oriented image of the cities. Most of the young traveler perceived a city image shaped by tourist sights and symbolic values. Despite the local and diverse suggestions on the USE-IT maps, those places were significantly limited on the drawn mental maps

GIS-based landscape design research

Landscape design research is important for cultivating spatial intelligence in landscape architecture. This study explores GIS (geographic information systems) as a tool for landscape design research - investigating landscape designs to understand them as architectonic compositions (architectonic plan analysis). The concept ‘composition’ refers to a conceivable arrangement, an architectural expression of a mental construct that is legible and open to interpretation. Landscape architectonic compositions and their representations embody a great wealth of design knowledge as objects of our material culture and reflect the possible treatment of the ground, space, image and program as a characteristic coherence. By exploring landscape architectonic compositions with GIS, design researchers can acquire design knowledge that can be used in the creation and refinement of a design.  The research aims to identify and illustrate the potential role of GIS as a tool in landscape design research, so as to provide insight into the possibilities and limitations of using GIS in this capacity. The critical, information-oriented case of Stourhead landscape garden (Wiltshire, UK), an example of a designed landscape that covers the scope and remit of landscape architecture design, forms the heart of the study. The exploration of Stourhead by means of GIS can be understood as a plausibility probe. Here the case study is considered a form of ‘quasi-experiment’, testing the hypothesis and generating a learning process that constitutes a prerequisite for advanced understanding, while using an adjusted version of the framework for landscape design analysis by Steenbergen and Reh (2003). This is a theoretically informed analytical method based on the formal interpretation of the landscape architectonic composition addressing four landscape architectonic categories: the basic, the spatial, the symbolic and the programmatic form. This study includes new aspects to be analysed, such as the visible form and the shape of the walk, and serves as the basis for the landscape architectonic analysis in which GIS is used as the primary analytical tool.  GIS-based design research has the possibility to cultivate spatial intelligence in landscape architecture through three fields of operation: GIS-based modelling: description of existing and future landscape architectonic compositions in digital form; GIS-based analysis: exploration, analysis and synthesis of landscape architectonic compositions in order to reveal latent architectonic relationships and principles, while utilizing the processing capacities and possibilities of computers for ex-ante and ex-post simulation and evaluation; GIS-based visual representation: representation of (virtual) landscape architectonic compositions in space and time, in order to retrieve and communicate information and knowledge of the landscape design.  Though there are limitations, this study exemplifies that GIS is a powerful instrument to acquire knowledge from landscape architectonic compositions. The study points out that the application of GIS in landscape design research can be seen as an extension of the fundamental cycle of observation, visual representation, analysis and interpretation in the process of knowledge acquisition, with alternative visualisations and digital landscape models as important means for this process. Using the calculating power of computers, combined with inventive modelling, analysis and visualisation concepts in an interactive process, opened up possibilities to reveal new information and knowledge about the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form of Stourhead. GIS extended the design researchers’ perception via measurement, simulation and experimentation, and at the same time offered alternative ways of understanding the landscape architectonic composition. This gave rise to the possibility of exploring new elements in the framework of landscape design research, such as the visible form and kinaesthetic aspects, analysing the composition from eyelevel perspective. Moreover, the case study showcases that GIS has the potential to measure phenomena that are often subject to intuitive and experimental design, combining general scientific knowledge of, for instance, visual perception and way-finding, with the examination of site-specific design applications. GIS also enabled one to understand the landscape architectonic composition of Stourhead as a product of time, via the analysis of its development through reconstruction and evaluation of several crucial time-slice snapshots. The study illustrates that GIS can be regarded an external cognitive tool that facilitates and mediates in design knowledge acquisition. GIS facilitates in the sense that it can address the ‘same types of design-knowledge’ regarding the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form, but in a more precise, systematic, transparent, and quantified manner. GIS mediates in the sense that it influences what and how aspects of the composition can be understood and therefore enables design researchers to generate ‘new types of design-knowledge’ by advanced spatial analysis and the possibility of linking or integrating other information layers, fields of science and data sources. The research contributes to the development and distribution of knowledge of GIS-applications in landscape architecture in two ways: (1) by ‘following’ the discipline and developing aspects of it, and (2) by setting in motion fundamental developments in the field, providing alternative readings of landscape architecture designs

GIS-based landscape design research:

Landscape design research is important for cultivating spatial intelligence in landscape architecture. This study explores GIS (geographic information systems) as a tool for landscape design research - investigating landscape designs to understand them as architectonic compositions (architectonic plan analysis). The concept ‘composition’ refers to a conceivable arrangement, an architectural expression of a mental construct that is legible and open to interpretation. Landscape architectonic compositions and their representations embody a great wealth of design knowledge as objects of our material culture and reflect the possible treatment of the ground, space, image and program as a characteristic coherence. By exploring landscape architectonic compositions with GIS, design researchers can acquire design knowledge that can be used in the creation and refinement of a design.  The research aims to identify and illustrate the potential role of GIS as a tool in landscape design research, so as to provide insight into the possibilities and limitations of using GIS in this capacity. The critical, information-oriented case of Stourhead landscape garden (Wiltshire, UK), an example of a designed landscape that covers the scope and remit of landscape architecture design, forms the heart of the study. The exploration of Stourhead by means of GIS can be understood as a plausibility probe. Here the case study is considered a form of ‘quasi-experiment’, testing the hypothesis and generating a learning process that constitutes a prerequisite for advanced understanding, while using an adjusted version of the framework for landscape design analysis by Steenbergen and Reh (2003). This is a theoretically informed analytical method based on the formal interpretation of the landscape architectonic composition addressing four landscape architectonic categories: the basic, the spatial, the symbolic and the programmatic form. This study includes new aspects to be analysed, such as the visible form and the shape of the walk, and serves as the basis for the landscape architectonic analysis in which GIS is used as the primary analytical tool.  GIS-based design research has the possibility to cultivate spatial intelligence in landscape architecture through three fields of operation: GIS-based modelling: description of existing and future landscape architectonic compositions in digital form; GIS-based analysis: exploration, analysis and synthesis of landscape architectonic compositions in order to reveal latent architectonic relationships and principles, while utilizing the processing capacities and possibilities of computers for ex-ante and ex-post simulation and evaluation; GIS-based visual representation: representation of (virtual) landscape architectonic compositions in space and time, in order to retrieve and communicate information and knowledge of the landscape design.  Though there are limitations, this study exemplifies that GIS is a powerful instrument to acquire knowledge from landscape architectonic compositions. The study points out that the application of GIS in landscape design research can be seen as an extension of the fundamental cycle of observation, visual representation, analysis and interpretation in the process of knowledge acquisition, with alternative visualisations and digital landscape models as important means for this process. Using the calculating power of computers, combined with inventive modelling, analysis and visualisation concepts in an interactive process, opened up possibilities to reveal new information and knowledge about the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form of Stourhead. GIS extended the design researchers’ perception via measurement, simulation and experimentation, and at the same time offered alternative ways of understanding the landscape architectonic composition. This gave rise to the possibility of exploring new elements in the framework of landscape design research, such as the visible form and kinaesthetic aspects, analysing the composition from eyelevel perspective. Moreover, the case study showcases that GIS has the potential to measure phenomena that are often subject to intuitive and experimental design, combining general scientific knowledge of, for instance, visual perception and way-finding, with the examination of site-specific design applications. GIS also enabled one to understand the landscape architectonic composition of Stourhead as a product of time, via the analysis of its development through reconstruction and evaluation of several crucial time-slice snapshots. The study illustrates that GIS can be regarded an external cognitive tool that facilitates and mediates in design knowledge acquisition. GIS facilitates in the sense that it can address the ‘same types of design-knowledge’ regarding the basic, spatial, symbolic and programmatic form, but in a more precise, systematic, transparent, and quantified manner. GIS mediates in the sense that it influences what and how aspects of the composition can be understood and therefore enables design researchers to generate ‘new types of design-knowledge’ by advanced spatial analysis and the possibility of linking or integrating other information layers, fields of science and data sources. The research contributes to the development and distribution of knowledge of GIS-applications in landscape architecture in two ways: (1) by ‘following’ the discipline and developing aspects of it, and (2) by setting in motion fundamental developments in the field, providing alternative readings of landscape architecture designs