Landscape performance evaluation in socio-ecological practice: current status and prospects

Abstract

In the past decade, performance evaluation becomes a priority area in research and practice in the landscape architecture profession, with its influence originating from the USA and extending to other countries. The goal is to quantitatively demonstrate the environmental, social, and economic benefits of built landscape projects or, at the planning and design stage, to gauge the project's level of fulfilment to intended goals. Structurally, the evaluation framework facilitates a healthy partnership of diverse stakeholders, including researchers, designers, clients, users, and policy makers. When adaptive design, design for resilience, and design under the uncertainty of climate change become the new norms in landscape architecture practice, performance metrics will gain interest in the communication of design merits. The author reports the current status of landscape performance evaluation by introducing the major players in this enterprise, including supporting professional organizations, accrediting and regulating agencies, research programs, and leading professional firms. In addition, 102 published landscape performance evaluation case studies are analyzed to demonstrate their contributions at the scholarly, practical, and policy levels. Last, the author suggests that the current scope of performance evaluation be expanded and offers recommendations for future development in this area.

When the process socio-ecological practice meets the virtue ecophronesis, the SEPR community receives benefits

“…Among ecophronimoi are the Chinese ecological planner and engineer Li Bing (李冰, see Fig. 1) and the Scottish-American landscape planner and educator Ian McHarg (1920McHarg ( -2001 (Steiner 2006(Steiner , 2016(Steiner , 2019Xiang 2014Xiang , 2016Xiang 2019bXiang , c, 2021Yang 2020;Yang and Li 2016). 4 In the 2016 definition, ecophronesis is described as "the master skill par excellence of moral improvisation" (Xiang 2016, p. 55).…”

Quantifying Sustainability and Landscape Performance: A Smart Devices Assisted Alternative Framework

“…LPS represents a significant advancement in evaluation systems, building upon previous methodologies to offer a deeper understanding of post-construction performance and the subsequent benefits [11]. Currently, LPS as a standard assessment system for landscape performance has been widely accepted in landscape architecture field [12]. Therefore, in this study, we will focus on LPS as the research subject for landscape performance assessment.…”

Performance Evaluation: Identifying Barriers and Enablers for Landscape Architecture Practice

“…Performance evaluation assesses the actual performance of implemented environmental designs or interventions. Such evaluations are carried out in a range of forms, including Post-Occupancy Evaluation, Building Performance Evaluation, Landscape Performance Evaluation, building appraisal, building evaluation, and building diagnosis [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”