Seeing, Believing, and Feeling: The Relationship between Sense of Place and Geovisualization Research

Newell, Robert; Canessa, Rosaline

doi:10.18848/2154-8676/cgp/v06i04/15-30

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…This distinction is important because as argued by Newell and Canessa (2015), familiarity with the real-world place could affect how well a geovisualization connects with a user's sense of place. Accordingly, familiarity effects were investigated, and this took two approaches.…”

Section: Focus Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This notion is further supported by the fact that Parks Canada participants (i.e., a "familiar" group) also brought forward viewshed elements as strong contributors to realism and sense of place. Newell and Canessa (2015) posit that geovisualizations are effective collaborative planning tools due to their capacity for connecting with people's sense of place, and building on this thinking, the current study conducted applied research to examine the considerations around place-based approaches to coastal geovisualization. As discussed in Section Introduction, such considerations include how to model coastal "place" (as well as coastal space), how place-based experiences of the geovisualization architect can influence modeling, what elements are significant in terms of connecting with sense of place, what aspects might detract from this sense, and how to incorporate multisensory experiences associated with places into a virtual representation.…”

Section: Familiarity Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, tools and techniques that can capture place and connect with people's "sense of place, " i.e., the meanings, values, beliefs, and/or feelings people associate with places (Williams and Stewart, 1998), are integral for supporting effective coastal management strategies. Newell and Canessa (2015) posit that realistic, immersive geographical visualizations, i.e., geovisualizations, can serve such a role and act as place-based tools in inclusive approaches to management and planning. Due to their realism, geovisualizations can communicate outcomes of potential management strategies (or consequences of not enacting strategies) in a "relatable" fashion, meaning that they provide people with salient understandings of how they would feel about outcomes/impacts if transpired in real-world places (Sheppard, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because they have this capacity, visualizations have shown promise for functions, such as effectively communicating potential outcomes of resource management options with local communities (Lewis and Sheppard, 2006), providing community members with salient understanding of importance of and options around climate adaptation planning (Schroth et al, 2009;Shaw et al, 2009;Sheppard et al, 2011) and stimulating discussion among stakeholders regarding future land-uses in the face of changing landscape conditions (Schroth et al, 2011). Newell and Canessa (2015) argue that the utility of geovisualizations in collaborative planning stems from their ability to connect with people's sense of place, allowing them to serve as tools for gaining valuable insight on local people-place relationships and facilitating planning efforts that effectively recognize these relationships. By connecting with people's sense of place, geovisualizations can stimulate different stakeholders' thoughts and concerns associated with the placebased relationships they have formed with areas targeted for management or development, thereby providing a means for elucidating the socio-cultural realities, concerns, and needs associated with these areas and enabling productive planning discussions .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling Both the Space and Place of Coastal Environments: Exploring an Approach for Developing Realistic Geovisualizations of Coastal Places

2017

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Effective coastal planning incorporates the variety of user needs, values, and interests associated with coastal environments. This requires understanding how people relate to coastal environments as "places," imbued with values and meanings, and accordingly, tools that can capture place and connect with people's "sense of place" have the potential for supporting effective coastal management strategies. Realistic, immersive geographical visualizations, i.e., geovisualizations, theoretically hold potential to serve such a role in coastal planning; however, significant research gaps exist around this application context. Firstly, place theory and geovisualizations are rarely explicitly linked in the same studies, leaving questions around how to model "coastal place," as well as coastal space. Secondly, geovisualization work has focused on terrestrial environments, and research on how to realistically model coastal places is currently in its infancy. The current study addresses the research gaps by developing a coastal geovisualization under place-based considerations, and then examining its capacity as a tool for connecting with people's sense of place. The research uses Sidney Spit in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (BC, Canada) as a study site, and a geovisualization was developed using a combination of ArcGIS, Adobe Photoshop, Trimble SketchUp, and Unity3D. Focus groups were assembled involving Parks Canada staff and Greater Victoria Area residents, and the geovisualization was assessed in terms of its representation of a real-world coastal place and ability for connecting with sense of place. Findings from the study indicate that the presence of certain elements in coastal geovisualizations can contribute to realism and sense of place, such as people, dogs, birds, marine life, vegetation, and boats; however, simultaneously, deficiencies in numbers and varieties of these elements can detract from realism and sense of place. In addition, incorporation of soundscape and viewshed elements both demonstrated as significant to the tool's ability to connect with sense of place, with the latter potentially being more significant among those with higher familiarity with the real-world place. Beach textures were also found to be important for the geovisualization's ability to connect with sense of place; however, this ability can be compromised when running versions of the tool with lower graphical resolution.

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Section: Focus Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Familiarity Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling Both the Space and Place of Coastal Environments: Exploring an Approach for Developing Realistic Geovisualizations of Coastal Places

2017

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“…Realistic, immersive 1 geographic visualizations, referred to here as "geovisualizations, " 2 hold potential as such tools because of their capacity to communicate management or development outcomes to diverse groups of stakeholders. Through realistic representation, geovisualizations can provide people of a variety of different backgrounds and expertise with salient understanding of how they would feel about certain management outcomes or impacts if they transpired in real places (Sheppard, 2001;Newell and Canessa, 2015). In turn, this can enable productive planning discussions among different parties that are potentially affected by proposals and plans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualizing Our Options for Coastal Places: Exploring Realistic Immersive Geovisualizations as Tools for Inclusive Approaches to Coastal Planning and Management

2017

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Effective coastal planning is inclusive and incorporates the variety of user needs, values and interests associated with coastal environments. Realistic, immersive geographic visualizations, i.e., geovisualizations, can serve as potentially powerful tools for facilitating such planning because they can provide diverse groups with vivid understandings of how they would feel about certain management outcomes or impacts if transpired in real places. However, the majority of studies in this area have focused on terrestrial environments, and research on applications of such tools in the coastal and marine contexts is in its infancy. The current study aims to advance such research by examining the potential a land-to-sea geovisualization has to serve as a tool for inclusive coastal planning efforts. The research uses Sidney Spit Park (BC, Canada) as a study site, and a realistic, dynamic geovisualization of the park was developed (using Unity3D) that allows users to interact with and navigate it through the first-person perspective. Management scenarios were developed based on discussions with Parks Canada, and these scenarios included fencing around vegetation areas, positioning of mooring buoys, and management of dog activity within the park. Scenarios were built into the geovisualization in a manner that allows users to toggle different options. Focus groups were then assembled, involving residents of the Capital Regional District (BC, Canada), and participants explored and provided feedback on the scenarios. Findings from the study demonstrate the geovisualization's usefulness for assessing certain qualities of scenarios, such as aesthetics and functionality of fencing options and potential viewshed impacts associated with different mooring boat locations. In addition, the study found that incorporating navigability into the geovisualization proved to be valuable for understanding scenarios that hold implications for the marine environment due to user ability to cross the land-sea interface and experience underwater places. Furthermore, this research demonstrated that building scenarios within a realistic geovisualization required modeling place-based characteristics (including soundscape) as well as spatial properties. This approach can allow users the ability to more comprehensively assess scenarios and consider potential options.

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From sense of place to visualization of place: examining people-place relationships for insight on developing geovisualizations

Newell

Canessa

2018

Heliyon

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Effective resource planning incorporates people-place relationships, allowing these efforts to be inclusive of the different local beliefs, interests, activities and needs. ‘Geovisualizations’ can serve as potentially powerful tools for facilitating ‘place-conscious’ resource planning, as they can be developed with high degrees of realism and accuracy, allowing people to recognize and relate to them as ‘real places’. However, little research has been done on this potential, and the place-based applications of these visual tools are poorly understood. This study takes steps toward addressing this gap by exploring the relationship between sense of place and ‘visualization of place’. Residents of the Capital Regional District of BC, Canada, were surveyed about their relationship with local coastal places, concerns for the coast, and how they mentally visualize these places. Factor analysis identified four sense of place dimensions - nature protection values, community and economic well-being values, place identity and place dependence, and four coastal concerns dimensions - ecological, private opportunities, public space and boating impacts. Visualization data were coded and treated as dependent variables in a series of logistic regressions that used sense of place and coastal concerns dimensions as predictors. Results indicated that different aspects of sense of place and (to a lesser degree) concerns for places influence the types of elements people include in their mental visualization of place. In addition, sense of place influenced the position and perspective people assume in these visualizations. These findings suggest that key visual elements and perspectives speak to different place relationships, which has implications for developing and using geovisualizations in terms of what elements should be included in tools and (if appropriate) depicted as affected by potential management or development scenarios.

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Seeing, Believing, and Feeling: The Relationship between Sense of Place and Geovisualization Research

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Modeling Both the Space and Place of Coastal Environments: Exploring an Approach for Developing Realistic Geovisualizations of Coastal Places

Modeling Both the Space and Place of Coastal Environments: Exploring an Approach for Developing Realistic Geovisualizations of Coastal Places

Visualizing Our Options for Coastal Places: Exploring Realistic Immersive Geovisualizations as Tools for Inclusive Approaches to Coastal Planning and Management

From sense of place to visualization of place: examining people-place relationships for insight on developing geovisualizations

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