Overview

Land is important as a manifestation of power and wealth, but the landscape is more than simply the space itself. It is perceived emotionally, as a source of beauty, and of solace, as well as economic well-being. Land and the landscape are also a system a series of intertwined related flows of energy and materials upon which we depend in the most fundamental ways. In most discussion, the concept of landscape is confined to areas of gardens or the plants and constructed surface features in a place, but this definition clearly limits the landscape to something superficial only those places that reflect the direct, intentional effects of human modification. This idea of the landscape as a reflection of positive human influence is an old one.

Landscape is more than just space. For example, it is four dimensional, it has history, and it is time that is the measure of all landscapes. The common view of landscape is of an unchanging constant. Unlike hardscape elements of design and the built environment, the biotic elements of a landscape are dynamic, and they grow and mature. Olmsted once observed that it is the vision to see a landscape in its future mature state that will occur long after the designer has passed that is the genius of the profession of landscape architecture.

Landscapes are also the media of cultural experience. Landscapes are altered by societies in many ways. Impacts of humans on the environment occurred even before the first humans chose to change their...