Editor’s Introduction
Rent from DeepDyve- Editor’s Introduction
In Memoriam
Many of us in the academic community represented by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Beth Diamond, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan on April 29. The University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment website notes that Beth was an energetic and inspiring instructor in teaching the first quarter design studio. Prior to her appointment at Michigan, she was a member of the landscape architecture faculties at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the University of Kentucky. Her contributions to Landscape Journal include Awakening the Public Realm: Instigating Democratic Space (Spring 2004, 23(1): 22–39. Her spirited presence at CELA meetings will be missed.
Editorial Transitions
At the end of 2013 calendar year, co-editor Lance Neckar and managing editor Vincent deBritto will leave the Landscape Journal (LJ) Editorial Office. Professor Neckar is now Professor of Environmental Analysis and Director of the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. Senior Lecturer deBritto has returned to his full-time responsibilities in instruction and research in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Their intelligence, collegiality, wisdom, and enthusiasm will be missed. While production of volumes 29, 30, 31, and 32 has been a joint venture among the current staff, Neckar and deBritto were particularly instrumental in the conceptualization and production of the special double issue on the philosophy and influence of Lawrence Halprin (31:1–2), and deBritto also receives full credit for the redesign of the Journal’s format introduced with the 32:1–2 issue. His brilliant efforts in producing volumes 29–32 are particularly note-worthy.
With approval of CELA Board and Landscape Journal Editorial Board, Professor Daniel Nadenicek, Dean of the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia (UGA) and former Book Review Editor for the Journal, will succeed Neckar as co-editor. Similarly, UGA Associate Professor Ashley Steffens will succeed deBritto as managing editor. Editor Pitt welcomes these individuals with proven track records in academic publishing to the LJ editorial team. As of January 1, 2014, the editorial office of LJ will be located at the following address:
Landscape Journal Editorial Office
College of Environment and Design
285 South Jackson Street
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Manuscript submissions and communications after January 1, 2014 should be submitted to this address.
The co-editors wish to affirm the intent of the two universities that their involvement in the editorial process of Landscape Journal will persist only through the completion of the current editorial term, which will end on December 31, 2016.
About This Issue
In issues 29:2 (Fall 2010), 30:1 (Spring 2011), and 30:2 (Fall 2011), we issued calls for papers to be published in this special issue of Landscape Journal on multi-functional landscapes. In these calls, we defined multifunctional landscapes as those that deliver four types of material and immaterial benefits (or ecosystem services) for humankind in a specific place over a determined period of time. Regulating services make it possible for humans to inhabit the earth (e.g. atmospheric regulation of insolation); resources of direct utilitarian value (e.g. food and fiber) are products of provisioning services; and cultural services provide [End Page iv] immaterial values associated with education, aesthetic experiences, and cognitive development. Finally, supporting services include the value of sustaining resilient ecosystems capable of delivering the other three types of services.
An ecosystems service based definition of multi-functional landscape demands the use of metrics to monitor performance of an ecosystem in delivering a desired mix of services. We suggested the need for “adaptive design” strategies that could identify desired mixes of services and model and compare the capacity of alternative design scenarios to deliver desired levels of performance. Multifunctional landscapes involve an explicit coupling of human and natural systems. They therefore evolve in a non-linear and organic manner that responds to the intentions and actions of a society making and implementing design decisions that affect but do not dictate the trajectory of biophysical and...
