Introduction to the Landscape Architecture

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Landscape can be a couple of things. On a large scale, the landscape is the makeup of an area, it could
be NATURAL or MAN MADE.

Landscape + Architecture

 It is the design of outdoor public areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental,
social- behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes.

 Landscaping is Science and art - Understand the elements of nature and construction and blend
them accordingly

Applications of Landscape Architecture

 Urban design
 Site planning
 Storm water management
 Environmental restoration
 Energy Efficient Landscape
 Parks and recreation planning
 Visual resource management
 Green infrastructure planning and provision
 Private estate and residence landscape

Energy Efficient Landscape

Energy-efficient landscaping is a type of landscaping designed for the purpose of conserving energy.

Design techniques include:

 Planting trees for the purpose of providing shade, which reduces cooling costs.
 Planting or building windbreaks to slow winds near buildings, which reduces heat loss.
 Wall sheltering, where shrubbery or vines are used to create a windbreak directly against a wall.
 Earth sheltering and positioning buildings to take advantage of natural landforms as windbreaks.
 Green roofs that cool buildings with extra thermal mass and evapotranspiration.
 Reducing the heat island effect with pervious paving, high albedo paving, shade, and minimizing
paved areas.
 Site lighting with full cut off fixtures, light level sensors, and high efficiency fixtures
 Energy-efficient landscaping techniques include using local materials, on-site composting and
Chipping to reduce green waste hauling.
Storm Water Management

Managing the quantity and

quality of storm water is termed,
"Storm water Management.
Storm water is rainwater and
melted snow that runs off streets,
lawns and other sites. When
storm water is absorbed into the
ground, it is filtered and
ultimately replenishes aquifers or
flows into streams and rivers.

Advantages:

 Provides proper drainage of surface run-off and avoids damages on infrastructure such as
private properties and streets.
 Provides possibility to recharge groundwater and re-use precipitation water and surface
run-off as irrigation or household water.
 Minimizing health risks.
 Provides effective storm water flood control.
 Can be integrated into the urban landscape and provide green and recreational areas.
Rain Gardens:

 Constructed depression
 Manage and treat small volumes of storm water by filtering runoff through soil and vegetation
 Holds the water for a short period of time and allows it to naturally infiltrate into the ground

Ecology:

Relationships between organisms and their environment

Landscape ecology (Landscape relation to environment): Landscape ecology is the science of studying
and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular
ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and
organizational levels of research and policy

Patches: species may prefer a certain kind of habitat, for example mature woodland, or ponds.
Individuals of the species of concern may not be able to breed or feed outside of this type of habitat.
Matrix: If one land use dominates the landscape, that land use forms the matrix. If the dominant land
use is uniformly inhospitable, organisms become isolated in patches of suitable habitat.

Corridors: There has been a lot of research and debate about the role of hedgerows as corridors for
small woodland mammals and birds. Such species may be able to move between woodland habitat
patches along hedgerows.

Barriers: Roads, pipelines or fences might form barriers to movement of shy or less agile animals.

Mosaic: Lesser horseshoe bats are an example of an animal that needs to live in a landscape mosaic.
They sleep in old trees in mature woodland, and then fly along hedgerows to open, wet places where
they hunt for flies.

Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment

Examples of Ecosystems:

 Aquatic ecosystem
 Coral reef
 Desert
 Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
 Human ecosystem
 Large marine ecosystem
 Marine ecosystem
  Rainforest
 Savanna
 Microbial Ecosystem
 Tundra
 Urban ecosystem

Ecological Succession:

Ecological Succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over
time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire), or even millions of years after a mass
extinction

Ecological Balance: A state of dynamic equilibrium within a community of organisms in which genetic,
species and ecosystem diversity remain relatively stable, subject to gradual changes through natural
succession
Ecological Balance can be disturbed by:

• New species entering an ecosystem

• The disappearance of some species
• Man-made changes to the environment
• Natural disasters.

Derelict Land: Derelict land is land that has become damaged by industrial or other development and
beyond beneficial use without treatment. Treatment may include demolition and leveling. The land may
have been abandoned or have unoccupied buildings in an advanced state of disrepair.
Landscape Conservation: Accelerated climatic changes have magnifying impacts on water and land
resources, agricultural and biological diversities. Unprecedented scale, pace and complexity of resource
management challenges:

 Habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation

 Invasive species
 Contaminants
 Hydrological impacts

WHAT IS CONSERVATION LANDSCAPING?

Working with nature to reduce pollution, conservation landscaping incorporates environmentally

sensitive design, low impact development, non-invasive native and beneficial plants, and integrated pest
management to create diverse landscapes that help protect clean air and water, support wildlife, and
provide a healthier and more beautiful human environment.

Conservation landscaping supports clean air and water by:

 Using plants that are adapted to local conditions and thus require less fertilizer and pesticides
 Trapping localized storm water on site with rain barrels and rain gardens to ensure slow
percolation and increased filtration of nutrients entering the groundwater.
 Reducing the amount of smog released into the air and the amount of atmospheric deposition
of nutrients into our water by reducing the amount of movable lawn area

Conservation landscaping supports wildlife by:

 Providing a diverse plant environment that attracts greater animal diversity and fosters
healthier ecological communities
 Creating migratory corridors of conjoined healthy ecological communities.

Conservation landscaping supports a healthier and more beautiful human environment by:

 Reducing the amount of pollution entering the environment.

 Demonstrating the beauty of well-maintained, natural landscaping.

The eight essential elements:

 Is designed to benefit the environment and function efficiently and aesthetically for human use
and well-being.
 Uses locally native plants that are appropriate for site conditions.
  Institutes a management plan for the removal of existing invasive plants and the prevention of
future nonnative plant invasions.
 Provides habitat for wildlife.
 Promotes healthy air quality and minimizes air pollution.
 Conserves and cleans water.
 Promotes healthy soils.
 Is managed to conserve energy, reduce waste, and eliminate or minimize the use of pesticides
and fertilizers.

Methods to conserve landscape:

Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being eroded from the earth’s
surface or becoming chemically altered by overuse, acidification, salinization, soil erosion or other soil
contamination to retain the fertility of soil.

Soil conservation techniques:

Terrace farming: Broad flat steps or terraces are

made on the steep slopes so the flat surfaces are
available to grow crops. They reduce surface run off
and soil erosion. This method of farming uses
“steps”, called andene. On each anden, various
crops are planted, and when it rains, instead of
washing away all of the nutrient in the soil, the
nutrients are carried down to the next level.

Inter cropping: Different crops are grown in

alternate rows and are sown at different times to
protect the soil from rain wash. Ploughing parallel to
the contours of a hill slope to form a natural barrier
for water to flow down the slope. Contour farming is
the farming practice of ploughing across a slope
following its elevation contour lines.

Crop rotation: Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same
area in sequential seasons. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen
through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops.

Shelter belt: In coastal and dry regions, rows of tree are planted to check the wind movement to protect
soil cover. Shelter belt is a plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in
a manner so as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion.
Mulching: The bare ground between plants is covered with a layer of organic matter like straw.it helps
to retain soil moisture. Mulching of soil with available plant residues reduce soil loss considerably by
protecting the soil from direct impact of raindrop and reducing the sediment carried with run off.

Contour barrier: Stones, grass, soil are used to build barriers along contours. trenches are made in front
of the barriers to collect water.

Rock dam:
`Rocks are piled up to slow down the flow of water. This prevents gullies and further
soil loss.

Water Conservation Techniques:

Rain water harvesting: A system which collects rain water from the roof of a building and stores it for
reuse. Water collected is then store in a tank, before being pumped around the building, as and when
required.

Grey water recycling: Any water that has been used in a building except water from toilets is called grey
water. This may be reused for other purposes, especially landscape irrigation.
Watershed management: The process of creating and implementing plans, programs and projects to
sustain and enhance watershed functions that affect the plant, animal and human communities within a
watershed boundary.

Land use planning: Refers to rational and judicious approach of allocating available land resources to
different land using activities and for different functions consistent with the overall development goal of
a particular city.

Derelict Land: Derelict land is land that has become damaged by industrial or other development and
beyond beneficial use without treatment. Treatment may include demolition and levelling.

The land may have been abandoned or have unoccupied buildings in an advanced state of disrepair.

Land that cannot be considered derelict land by definition includes:

 Land that is derelict due to natural causes e.g. neglected woodland, farmland, marshes,
mudflats, etc.
 Land damaged by development that is subject to enforceable planning conditions.
 Land still in industrial or other recognised use.
  Land damaged by development that has blended into the landscape or put to some form of
acceptable use and no longer constitutes a problem.
 Vacant sites awaiting development.

Land Reclamation: Improvement of derelict land into a new end use, There are four major types of
derelict land with problems and solutions as shown below:

Coal spoil -

Problems: Acidic due to iron sulphides which oxidise to form sulphuric acid toxic concentration of iron
and lead. May be unstable, with little organic matter, nutrient deficient and have impenetrable, poorly
drained substrate.

Solutions: frequent liming. Plant acid-tolerant species (e.g. Deschampsiaflexuosa) when the substrate is
cool. Frequent small applications of fertiliser. Harrow surface to improve root penetration and drainage

Metalliferous -

Problems - stoney, porous substrate with low water content. Nutrient deficiency.Toxic levels of heavy
metals.

Solutions - burial to separate plants from toxicity. Containment of contaminated soil in plastic
membranes. Add nutrients.

Sand and gravel -

Problems - high water table. Stoney substrate leading to excessive drainage. Acid soil, Infertile.
Susceptible to compaction.

Solutions - pits can be restored to wetlands. Mix in loose substrate.

Plant tolerant species such as pines which can tolerate well-drained, low nutrient conditions.
China clay -

Problems - highly erodible sediments, often on steep slopes.Very acidic - ph 3.9 - 4.8 nutrient
deficient.Very poor soil structure.

Solutions - lime. Landscape - i.e. Reduce slopes. Plant legumes and trees to increase nitrogen content
e.g. Alder.