Testing presence, assessing attitudes: Study of a 3D virtual tour in an “aesthetically challenged” landscape

Steidle, Stuart J.; Lucash, Melissa S.; Nasr-Azadani, Ellie; Smithwick, Erica A. H.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117574

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Pine Barrens are imperiled both globally and across Wisconsin and neighboring states. Wisconsin land managers recognize the importance of returning fire to the landscape to restore and connect fragments of this now-rare habitat (Steidle-Nix 2022;Steidle et al 2023). We used conceptual mapping (Gray et al 2019;Hopper 2007;Maani and Maharaj 2002;Smithwick et al 2018) and scenario-based assessment tools (Arnold and Wade 2017; Assaraf and Orion Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Menominee model for sustainable forestry with Systems Thinking competency through 3D virtual tours

Nasr-Azadani,

Smithwick,

Steidle

et al. 2023

Sustain Sci

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Sustainability competencies enable planners, the public, local communities, academics, and development practitioners to address environmental challenges, better envision the future and devise practical solutions. A key competency in this framework is Systems Thinking, allowing individuals to think comprehensively at different temporal and spatial scales. Among all interested groups, local and Indigenous communities play a significant role in preserving the sustainability of the natural environment and co-producing knowledge based on traditional ecological knowledge. Hence, new approaches are needed to integrate traditional ecological values into competency-based practices to articulate problems and related solutions. This project introduces place-based scenarios rooted in conventional forest management concerning two identified subsets of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Remembering and Understanding, including some competencies necessary for thinking systemically. Overall, 57 participants, including students and staff of the College of Menominee Nation and Menominee community members, in northeast Wisconsin, USA, randomly experienced two visual tools with the same information presented as either: a website with simple 2D images or a 3D virtual tour to investigate which visualization method can help better articulate systems, their components, and behaviors. Participants answered two kinds of questionnaires based on either cognitive mapping or reflection on place-based scenarios. The results show that 3D virtual tour users better demonstrated proficiency in Remembering and Understanding compared to users who experienced the 2D website. Our results thus highlight the potential for 3D virtual experiences to enable sustainability competencies. However, given the observed differences among age and educational groups, future visualization tools and associated research methods should attend to audiences’ competencies, preferences, and comfort, especially among older age groups.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Menominee model for sustainable forestry with Systems Thinking competency through 3D virtual tours

Nasr-Azadani,

Smithwick,

Steidle

et al. 2023

Sustain Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Representation of landscapes through the visual arts has long inspired painters, textile artists, and photographers and has led to representation (and critiques of) the sublime wilderness ideas associated, for example, with the birth of the U.S. National Park System (Byrne and Wolch 2009). Calls for collaboration among artists, cultural geographers, and climate scientists has risen exponentially (Tolia-Kelly 2012), https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol28/iss4/art5/ particularly as aesthetic representation of changing landscapes is seen as important for engaging public participation (Steidle et al 2023).…”

Section: Regenerative Landscape Design: An Integrative Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regenerative landscape design: an integrative framework to enhance sustainability planning

Smithwick,

Baka,

Bird

et al. 2023

E&S

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Addressing contemporary environmental and social crises requires solutions-based, systems-level changes. To achieve these changes, transdisciplinary research approaches are needed to align problem framing with solution deployment at landscape scales. However, practical frameworks to guide this work are lacking. Here we propose a new framework to help bridge this gap: regenerative landscape design (RLD). We define RLD as a process for finding pattern-based solutions, emphasizing cooperative, iterative, and facilitated engagement for the co-production of locally relevant knowledge for desirable landscape stewardship. To do so, we review how key components of RLD (e.g., landscapes, design thinking, and regenerative processes) have been differentially and unevenly applied in disciplines ranging from resilience, landscape ecology, geography, architecture, agriculture, sociology, tourism, and more. We then put forward research considerations of a RLD approach to enhance social and environmental well-being. We use two emerging case studies (i.e., Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Pennsylvania, USA and Narok County, Kenya) to put forward pathways for implementation of the RLD strategy.

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Barriers and opportunities for implementing prescribed fire: lessons from managers in the mid-Atlantic region, United States

Smithwick,

Wu,

Spangler

et al. 2024

fire ecol

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Background Prescribed burning is a beneficial fire management practice used by practitioners worldwide to meet multiple land management objectives, including reduction of wildfire hazard, promotion of biodiversity, and management of vegetation for wildlife and human interests. Meeting these objectives can be difficult due to the need for institutional coordination, resource and policy constraints, and community support. We examined these dynamics in the United States’ mid-Atlantic region because prescribed fire use is increasing in the region to meet a broadening set of land management objectives. Managers are at the frontlines of these challenges and hold significant experience and knowledge for enhancing wildland fire management policy and strategy. Towards better leveraging this insight, we conducted focus groups with fire managers in land management agencies in the region to identify managers’ perceived barriers and opportunities for implementing prescribed fire. Results We found manager perceptions to be hierarchical, with barriers and opportunities expressed across landscape, community, and individual levels. Limited institutional coordination across landscapes was seen by managers as an opportunity for expanding prescribed fire implementation, whereas coping with shared fear or stress about burning among individual managers or individual community members was seen as a significant barrier. Yet, despite different prescribed burning histories and policies at the state level, barriers and opportunities were similar among managers in the mid-Atlantic region. Conclusions Managers in the mid-Atlantic region confront barriers to prescribed fire use but are also uniquely positioned to recognize opportunities to enhance its implementation. This work sheds light on these barriers and opportunities, revealing that managers desire greater opportunities for landscape-level fire planning and coordination across agencies as well as greater opportunities for community engagement and interpersonal trust-building within complex social-management networks. Manager perspectives from the mid-Atlantic provide lessons for other regions across the globe grappling with new or broadened land-management strategies that include beneficial fire use.

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Testing presence, assessing attitudes: Study of a 3D virtual tour in an “aesthetically challenged” landscape

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Integrating Menominee model for sustainable forestry with Systems Thinking competency through 3D virtual tours

Integrating Menominee model for sustainable forestry with Systems Thinking competency through 3D virtual tours

Regenerative landscape design: an integrative framework to enhance sustainability planning

Barriers and opportunities for implementing prescribed fire: lessons from managers in the mid-Atlantic region, United States

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