Excerpt
“What will it look like?” Natural resource professionals often hear these words from landowners who have difficulty understanding a proposed conservation plan.
Despite the use of planting plans and engineering drawings, many landowners find it difficult to conceptualize what a future conservation practice or system will actually look like on their landscape. This lack of understanding can create challenging barriers in the planning process and is exacerbated by the long-term commitment that many conservation systems require from landowners. Landowners often lament if they could only see a picture of the proposed action on their property, then they could make a decision. Fortunately, natural resource professionals have a tool called visual simulations to help address this dilemma.
Visual simulation is a term used to describe a graphic or model that portrays a change from the existing condition (Sheppard, 1989). Simulations can range from perspective drawings and image-editing to complex 3-D models and animations. While some of the methods to create simulations are time consuming and difficult to learn, the use of computer image-editing techniques to illustrate proposed landscape changes in 2-D digital photographs is a realistic skill to acquire for many resource professionals. Usingconservation …
Footnotes
- Copyright 2005 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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