Abstract

Incorporating Landscape Diversity into Greenway Planning through an Optimization Model
Track: Modeling
Author(s): Xuchu Meng, Wei-ning Xiang

Greenways provide pedestrians with a simple and enjoyable way for enjoying different landscapes. Attractive greenways are results of carefully thought-out and thoroughly conducted process of planning and design. Currently, the practice of greenway planning is almost based upon land suitability assessment. This is especially the case in GIS-based greenway planning.

In this paper, we bring another important objective-landscape diversity-into the practice of GIS-based greenway planning. Often regarded as a primary determinant of aesthetic reactions, landscape diversity reflects how heterogeneous the landscape is in a particular scene. The challenge in this undertaking is that there is no guarantee that land-use suitability and landscape diversity conform with each other spatially. In our research, we tackle this challenge through a grid based two-objective optimization model, and implement the model in a GIS environment. The model is verified mathematically and tested in a real world greenway planning project.

Xuchu Meng
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Geography and Earth Science, UNC Charlotte,
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte , North Carolina 28223
United States
Phone: 704-807-2300
E-mail: xmeng@uncc.edu

Wei-ning Xiang
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Geography and Earth Science, UNCC
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte , North Carolina 28223
United States
Phone: 704-687-5969
E-mail: wxiang@uncc.edu