ABSTRACT
Virtual environment technology has great promise to be used for purposes of basic and applied research in the wider field of the planning and design disciplines in general and in landscape planning and landscape architecture in particular. Virtual environments can be broadly characterised as computer-generated, three-dimensional environments providing interactivity and immersion (cf. Gaggioli 2001). Virtual environments are used for static or dynamic landscape representations; they are in essence descriptive and synthetic models of real environments, and they typically focus on external representation (Ervin 2001; Deming and Swaffield 2011, p.89). In order to represent possible future landscape developments, as required in all forms of landscape planning and design, virtual environments need to be linked to a simulation model, or they might follow a normative scenario approach with a particular target concerning, for example, environmental, social, economic and cultural factors (cf. Borjeson et al. 2006). In experimental settings, such as presented in this chapter, virtual environments are modelled to give participants the experience of computer-synthesised landscapes.
