ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the techniques that have been designed for assessing metropolitan landscape resources. The assessment of potential for surrace water supply is a relatively complex procedure. It is most often undertaken collectively by geologists, engineers, soil scientists, resource economists, and landscape planners. Two aspects of land productivity have been selected for this review. The first of these is agricultural productivity. The second aspect of land productivity considers the land's potential to support wildlife. Several landscape planners have expanded this procedure to include a consideration of present land use. The value of landscape complexity has been supported by numerous researchers, who have found that more complex landscapes are both more pleasing and more interesting to people. In the landscape, it is usually provided by topography, water, vegetation, and the pattern of land use. Visual compatibility is probably less widely measured than landscape complexity.
