Landscape Architecture Master's Projects

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Trails for the Three of Us: Trail Design Planning Using Temporal and Dynamic Relationships Between Plants, Animals, and Hikers
(2021-03-24) Andrus, Erica
Introducing trail systems into a protected natural area that has undergone habitat restoration sends alarms to ecologists and cheers from avid hikers. Habitat assessments help map which plants and animals need protection; however, it is difficult to translate this information to the trail design process. There is a need for an approach to trail design that views habitats as a dynamic relationships between species across scales, space, and time. This project introduces a framework that addresses the often-overlooked challenge of not only which species to design for, but also when specific design strategies are appropriate. Through temporal and spatial mapping this project examines sensitive times of plants’ and animals’ life cycles and their expected response to an introduction of trails. This mapping supported the creation of a framework that allows designers to evaluate and prioritize options for future public trails in ecologically rich landscapes. This research uses the Willamette Confluence Preserve in Springfield, Oregon, where public trails currently do not exist, as a site to test the feasibility of this framework. This new framework is transferrable to use on other sites and habitat types and is an opportunity for future research.