Landscape Architecture - Fields of Activity

Fields of Activity

The variety of the professional tasks that landscape architects collaborate on is very broad, but some examples of project types include:

• The planning, form, scale and siting of new developments
• Civil design and public infrastructure
• Sustainable development
• Stormwater management including rain gardens, green roofs, groundwater recharge, and treatment wetlands
• Campus and site design for public institutions and government facilities
• Parks, botanical gardens, arboretums, greenways, and nature preserves
• Recreation facilities; i.e.: playgrounds, golf courses, theme parks and sports facilities
• Housing areas, industrial parks and commercial developments
• Estate and residence landscape master planning and design
• Highways, transportation structures, bridges, and transit corridors
• Urban design, town and city squares, waterfronts, pedestrian schemes, and parking lots
• Large to small urban renewal planning and design
• Natural park, tourist destination, and recreating historical landscapes, and historic garden appraisal and conservation studies
• Reservoirs, dams, power stations, reclamation of extractive industry applications or major industrial projects and mitigation
• Environmental assessment and landscape assessment, planning advice and land management proposals.
• Coastal and offshore developments and mitigation
• Ecological Design any aspect of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with natural processes and sustainability

Landscape managers use their knowledge of landscape processes to advise on the long-term care and development of the landscape. They often work in forestry, nature conservation and agriculture.

Landscape scientists have specialist skills such as soil science, hydrology, geomorphology or botany that they relate to the practical problems of landscape work. Their projects can range from site surveys to the ecological assessment of broad areas for planning or management purposes. They may also report on the impact of development or the importance of particular species in a given area.

Landscape planners are concerned with landscape planning for the location, scenic, ecological and recreational aspects of urban, rural and coastal land use. Their work is embodied in written statements of policy and strategy, and their remit includes master planning for new developments, landscape evaluations and assessments, and preparing countryside management or policy plans. Some may also apply an additional specialism such as landscape archaeology or law to the process of landscape planning.

Green roof designers design extensive and intensive roof gardens for storm water management, evapo-transpirative cooling, sustainable architecture, aesthetics, and habitat creation.