The Field of Visual Analysis and Resource Management: A Bibliographic Analysis and Perspective

Abstract

The proceedings generated by the conference, Our National Landscape, held at Incline Village, Nevada, in 1979, constitute the largest single collection of work in visual analysis and resource management, and represent a relatively broad cross-section of current thinking and practice in the field. Evaluation of the citations contained in the bibliographies which accompanied the majority of the proceedings' papers permitted identification of the literature most frequently referred to by those in the field. It also suggested some general observations about the current structure of the field of visual analysis and resource management, and the assumptions and modes of thought on which it is based. The bibliographic analysis suggests that the field is young, that there is a schism between the landscape architects and environmental psychologists, and that the field is in the pre-paradigm stage of development. These observations lead to the conclusion that the field of visual analysis and resource management now lacks the overall conceptual framework required to integrate its diverse and often unrelated approaches and activities. To create such a framework, more attention needs to be paid to cross-validating and synthesizing the basic notions on which the field's various streams of activity are based.