Editor’s Letter

Licensed landscape architects routinely conduct studies to inform their planning, design, and project implementation decisions. They investigate site opportunities and constraints, explore alternative design programs, and evaluate relevant design precedents. Yet, recently, a growing number of U.S. design firms have undertaken studies with broader relevance for land planning, design, and management. Several factors—including changing market forces—are driving these initiatives.

These developments present scholars with collaborative opportunities for practice-inspired research. Academic scholars bring advanced research degrees and extensive research experience to the table, while private, public, and nonprofit practitioners are intimately familiar with the implementation challenges that landscape architects face. Collaborations between academics and practitioners can leverage the strengths of each, potentially producing impactful, practice-relevant scholarship.

As demonstrated in the field of medicine, identifying researchable questions is critical in the process of enabling evidence-based practice. Also needed are a familiarity with the relevant scholarly literature, a capacity to statistically analyze research findings, and an ability to interpret the relevance of those findings for clinicians and other practitioners. The medical research model is certainly applicable to landscape architecture (Brown & Corry, 2011; Milburn et al., 2003).

Landscape Journal is a forum for communicating methodologies and findings from both basic and applied research. Landscape Journal occasionally publishes articles that review the current state of knowledge in the field and pose important research questions (Gobster et al., 2010). Usually written by scholars and educators, these important articles are milestones in the discipline’s evolution.

But a larger goal of this journal is to foster knowledge exchange among educators, practitioners, and scholars. What research questions should we be asking? What data do researchers need to collect, process, and analyze? If we do not currently have the capacity to rigorously investigate these questions, how should we go about acquiring it?

Strengthening the teaching of research and scholarship methods in accredited landscape architecture degree programs, especially MLA programs, is essential (Sleipness et al., 2018). Collectively, we need to build our capacity to collaborate, conduct research, and communicate findings to our stakeholders (van den Brink & Bruns, 2014). These efforts would both develop the discipline and strengthen the profession.