PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lange, Eckart
AU  - Schmid, Willy A.
TI  - Ecological Planning With Virtual Landscapes: Three Examples From Switzerland
AID  - 10.3368/lj.19.1-2.156
DP  - 2000 Jan 01
TA  - Landscape Journal
PG  - 156--165
VI  - 19
IP  - 1-2
4099  - http://lj.uwpress.org/content/19/1-2/156.short
4100  - http://lj.uwpress.org/content/19/1-2/156.full
AB  - The instrument that links environmental protection and spatial planning is ecological planning, which can be either reactive or strategic. Ecological planning comprises components of natural science as well as of aesthetics. Having once been the driving force of nature protection, the visual quality of the landscape has been neglected for a long time. In the past few years digital 3D-visualization techniques have increasingly found a wider distribution. Based on examples from Switzerland, the potential of 3D-visualization techniques in ecological planning is illustrated in this article. These include a proposed hydroelectric project at the Bernina Pass, alternative development scenarios for the town of Brunnen on Lake Lucerne, and the modeling and visualization of functions and effects of landscape elements on the habitat of the Greater Mouse-Eared Bat.