Effective Environmental Visualization for Urban Planning and Design: Interdisciplinary Reflections on a Rapidly Evolving Technology

Visioning exercises using computer-based environmental visualization hold significant promise for communicating information and engaging communities in the development and review of planning proposals. The field of visualization research and practice has achieved significant advances in computer technology to the point where it is now possible to represent alternative planning and engineering scenarios with a high degree of photographic realism, data-driven accuracy, and spatial and temporal interactivity. However, the gap in our understanding of what static, video, and agent-based visualization technologies can do and how they should be applied to facilitate rather than frustrate participatory planning has expanded considerably. In the following discussion, the authors discuss the meaning and significance of effective visualization use for urban planning and design. Drawing on developments and principles from related disciplines where visualization tools are developed and applied (e.g., architecture, landscape architecture, resource management, transportation engineering) we present a case for minimum standards in visualization preparation and presentation, the use of “null alternative” scenarios for plan development and review, research to address the “perceptual effectiveness” of video-based formats, and collaborative technology development.