A Landscape Performance + Metrics Primer for Landscape Architects: Measuring Landscape Performance on the Ground - 3.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Landscape architecture is at a pivotal moment in its history as a discipline, where design practice is becoming more reflective, adaptive, and scholarly. As the need for sustainable design grows, it has become imperative that professionals put their work under analytical review and set higher standards for their work to perform environmentally, socially, and economically. The field looks more to the integration of research and scholarly inquiry in design as a solution to this growing need for high-performance landscapes. While the concept of landscape performance assessment is gaining attention within the field, the availability of time, resources, and technical expertise remains an obstacle for many designers in evaluating built work. More in-depth research investigations are best left to academics and scientists, but methods exist that every landscape architect can use to assess the performance of their own work for use throughout the planning, design, construction, and post-occupancy phases. This paper aims to provide an introduction to these metrics and methods that can be applied in the field.

If you are a SITES AP interested in earning the SITES-specific GBCI CE for this Research Report, you must have completed the quiz by May 15, 2023. After that date, certificates for SITES-specific GBCI CE earned prior to May 15 will remain available. The GBCI course ID for this course is 0920018252, providing SITES-specific CE hours required to maintain SITES AP credentials. Participants will need to self-report CE hours through their credentials account on https://sitesonline.usgbc.org. 

Report published in 2018

Report author: Emily McCoy, ASLA

Learning objectives:

• Identify standardized methods for data collection for use in quantifying landscape performance benefits for environmental, socio-cultural, and economic performance.
• Quantify the impact of landscape architecture projects on ecosystem and social services that protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
• Identify data collection tools that can be employed at various stages in the design process, providing information that improves design and management of the landscape to maintain or improve performance over time.