Pacific Southwest

Title: Predicting the visual quality impacts of development: a simulation of alternative policies for implementing the Massachusetts Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act

Author: Steinitz, Carl

Date: 1979

Source: In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 598-609

Station ID: GTR-PSW-035

Description: An implementation work program has been de-veloped by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (MASS D.E.M.) for the Massachusetts Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act, and the North River has been chosen as the pilot project area. The question which has been posed by MASS D.E.M. is: "What will be the impacts of eleven alternative implementation policy scenarios on new development, and thus on the visual qualities of the North River?" Components of the scenarios include building performance standards, zoning changes, and conservation purchases. The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) research team has translated scenarios into model constraints and has tested the effects of these added constraints on housing development and its consequent visual impacts. The policy implications of the results have been analyzed by the author while MASS D.E.M. has had the responsibility for actual public policy. This paper summarizes the study process, findings, and conclusions.

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Citation

Steinitz, Carl  1979.  Predicting the visual quality impacts of development: a simulation of alternative policies for implementing the Massachusetts Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act.   In: Elsner, Gary H., and Richard C. Smardon, technical coordinators. 1979. Proceedings of our national landscape: a conference on applied techniques for analysis and management of the visual resource [Incline Village, Nev., April 23-25, 1979]. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-35. Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stn., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: p. 598-609.