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Planning the Great American Landscape

12:10 - 1:10 pm
Location: Lynnwood Convention Center - Room 2A
Speaker: Christopher L. Overdorf, ASLA

Description:

ESRI, the developer of the ArcGIS platform, has recently been developing the “Great American Landscape Plan”, a cooperative program to reconnect Americans with their natural heritage and engage them in the future of the American landscape.  This session will provide an overview of how landscape architects are leading the plan development including: 1) applying a vison for a multi-sector landscape opportunity assessment at nested scales using a variety of geospatial information content and tools, 2) envisioning how the results are to be communicated to American leaders and the public in an understandable and compelling form that will educate, inform and inspire further involvement, and 3) establishing a set of systematic, evidence-based methods and tools for effective landscape planning and sustainable, resilient resource management. HSW-Yes

Learning Objectives:
  • Learn how to multi-sector landscape opportunity assessments at nested scales is needed.
  • Learn of the new tools being developed to support the Great American Landscape Plan.
  • Learn how all landscape architects can engage and inform the plan.
  • Learn about new geospatial datasets and how they can apply them to their projects.
Speaker Bio:

Christopher L. Overdorf, ASLA
Principal planner, landscape architect & geospatial analyst 
elm environments 
Chris is a planner and nationally certified landscape architect who has worked in a broad range of interconnected parks, recreation, and land use projects that have helped his clients realize the importance of our parks and open spaces as our biggest legacy. His work includes both site and regional scale specific interventions that support each other including strategic parks & open space planning, community visioning, outdoor recreation planning, green infrastructure planning, scenic conservation & visual impact analysis, transportation planning, urban forest planning, and ecosystem services valuation. Prior to starting elm environments, he was a partner at Jones & Jones Architects, Landscape Architects & Planners working on parks & open space, wildlife conservation, and green infrastructure projects ranging in scale from multi-state regions to small pocket parks.

He was educated in Computer Science & Geography at the United States Military Academy at West Point and received his Landscape Architecture degree from Washington State University.