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RDI Resource Design Inc - Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment
  • Home About
  • Consulting Services
  • Contact
  • Connections
  • Visual Impact Assessment
  • VRM Publications
  • GEOptics Apparency
  • Landscape Inventory
  • Alberta Windfarm
  • Stanley Park Forest

THE FOLLOWING ARE VRM PUBLICATIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Links: Visual Resource Management Publications from RDI and the Province of British Columbia 


ABCFP Visual Resource Management Modules for Members

Highly recommended by RDI for all resource practitioners, forest professionals, forest consultants, educators, and Continuing Professional Development credits. 

Site Content

Lake views invite longer duration attention to the adjacent hillsides. Ches Clem, BCTS Photos

Visual Resource Management Publications and a bit of history

 British Columbia has magnificent forest and mountain landscapes. The protection and management of Visual Quality is legislated in the Province. Here are important links covering Visual Resource Management of Forest Resources from the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development (FLNRORD): 

Links:

 

Essential Documentation and Guidance from the Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD). Use the link covering the previous sentence to find these useful documents:

  • Visual Landscape Inventory - Procedures and Standards Manual 1997. 
  •  Visual Impact Assessment Guidebook - superceded by the VIA Handbook 2022 (see next item).
  • A new "Visual Impact Assessment Handbook", released in May of 2022 is available for downloading at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/forestry/visual-resource-mgmt/visual_impact_assessment_handbook.pdf
  • RDI was requested by a BCTS official on July, 2022 to comment on the new VIA Handbook. The brief review document is provided for downloading as the last item of RDI documents below in yellow.
  • Visual Landscape Design Training Manual 1994 -
    the training manual is strongly based on the concept of integrated visual design considering all values, constraints, and opportunities of at the forest landscape planning level, and was strongly influenced by the British and US Forest Service approaches to VRM and principally authored by Simon Bell of the Forestry Commission (UK) with Ministry VRM personnel input including that of KB Fairhurst, Vancouver Regional Landscape Specialist at the time.
  • Forest Landscape Handbook, BC Ministry of Forests, 1981 - The original BC Handbook. The handbook included first ever VLI mapping conducted by KB Fairhurst (pages 32 and 34).
  • Forest Landscape Management - Chapter 11, Recreation Manual BC
  • Poster: A guide to Visual Quality Objectives (PDF)
  • RDI - Visual Resource Management Terms in British Columbia Canada
  • Looking Beyond the Trees - Visual Stewardship of the working forest - visual resources conference compendium - Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, April 17 to 19, 2001. The conference included a presentation by KB Fairhurst, RDI entitled "Visual Resource Management Practitioners' Training and Skill Requirements" on page 149 of the compendium. 


Public Preferences


A First Look at the Visual Quality of Forest Roadside Management (PDF, 5.6MB)

 Energy

  • Wind Energy Developments on Forested Landscapes - Visual Quality: the Public Response. Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations 2015. (PDF, 5.3MB)

Other Research and Visual Resource Management Publications

  • Clearcutting and Visual Quality – A Public Perception Study (PDF, 1.7MB).
  • Economic Benefits of Managing Forestry and Tourism at Nimmo Bay (PDF, 2.2MB).
  • Predicting the Visual Impacts of Retention Cutting (PDF, 1.1MB)
  • The Public Response to Harvest Practices in B.C. at the Landscape and Stand Level (PDF, 3.2MB).
  • Visual Impacts of Partial Cutting: Summary Report (PDF, 1.4MB)
  • Visually Effective Green-up in B.C. – A Public Perception Study (PDF, 3.7MB).
  • Public Perception of Mountain Pine Beetle Attack: final report (PDF, 11MB).


Origins of Forest Aesthetics and Processes from other Locales


The concept of forest aesthetics was defined by Heinrich von Salisch, a forester who lived in Postel, a hamlet north of Breslau, Silesia, in what was then Germany, in his book Forestasthetik first published in 1885, with revisions in 1902 and 1911 and translated into English by Walter I. Cook and Doris Wehlau (Forest History Society, 2008) and is available at https://foresthistory.org/other-books/forest-aesthetics/. Von Salisch stressed an integrated resource management approach merging the aesthetic with the ecologic when managing the multiple demands on forest and open space resources. 


  • US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region published the "Forest Landscape Analysis and Design" manual, 1992. https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/flad/part_a.pdf
  • The BC Ministry of Forests brought in Simon Bell of the Forestry Commission in Scotland for training VRM specialists with a blend of the UK and US Forest Landscape Planning approaches, resulting in his authorship of the Visual Landscape Design Training Manual cited above following workshops with Ministry of Forests VRM personnel.
  • KB Fairhurst was given the responsibility for developing an initial version of the Forest Landscape Management Strategies for Alberta when he was with Alberta Energy and Natural Resources in 1985. The Strategies document was beautifully completed by Terry Turner and published in 1988. Archive.org (Wayback Machine) has a digital version: https://archive.org/details/forestlandscapem00albe_0/mode/2up




 

VRM Topics produced by RDI and KB Fairhurst 2006 to 2017

Some Fairhurst / RDI Visual Resource Management documents for teaching, training, conferences, and fieldwork

RDI Sea-to-Sky LRMP Frontcountry Zone VLI 2006 (pdf)Download
Fairhurst_FRST424_GISVizlab_2015 (pdf)Download
Fairhurst_RDI_UBC_2008_VLM_IVDP_Silvae_Forest_Art (pdf)Download
Fairhurst_Visualization_Visual_Quality_Effectiveness_BC_GeOptics_Portland_170421 (pdf)Download
Fairhurst Visual Landscape System for Planning and Managing Aesthetic Resources produced for CEMA Al (pdf)Download
Landscape_Unit_Rating_Forms_Alberta (pdf)Download
Little_Hells_Gate_VIA_RDI_160914 (pdf)Download
RDI VLI_Form (pdf)Download
RDI VLI_Standards (pdf)Download
VRM_BC_Glossary_RDI (pdf)Download
VRM-Guide-RDI-BCTS-2017 (pdf)Download
Fairhurst-170421-OK (pdf)Download
Fairhurst_Visualization_Visual_Quality_Effectiveness_BC_GeOptics_Portland_170421 (pdf)Download
VIA Summary Table (pdf)Download
220711_RDI_VIA_Handbook_2022_Notes (pdf)Download

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  • Consulting Services
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  • Visual Impact Assessment
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