Considering virtual worlds as representations of landscape realities and as tools for landscape planning

The development of computer tools for creating and representing virtual worlds has dramatically increased our abilities to capture salient aspects of the environment and communicate them to audiences remote from the landscape under study. The speed and quality of generation of visual imagery, as well as the editing power computers offer, has already dramatically extended the capabilities of practitioners and researchers in representing scenic views. The immersion, motion, and sound offered by virtual worlds may greatly extend the ecological validity of environmental representations and allow for deeper and more meaningful study of the effects of the real world on human experience. However, while the tools are being widely and increasingly adopted, there has been little discussion of the nature of the advantages being gained, nor the cautions that may be necessary. This paper examines the suitability of Virtual Reality (VR) technology for supporting environmental decision-making. We discuss and categorize different aspects of human-computer interfaces and then discuss to what extent the attributes of VR correspond to the needs of landscape representation.