Search

BACKGROUND Logging and landscape work are among the most hazardous occupations, and one of the most dangerous tasks in these occupations is tree felling. While much research has been conducted to examine fatalities from logging and landscape services, there is a dearth of research looking specifically at tree felling. There is a need to focus on hazards associated with tree felling activities so that proactive prevention strategies can be developed. METHODS An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) database was used to identify occupational tree-felling fatalities in the United States during the period from 2010 through the first half of 2020. We compared data for the two industry segments of logging and landscaping services. RESULTS There were 314 fatalities over the period. The victims were overwhelmingly male with the median age being 43. Struck-by was the number one event type causing fatalities, with the head being the number one body part involved in fatalities. Falls from elevation was the only event type significantly different between the logging and landscaping industries. Poor decision-making is noted as a key component of fatal incidents, but bystanders were fatally injured due to the actions of others. CONCLUSIONS Tree felling is one of the most hazardous activities for both loggers and commercial landscapers and is a common cause of fatalities; significant differences in events and source are encountered in those two occupations. Loggers should continue efforts to adopt mechanized harvesting methods. Landscape services tree fellers should receive training related to fall prevention.

Today, with the gradual expansion of city centres, mining sites neighbouring cities have become high‐potential landscapes on which user needs and urban ecological necessities can be satisfied. However, as works on such fields remain at the upper scale and planning level, subscale design efforts required to give the areas in question an identity and usage opportunities are quite limited. Within this context, the present study aims to create various usage paradigms by evaluating the landscaping potentials of new landscape elements in rehabilitated mining sites. The study defined these new landscape elements and determined usage scenarios for the landscape elements by following different design approaches. These new usage scenarios were categorized into three different design orientations as nature‐oriented, human‐oriented, and mixed‐use. These categorizations were then transformed into 30 paradigms based on deliberations with experts. The aim here was to define multipurpose usages required for natural and human needs in rehabilitated mining sites.

Residential lawns provide diverse benefits, including social (e.g., enhancing humans’ physical and psychological well-being), economic (e.g., increasing real estate values), and environmental (e.g., supporting local ecosystems) benefits. However, improper lawn fertilizer applications can cause adverse environmental consequences, such as excessive chemical runoff into adjoining watersheds leading to water contamination. Currently, the importance of eco-friendly fertilizers to homeowners has not been assessed. This study uses a discrete choice experiment to test whether eco-friendly fertilizer attributes influence homeowners’ preferences for sustainable landscape management. The findings show that eco-friendly fertilizer attributes positively influence homeowners’ preferences and willingness to pay, supporting the premise that the promotion of eco-friendly fertilizer features could improve local ecosystems through increased adaptation. Furthermore, this study tests whether certain fertilizer attributes influence homeowners’ preferences in states with and without fertilizer restrictions. Since the regulatory environment affects homeowners’ preferences for sustainable landscaping, this study compares the results between regulated and unregulated states. The findings reveal that homeowners are more likely to use and are willing to pay higher premiums for sustainable fertilizers in states with residential fertilization regulations. This suggests that with strict fertilizer ordinances, homeowners are more geared toward eco-friendly landscaping options and that related educational programs should be made available. Les pelouses residentielles offrent divers avantages, incluant les avantages sociaux (comme la valorisation du bien-etre physique et psychologique humain), economiques (comme la valeur immobiliere), et environnementaux (comme l'appui des ecosystemes locaux). La mauvaise application des fertilisants a parfois des consequences environnementales negatives comme le ruissellement chimique excessif dans les bassins hydrographiques attenants menant a la contamination des sources d'eau. En raison de l'importance des fertilisants respectueux de l'environnement pour la protection de ce dernier, cette etude emploie une experience avec choix discrets pour evaluer si les attributs ecologiques des fertilisants influencent les preferences des consommateurs et leur volonte de payer pour une gestion durable de l'amenagement. Les resultats indiquent que les attributs ecologiques des fertilisants influencent positivement les preferences des consommateurs et leur volonte de payer, appuyant ainsi la premisse selon laquelle la promotion des attributs ecologiques des fertilisants de gazon pourrait ameliorer les ecosystemes locaux. De plus, cette etude evalue l'influence des attributs de certains fertilisants sur les preferences des proprietaires residentiels dans les etats avec et sans restrictions sur l'application des fertilisants. Puisque le cadre reglementaire peut avoir un impact sur les preferences des consommateurs pour une gestion durable de l'amenagement paysager, cette etude compare les previsions des etats avec et sans cadre reglementaire. Les resultats demontrent que les consommateurs sont plus aptes a utiliser, et sont disposes a payer un surplus pour les fertilisants durables dans les etats ou des reglements concernant l'utilisation de fertilisants residentiels sont en vigueur, portant donc a croire que les programmes educatifs concernant l'amenagement paysager respectueux de l'environnement devraient etre accompagnes d'ordonnances strictes en matiere de fertilisants.

With over 110,000 inhabitants , The Villages is the world's largest retirement community. Its numerous distinct ‘villages’, surrounded by artificial landscaping and golf courses and served by three ‘downtowns’, cater to those who crave the idealised rural life of times gone by while also offering the convenience and stimulation of the modern metropolis. Deane Simpson, leader of the Master's programme in Urbanism and Societal Change at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, investigates.

The Modernist landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (1909–94) was a game changer, revolutionising the treatment of green space in Brazil. Here, architect Alexandre Hepner, co-founder of Estudio ARKIZ, and Silvio Soares Macedo, a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo, reflect on Burle Marx's enduring legacy.

Landscaping paradigms that encourage high-input, intensively managed and mono-culture turf/lawn landscapes have raised concerns about water quality. We conducted a watershed-scale assessment of landscaping practices that included turf, urban, forest, native meadow, and mixed landuse watersheds with a professional golf course and a parking lot. The turf site was moderately managed and had lower fertilizer inputs than those typically used by homeowners and golf courses. Stream water sampling was performed during base flow and storm events. Highest nitrate and total nitrogen concentrations in runoff were observed for the mixed watershed draining the golf course. In contrast, concentrations in base flow from the turf watershed were lower than expected and were comparable to those measured in the surrounding meadow and forest sites. Total nitrogen concentrations from the turf site increased sharply during the first storms following fertilization, suggesting that despite optimal management there exists a risk for nutrient runoff following fertilization. Overall, this study suggests that turf or lawns, when managed properly, pose minimal water quality risk to surface waters. Rate, timing of application, and the type of fertilizer appear to be the key factors affecting water quality. Better education of homeowners and landscaping professionals with regard to these factors may be a cost-effective strategy to reduce nonpoint source pollution.

Summary Australia's urban landscapes offer opportunities to marry socio-economic and biodiversity conservation objectives. Yet, information is needed on what urban landscape and habitat features are important for wildlife. In this article, we draw together our research from southeastern Australia to describe key lessons for biodiversity-sensitive cities and towns. Lesson 1: The effects of urbanization on wildlife extend into adjacent habitats. We recommend retaining large, undisturbed areas of habitat away from development, avoiding intensive development adjacent to important conservation areas, prioritizing areas of ecological and social significance, screening light and noise pollution at the urban fringe and around large nature reserves, and planting appropriately provenanced locally native species for public streetscapes, parks and gardens. Lesson 2: Strategic enhancement of urban greenspace offers biodiversity gains. We recommend increasing the total amount of greenspace cover, maintaining ecological structures as habitat islands, using landscaping techniques to minimize risks to human safety, and gardening with low-flowering native shrubs. Lesson 3: Large old trees need to be managed for long-term sustainability. We recommend retaining large old trees in new developments, increasing the maximum standing life of urban trees, protecting regenerating areas and planting more seedlings, supplementing habitat features associated with large trees, and ensuring that young trees have space to grow through time. Lesson 4: Education and engagement connects residents with nature and raises awareness. We recommend education programs to enhance opportunities for residents to experience and learn about biodiversity, engaging residents in the establishment and maintenance of wildlife habitat, providing ‘cues to care’, facilitating access to garden plants that benefit wildlife, and encouraging cat containment. These lessons provide an evidence-base for implementing conservation and management actions to improve the capacity of our cities and towns to support a diverse and abundant biota.

Studies on Nigerian contexts have not been greatly documented in the linguistic landscape (LL) literature, despite the country's sociolinguistic significance in Africa. This qualitative study, examines how sign-producers put layering, an aspect of linguistic landscaping, to meaning-making uses in Ibadan, a major Nigerian city. By analyzing and illustrating with purposively sampled photographic data, answers were sought to two main questions: (1) how meaningful is layering to the Ibadan linguistic landscape; (2) how does this situation of layered signs align with the literature on layering in linguistic landscape research?

By the start of the twenty-first century, the once dominant historical downtown core of Johannesburg had lost its privileged status as the center of business and commercial activities, the metropolitan landscape having been restructured into an assemblage of sprawling, rival edge cities. Real estate developers have recently unveiled ambitious plans to build two completely new cities from scratch: Waterfall City and Lanseria Airport City (formerly called Cradle City) are master-planned, holistically designed 'satellite cities' built on vacant land. While incorporating features found in earlier city-building efforts, these two new self-contained, privately-managed cities operate outside the administrative reach of public authority and thus exemplify the global trend toward privatized urbanism. Waterfall City, located on land that has been owned by the same extended family for nearly 100 years, is spearheaded by a single corporate entity. Lanseria Airport City/Cradle City is a planned 'aerotropolis' surrounding the existing Lanseria airport at the northwest corner of the Johannesburg metropole. These two new private cities differ from earlier large-scale urban projects because everything from basic infrastructure (including utilities, sewerage, and the installation and maintenance of roadways), landscaping, security services, the regulation of common spaces, and selling and branding the city are firmly in the hands of private profit-making corporate entities and outside the mandate of public authorities.

We develop state-level proxies for informal employment using differences between measures of self-reported employment and officially sanctioned employment. In construction and landscaping, industries associated with under-the-table labor, we develop proxies for informal work based on productivity per officially sanctioned worker. We relate each set of proxies for informal employment to changes in immigrant population and composition. We find some evidence that immigration is associated with informal employment generally and in the construction industry when prevailing wages are low. States with high concentrations of low-skilled male immigrants have higher levels of informal employment in the landscaping industry.

The purpose of the work described in this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of pre-wetting structures, dead fuels, and landscaping plants in preventing fire spread from wildland fires to structures. Critical fluxes for fire growth were determined using intermediate-scale testing for three wetting agents (water, type A foam, and gel) applied to 10 landscaping plants conditioned to 20% moisture, a mulch material, and four external structural materials (vinyl siding, plywood siding, asphalt shingle roofing, and cedar shake roofing). The critical flux for fire growth values was determined at 3-min heat radiation exposure and simultaneous 300-mm long flame exposure. Test specimens were exposed to various durations and intensities of drying prior to exposing them to heat radiation. Application of water or foam provided no noticeable protection. Gel was effective in providing protection even after 60 min of laboratory condition drying but was less successful when exposed to fire weather simulating accelerated drying. Some uncertainty is associated with the results of this work because of the variability of landscaping plants and gel wetting agent application uniformity. The intermediate-scale test results were verified using full-scale testing. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In recent years, the local authorities in London's historic Bloomsbury district have carried out a number of refurbishments of the area's public squares. These landscaping schemes have typically been labelled “historical restorations” in attempts to predetermine the evaluation criteria as “historic” rather than political, social and aesthetic. Focusing on Russell Square and Bloomsbury Square, this paper illustrates how the “restorations” were selective: the introduction of gates and railings and the removal of planting were not primarily designed to restore these historical gardens, but reflect a surveillance-friendly ideal of urban space, specifically introduced to displace the men who used these squares for cruising. Through a detailed review of archival material from both mainstream and gay media, I illustrate the shifting forms of policing and landscaping in Bloomsbury's squares, while also highlighting how homonormative capital has colluded with the regulation of public space in this part of London.

Summary 1. Ornamental horticulture is the most important pathway for plant invasions world-wide. Large numbers of non-native plants are used as ornamentals, and current policies fail to effectively address the continued escape of species from cultivation. Legislative measures are often limited to the listing of few high-risk species banned from sale or planting. This approach, however, may give the impression that non-listed species are not considered to be a risk and are therefore safe to use. The continued widespread use of species not yet identified as having the risk to become invasive may create a problem in the future. 2. This article argues that knowledge gained from studies designed to identify invasive traits of species and factors contributing to their invasion success can also be used to identify species with a low invasion risk that can be recommended to the horticultural trade, landscaping sector and gardeners for safer use. 3. The criteria identified for non-invading species to be listed in a green list include sufficiently long residence time, high propagule pressure, no records of invasive occurrences elsewhere and an indication of some robustness to climate change. An example is provided for a random sample of ornamental species used in Britain. 4. Synthesis and application. There is a pressing need to prevent further plant invasions resulting from ornamental horticulture. A green list of non-native ornamental species that have been assessed as having a low risk of escaping cultivation will contribute to the prevention of plant invasions. Species not yet assessed which may have the potential to become invasive in the future can then be more easily avoided. This list would be particularly useful in large-scale plantings and landscaping projects. Currently, policies often focus on (i) species that are already introduced and recognized as invasive and (ii) the prevention of potential further invasions from new introductions. This study suggests that attention to non-invasive species already present in the country and widely used in horticulture can help to advance policies for dealing with invasive ornamental species.

The issue of environmental protection has been of interest to Africa just as it is to the rest of the world. Such rising interest in environmental protection has resulted in a number of environmentally friendly initiatives, such as landscaping, by firms in Nigeria. This article adopts the organizational buying behavior theory to study a comprehensive list of potential facilitators of landscaping adoption and to discriminate between organizational adopters and nonadopters in Nigeria. The data were factor-analyzed to determine the key dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting dimensions, discriminant analysis was conducted. The results show that environmental factors, organizational factors, and managerial factors are important discriminants. The findings are salient in environmental management in Africa, and in designing strategies for landscaping services marketing and landscaping diffusion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

NAGOYA IS SITUATED in Japan's premier industrial and technological district. It is also a community shaped by a post-World War II urban plan noted for its generous open spaces and landscaping. With this design heritage, it is not surprising that, in 1989, the city was the site of the World Design Exposition and the largest ICSID Congress ever convened. Today, Kazuo Kimura outlines how the city is extending its traditional design awareness with its ambitious project for a design center hallmarked by a museum, research center, shops, and an extensive program for education and outreach.

This study assesses outreach effectiveness for particular populations and audiences’ media preferences for learning about water issues and examines preferences for additional information on particular water resource topics, including possible trends in information sources related to socio-demographic changes from 2008 to 2014. City and municipal water districts reached the greatest number of people with 68.2% of those surveyed and 73.9% of respondents living within city limits (p < 0.0001) receiving water information from these sources. Protecting drinking water supplies (57.4%) and water management for home and garden landscaping (55.8%) were the water resource topics of greatest interests to respondents. Interest in the home and garden landscaping topic increased from 34.1% in 2008 to almost 60% in 2014. This study reports water resource topical areas of greatest interest and preferred methods for reaching various demographic groups, including the growing urban sector. This information is critically important to financially limited organizations disseminating water resource information, including extension, environmental agencies and groups, and cities and water districts, as they seek to efficiently encourage the public to adopt appropriate water resource management and water conservation practices.

[BACKGROUND: Although landscape and horticultural services workers have high injury and illness rates, little is known about fatalities in this industry. METHODS: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Current Population Survey data were analyzed to determine fatality rates and causes of landscaping deaths from 1992 to 2001. RESULTS: There were 1,101 fatalities during the 10-year period and the average fatality rate was 13.50 deaths per 100,000 full-time employees. In 2001, the landscaping fatality rate was 3.33 (95% CI 2.84-3.91) times the all industry rate. The leading causes of death were transportation incidents (27%), contact with objects or equipment (27%), falls (24%), exposure to harmful substances and environments (18%), and assaults and violent acts (4%). The fatality rate for African American landscapers was 1.51 (95% CI 1.25-1.83) times the rate for white workers. Fatalities were also common among self-employed, small business, and young landscapers. CONCLUSIONS: Landscaping workers are at increased risk of fatal injury. Further research is needed to characterize industry hazards. Language: en

At the forefront of innovative French landscape design, Bernard Lassus has developed a uniquely modern ethos. Working in the context of a multicultural society, he sets out to create ‘rational approaches that anchor the lives of men and women in nature and history’. Michel Conan describes how this is played out in his projects for the new town area of Sarcelles, the landscaping of the French motorways and in the gardens of an international headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article presents the findings of a survey of day laborers who gather at informal hiring sites in the New York metropolitan area. Day laborers are employed by construction contractors, landscaping companies, homeowners, and small businesses to undertake manual labor jobs for low pay. The work is precarious and steady employment is rare. In addition, the day labor market is characterized by routine violations of labor and employment laws, and workers are often exposed to unsafe working conditions. These conditions prevail, in part, because day laborers largely are disconnected from workers rights' advocacy efforts. However, the creation of worker centers aims to remedy this situation. Several community organizations in the region are now actively contesting abuses in the day labor market and increasing both accountability in and transparency of the hiring process.

Many forms of sovereignty are still, albeit not exclusively, anchored in claims on territory and are asserted through the productive exercise of control over people, resources, and habitats located within the spaces of territory. In British Columbia, Canada, First Nations' assertions of sovereign control over their territories and resources are reconfiguring resource planning, development, and management, even as the provincial and federal governments seek to maintain their own control over the same territory. While the courts have been the primary avenue for protecting Aboriginal Title and rights, First Nations are also turning to the use of mass media and other public forums. This essay examines the assertions of sovereignty made by coastal First Nations through the venues of public forums.

The demand management potential of efficient irrigation technology is enormous, and utility managers are realizing that forming partnerships with the landscaping and irrigation industries can help manage water distribution systems with mutual benefits. This article outlines the development of protocols for testing the efficiency of new irrigation technologies under a volunteer initiative called "Smart Water Application Technology." Sponsored by the Irrigation Association, the initiative has resulted in an accurate, science-based performance assessment process for "smart" controllers, as well as a robust educational campaign. The primary purpose of this article is to help educate water utility professionals about the management potential of efficient irrigation technology and highlight the importance of conducting efficiency testing on new technologies. The secondary purpose is to encourage partnerships between water utilities and the irrigation industry in water resource management.

Although ecologists want to conduct research in urban systems, cultural constraints, spatial complexity, and institutional agendas limit the establishment of ecological experiments. Recent approaches using household landscaping have begun to tackle these obstacles; others, including adaptive management, restoration, reclamation, and wetland construction, reveal overlaps between ecological experiments and urban design. “Designed experiments” propose going beyond current strategies to partner with urban designers, landscape architects, and architects to insert architecturally designed experiments into the urban mosaic. The interdisciplinary approach of designed experiments exploits the aesthetics and functions of urban design, balancing ecological goals with important design factors such as context, public amenities, and safety. Designed experiments represent a novel way for ecologists to help improve urban environments by providing a means with which to work with urban designers in creating attractive, practical, and replicated experimental designs that generate quality ecological data from metropolitan sites.

Tourism destinations are increasingly subject to locational forms of violence that enable certain conceptualizations of terrorism. This enabling is undermined to some extent when touristic landscaping is understood from a phenomenological perspective and the darker side of its placelike character is illuminated. Touristic landscapes are capable of producing injurious, traumatic forms of disemplacement via their consumption-oriented spatializing of preexisting cultural places. One Philippine luxury destination, Pearl Farm Beach Resort, a target of locational violence in 2001, illustrates how the landscaping of tourist destinations can serve to embed and to signify potential sources of locational violence.

Architects beware! Seized with your renewed vigour for ‘greening’ your schemes, you must know that there are plants, and there are plants, and that they should not be misinterpreted. Jon Vincent has strong opinions about how divisive some landscaping decisions can become, and incorporates these rules into his own, more responsive, garden designs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The interdisciplinary study of human–environment interactions is becoming increasingly important around the world. Long-term experimental manipulations that combine approaches from both the ecological and social sciences could play an important role in the study of human–environment feedbacks in cities. The inclusion of in situ human subjects in this research is vital, as it facilitates more accurate scientific models and might produce social benefits such as increasing public trust in scientists. Within a landscape experiment, human subjects may alter experimental conditions to suit their needs, imitating the rapidly changing environmental conditions in cities. In response, researchers adjust explanatory models in a process which could be called “adaptive experimentation”. These ideas are illustrated by a description of a proposed experiment in the Phoenix metropolitan area, where residential landscaping will be manipulated and the feedbacks between ecological processes and the activities of resident hum...

This paper uses an alternative to the usual cost-avoidance approach to estimating the value of weather forecast products. Value is estimated via a demand-based approach based on the willingness to pay of those who use weather forecast services. Contingent valuation is used to estimate the benefits generated by an automated telephone-answering device that provides weather forecast information to commercial users in the Toronto area of Ontario, Canada. Commercial sectors included in the study are construction, landscaping/snow-removal businesses, TV and film, recreation and sports, agriculture, hotel and catering, and institutions such as schools and hospitals. Average value per call varied by commercial sector, from $2.17 for agricultural users to $0.60 per call for institutional users, with an overall mean of $1.20 per call. At roughly 13,750,000 commercial calls annually, this would result in an estimate of benefits generated by the service to commercial users of $16,500,000 per year. Copyright © 2003 Royal Meteorological Society

Andy Wasowski, a freelance writer and photographier specializing in gardening and landscaping issues, talked journal editor Marcia Lacey about a revolution that is quietly changing the face of the American landscape. Wasowski says the native plant movement represents the cutting edge of gardening. It is not hyperbole to say that landscaping revolution is going to be the gardening trend for the new century.