Representing Landscapes: Visualizing Climate Action

Nadia Amoroso, PhD, OALA, CSLA, is an Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. She holds a PhD from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, and degrees in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Toronto. She specializes in visual communication in landscape architecture, digital design, data visualization, and creative mapping. She also runs an illustration studio, under her name, focusing on landscape architectural visual communication. She has published a number of articles and books on topics relating to creative mapping, visual representation, and digital design.

“Climate Change is an existential threat to our Planet and the survival of the Human Species. Although the topic is top of mind, visual expressions solidify the need for more action from a broad audience. It is wonderful to have a book that provides illustrations to convey many ways the discipline and profession of Landscape Architecture addresses nature based design solutions towards reversing the effects of climate change.”Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, Principal of EDSA Inc, and 2025-26 President of ASLA"Representation is an effective method for communicating complex issues, especially the profound challenge of Climate Change. Landscape architecture's role in visually conveying complicated concepts is pivotal for educating and creating action. It serves as a catalyst for the cultural shift required to address the global climate crisis facing everyone."Damian Holmes, Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture

• Notes on Contributors Foreword by Carl A. Smith Acknowledgements 1. Introduction - Representing Climate Action: A Collection of Works 2. Visualizing Climate Action: A Conversation with SCAPE Studio 3. Imaging Change 4. Communicating Complexity through Simplicity 5. Climate Action: The Works of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates 6. Drawing Out Climate Action: The Role of Graphic Representation in Climate-Centered Landscape Architectural Practice 7. Communicating Landscapes of Complexity with Chunks and Comics 8. Function, Process, Change: Designing Flood Infrastructure to Protect Calgary’s Vulnerable Communities 9. Landscape of Relations 10. Urban Forests: Landscape Designs Tailored to Dense Cityscapes 11. Reinventing the Coast through Design 12. Image, Narrative, Action 13. Realizing Happy Environments: Felixx's Visual Narratives of Change 14. Climate-Adaptive and Nature-Sensitive Approach for Livable Cities 15. Visualizing Climate Action in Africa – the Works of GREENinc 16. Climate Action through Landscape Architecture: A South African Perspective 17. Modular Approach Creating Low-Maintenance Sponge City: Benjakitti Forest Park in Bangkok, Thailand 18. Landscape Frontiers: Designing within the New Geographies of the Climate Crisis 19. Landscape from Atmosphere to Below: Representation and the Climate Crisis 20. The Specters of a Changing Climate 21. A Self-Critique of Landscape Architecture in Climate Communication 22. Surge Barrier Impact Assessment using Digital Twin Performance Analytics in Galveston Island, Texas 23. Restoring for Resilience through Natural Channel Design 24. Spatial Imaginaries, and the Humanization of Green Recovery 25. Climate Stories: The Ongoing and the Unfinished 26. Before the After: Representing Climate Actions in the Age of AI 27. Climate Action in Isometrics, Transects, and Atmospheres 28. From Data Points to Dynamic Spatial Experience: Immersive Design Speculations for the Rail Corridor in Singapore 29. Visualizing Climate Action: Predictors of the Unpredictable 30. Afterword. Bibliography