Effectiveness of the LANDSCAD system for the citizen-participation process in traffic-environmental improvements in residential areas

The improvement of traffic environments is usually a matter of great concern to citizens in densely populated districts. In facilitating improvement projects in a street environment, it is important to enable the residents to have a better understanding of the ideas underlying the proposed plan and design. A computer-aided visual simulation system, LANDSCAD (landscape computer-aided design), has been developed on personal computers. A case study has been carried out in a residential district in a suburban city on the outskirts of Tokyo, where residents are trying to develop a plan for calming the traffic environment of streets in their neighborhood. The residents were provided with design alternatives shown on a video monitor, which were produced using LANDSCAD, and the effectiveness of LANDSCAD on the decisionmaking process was observed. Through a paired-comparison test and investigations into the effect the uses of LANDSCAD has on the residents' preference about the design concepts, the effectiveness of this support system has been evaluated.