Making connections

In today’s world, it can be easy to synonymise ‘digital’ with ‘technology’. But following Sam Bailey CMLI (p39), technology is a far broader term, encompassing the digital, mechanical, material and biological, in “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.”

How digital technologies integrate with other forms of technology, as well as other forms of life and nature, is what gives them their strength. It’s also what makes them so effective at bringing industries together in sight of shared goals – whether that be decarbonisation, environmental net gain, or community engagement. This ‘Digital’ edition of the journal explores how these technologies can be harnessed to progress the landscape profession, aid better collaboration and improve outcomes for people, place and nature.

“Central to this process is translating multidisciplinary inputs into a common language – data,” we learn from McGregor Coxall (p32). But “the primary challenge [for] landscape practice lies in the unique intrinsic characteristics of landscapes,” says Giuliana Santos (p20) and the fact that “access to digital networks depends on who you are, where you live, what you can afford and the government you live under,” says Ed Wall (p15).

This perspective puts digital technologies at an emergent front between the arts, sciences and built and natural environments. It is therefore vital that landscape professionals are the ‘synthesiser’ (p12), so that the outcomes are landscape-led.

This edition of the journal follows on from the success of the Digital Practice & Technology for Landscape conference in July this year, the Landscape Institute’s (LI) first in-person conference since the pandemic. The LI extends its thanks to all the speakers and attendees on the day, as well as those who have contributed articles here, in particular the members of the LI’s Digital Practice working group and its chair, Mike Shilton CMLI, whose knowledge and input have been invaluable.

Josh Cunningham Managing Editor