From Experience-Oriented to Quantity-Based: A Method for Landscape Plant Selection and Configuration in Urban Built-Up Areas

Sunshine is the key ecological factor for the growth, development, and reproduction of all green plants. Experience-oriented methods are the main approach in the stage of plant selection and configuration for landscape planning and design. However, our survey showed that this approach is unreliable in complex built-up environments. The objective of this research was to find a sound strategy for the selection and configuration of landscape plants, thereby ensuring their healthy growth and development. In this research, we adopted a geographic information system (GIS) as the technological platform, combined with a sunshine simulation and evaluation model, and a landscape plant database. The system can automatically retrieve and match landscape plants for different levels of solar radiation at specific geographic sites. This quantity-based assessment of the solar environment can overcome the drawbacks of the experience-oriented approaches, and can be used for landscape plant selection in the early stages of landscape planning and design, and also for their conservation and replacement.