1:30PM – 2:30PM  
Harnessing Multispectral Drone Imagery

Frank Hu, PLA | Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture; Auburn University, College of Architecture, Design and Construction

1 CEU

This presentation will explore the growing role of drone surveying in landscape architecture. By utilizing aerial photography captured by drones, landscape architects can now efficiently conduct field surveys, adding surveying skills to their existing expertise. This technology also enhances the ability to monitor landscape change through repeat photography by providing a wider range of aerial imagery. Moreover, the presentation will explore the potential of drone multispectral imagery (MSPI), a remote sensing technique employing infrared light reflectance to enhance understanding of vegetation and hydrology within complex environments, including meadows, wetlands, and urban areas.

2:30PM – 3:30PM  
Visualizing Abundance: Lessons Learned from Coastal Louisiana

Despo Thoma, AICP | Director of Resilience, SCAPE

Andrew Wright, PLA | Associate, SCAPE

1 CEU

What would it look like if the largest-funded restoration effort in history was successful? What would abundance look like in Coastal Louisiana?

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost over 2,000 square miles of land to the Gulf of Mexico—a staggering loss exacerbated by climate change. With this urgency in mind, SCAPE has applied the visual communications toolbox of landscape architects and planners to projects well outside the traditional scope of the profession—including visioning and climate adaptation efforts at a regional (or even coastal) scale. In this two-part lecture, Despo Thoma, Director of Resilience and Andrew Wright, Associate, walk through SCAPE’s multifaceted work in Coastal Louisiana highlighting lessons learned through visualizing aspirational restoration efforts as well crafting a visual communication strategy for the State’s Coastal Master Plan.

In 2019, SCAPE collaborated with Dr. Don Boesch and the Walton Family Foundation to envision a future where Louisiana’s coastal ecosystems and economies are even more bountiful than they are today, and the dual challenges of sea-level rise and land loss are countered by restoration projects implemented at a regional scale. The resulting vision called “Our Future Coast” is a collaboration between a renowned environmental scientist and SCAPE that seeks to describe a ‘best case’ for the future of the Louisiana coast.

Since 2020, SCAPE joined forces with the state’s Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority (CPRA) and Arcadis to strategize on the 2023 edition of the Coastal Master Plan—a critical guide to help coastal professionals and citizens understand and synthesize cutting-edge science and prepare for a climate-changed future. SCAPE’s work focused in particular on how to communicate critical aspects of the document through accessible and powerful visuals and clearly articulated text.

3:30PM – 4:00PM  
BREAK FOR EXPO OPENING

4:00PM – 5:00PM  
Gems from the Cherokee Garden Library

Staci Catron | Senior Director, Cherokee Garden Library

1 CEU

Senior Director Staci L. Catron will share dozens of remarkable and engaging treasures of the Cherokee Garden Library collection. Founded by the Cherokee Garden Club of Atlanta in 1975, the Cherokee Garden Library is named for the state floral emblem of Georgia, the Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata), and is one of the special collection libraries of the Kenan Research Center of the Atlanta History Center.

The Cherokee Garden Library collects and preserves works in gardening, landscape design, garden history, horticulture, floral design, botanical art, plant ecology, natural landscapes, and cultural landscapes, including historic sites, designed landscapes, vernacular landscapes, and ethnographic landscapes. With works from 1586 to the present, the Library is a growing collection of 40,000 rare and contemporary works that tell the diverse and fascinating stories of horticulture and botanical history in the Southeastern United States and areas of influence globally. Serving thousands of researchers annually, the Cherokee Garden Library is open to the public by appointment, free of charge, Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.