Company Philosophy

D.J. Scott Associates Limited views the landscape as the culmination of our physical world and our cultural practices. The landscape is understood as an integration of its people, spaces and places: a blend of human ecology, landscape ecology and spatial ecology. This philosophy is reflected in the firm’s specialisation in the areas of landscape design and applied ecology, which embrace integrated catchment management, community consultation, Iwi liaison, consultation in design and assessment, strategic planning, policy development, landscape rehabilitation and repair, revegetation, and habitat development.
The concept of a “nested hierarchy” land use management construct sits within the Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) model, offers a proven method for dealing with complicated landscape matters. The approach addresses landscape related issues at a number of different, but integrated, spatial and temporal scales. The focus of this approach is an ecologically driven catchment management process. The outcome of site survey and analysis within this process is to develop, at a detailed and site-specific level, the information required to accurately refine and build upon a broader landscape assessment that extends beyond a purely visual landscape analysis.

D.J. Scott Associates Limited do not promote single purpose outcomes. Such a narrow focus – i.e. the purely visual approach, leads to an overriding concern with just one aspect of a complex system. Scenery is an important part of our cultural heritage but the importance of nature and its processes goes far beyond scenery. Creating a general public understanding of this fact is perhaps one of our greatest challenges as an industry.

 

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