**3. Results**

The resultant map (**Figure 5**) contained approximately 83% of the study area with high and moderate hazard ratings. The locations with a fair expanse of low ratings occurred in the rain shadow (east) of the Rocky Mountains on the western

### **Figure 5.**

*A map of the hazard areas in the lower 48 of the United States when all the hazard maps are combined together (copyright © 2018 Yoichi Kunii and Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).*

**69**

**Figure 6.**

*permission).*

*Landscape Hazards: Destructive Build Environment Zones and Safe Areas - An American Case…*

edge of the Northern Great Plains from west Texas to Montana and a smaller swath of land in the upper Midwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Minnesota). A patchwork of lighter gray also occurs on the west side of the Appalachian Mountain in the Tennessee and Ohio River valleys north towards Pennsylvania and New York. However, there is no truly completely safe site. Smaller, county sized patches of

When the environmental hazards are combined together, it become clear that much of the landscape will encounter some sort of hazard that may affect the built environment. The map suggests that over a 200 year period (10 generations), most sites will encounter some sort of hazard. While for any one generation, a group of individuals or community may experience no hazard event, in the higher hazard areas, events may be frequent across generations. The map in **Figure 5** indicates that much of the country will face repeated events and that there are relatively few refuges. This may be a surprise to some citizens and public officials who may expect their environments to remain stable and safe long term. The map suggests that building sites may be disturbed, even destroyed at a frequent rate, meaning within 10 generations. The disturbance probability is much greater than for just some unlucky locations such as in the San Francisco area, the gulf coast in the south east,

What does this mean for the built environment? For long term sustainability, care and thought may have to be given to mitigating the expected forthcoming event. Building codes and site design may have to reflect minimizing damage and

**Figure 6** presents a map containing United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere and Cultural Heritage areas, plus National Parks, and other historic landscape architectural sites described by

The map illustrated in **Figure 6** suggests that many valued natural environments, cultural sites and other valued landscapes are in zones that will be exposed

*A map illustrating the locations of valued landscapes across the landscape hazards composite map are combined together (copyright © 2019 Yoichi Kunii and Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91228*

or in and near Yellowstone National Park.

Newton, Tobey, and Burley and Machemer [11–13].

**4. Discussion**

sustaining life.

relatively low hazard areas occur in the mountain west.

*Landscape Hazards: Destructive Build Environment Zones and Safe Areas - An American Case… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91228*

edge of the Northern Great Plains from west Texas to Montana and a smaller swath of land in the upper Midwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Minnesota). A patchwork of lighter gray also occurs on the west side of the Appalachian Mountain in the Tennessee and Ohio River valleys north towards Pennsylvania and New York. However, there is no truly completely safe site. Smaller, county sized patches of relatively low hazard areas occur in the mountain west.

## **4. Discussion**

*Landscape Architecture - Processes and Practices Towards Sustainable Development*

To conduct the study, the team examined the same basic setting as Warren Manning [31]. The investigatory team gathered public data concerning a set of landscape hazards across the lower 48 of the United States, including: earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, flooding, volcanoes, radon, air pollution, avalanche, landslides, sinkholes, and blizzards [32–40]. The maps were drawn in layers with three values: high risk (medium gray with a 10–200 year time frame), moderate risk (light gray 500 year time frame), and low risk (white great than 500 year time frame), similar to Burley and Burley [18]and McHarg [14]. The model to compile the maps in a series of overlays was similar to Johnson and Burley, where the most hazardous value (a medium gray) across the overlays determined the hazard risk for a location [41]. Only locations with no high (medium gray) or moderate hazard rating (light gray) would receive a low (near white) hazard rating [41]. Locations with no value in the hazardous rating and with a maximum of a moderate rating would appear in the results map a moderate rating. For example, a site with a moderate earthquake score and all other scores being low, would be rated as a moderate (light gray) hazardous area. No effort was made to derive weighted maps or maps with linear combinations. As of yet, no investigator has demonstrated that the hazard layers should be combine in some latent dimension or equation. Although in the future, investigators might explore statistical relationships amongst the variables, as other investigators had done in visual quality and soil reclamation studies [42, 43]. The late Phil Lewis did discover that wetlands, slopes that require protection, and recreational lands covaried forming corridors, suggesting a latent dimension in environmental conservation and recreation to for greenways [44]. But so far, no such work has been accomplished with hazard data. In this hazard study the resulting map in this investigation may appear with many levels of gray (darker indicate many hazards and white indicating no hazards).

The resultant map (**Figure 5**) contained approximately 83% of the study area with high and moderate hazard ratings. The locations with a fair expanse of low ratings occurred in the rain shadow (east) of the Rocky Mountains on the western

*A map of the hazard areas in the lower 48 of the United States when all the hazard maps are combined together (copyright © 2018 Yoichi Kunii and Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).*

**2. Methodology**

**68**

**Figure 5.**

**3. Results**

When the environmental hazards are combined together, it become clear that much of the landscape will encounter some sort of hazard that may affect the built environment. The map suggests that over a 200 year period (10 generations), most sites will encounter some sort of hazard. While for any one generation, a group of individuals or community may experience no hazard event, in the higher hazard areas, events may be frequent across generations. The map in **Figure 5** indicates that much of the country will face repeated events and that there are relatively few refuges. This may be a surprise to some citizens and public officials who may expect their environments to remain stable and safe long term. The map suggests that building sites may be disturbed, even destroyed at a frequent rate, meaning within 10 generations. The disturbance probability is much greater than for just some unlucky locations such as in the San Francisco area, the gulf coast in the south east, or in and near Yellowstone National Park.

What does this mean for the built environment? For long term sustainability, care and thought may have to be given to mitigating the expected forthcoming event. Building codes and site design may have to reflect minimizing damage and sustaining life.

**Figure 6** presents a map containing United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere and Cultural Heritage areas, plus National Parks, and other historic landscape architectural sites described by Newton, Tobey, and Burley and Machemer [11–13].

The map illustrated in **Figure 6** suggests that many valued natural environments, cultural sites and other valued landscapes are in zones that will be exposed

### **Figure 6.**

*A map illustrating the locations of valued landscapes across the landscape hazards composite map are combined together (copyright © 2019 Yoichi Kunii and Jon Bryan Burley, all rights reserved, used by permission).*

to disturbance. Only a few sites on the Great Plains or in northern Michigan and Minnesota may be in areas with little change from hazards. Change is coming. Often individuals may assume that these sites may remain undisturbed and unaffected for many centuries. But the truth may be that many of these sites will encounter events much sooner than expected. Very few sites may have the longevity that the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt have endured. After all, the other six wonders of the world are in ruins [11]. Even places like central Michigan exposed to few events, over the last 12,000 years endured mile high glaciers, large fluctuations in the level of the Great Lakes, the extinctions of mammoths (*Mammuthus primigenius* (Blumenbach, 1799 [originally *Elephas*])) and mastodons (*Mammut americanum* Kerr 1792), the migration of vegetation from the south, the clearing for forests, the coming of urbanization, the automobile, and the invasion of exotic species [11].

In this study, there are more variables that could be included, such as water or soil pollution, or the impacts of various climate change scenarios. In addition, it could be debated about how the variables were classified and combined, or possibly a different base map for a certain variable could be used. Other investigators could generate variations on the results. This study is not definitive.

The environmental dangers to building sites are real and extend to nations around the world (**Figure 7**). The recent eruption of the Taal volcano in the Philippines illustrates the dangers to the built environment as it is an earthquake zone and volcano hazard area [45]. This is the same area that was hit by Typhoon Phanfone (Ursula) in late December 2019 [46].

### **Figure 7.**

*An image of the Taal Volcano erupting in January 2020 as seen from Los Baños, Philippines. The volcano is erupting tens of kilometers away, beyond the mountain/hills in the back of the image (copyright © 2020 Marifaye Regina Villanueva, all rights reserved, used by permission).*

**71**

*Landscape Hazards: Destructive Build Environment Zones and Safe Areas - An American Case…*

Planners and designers are engaging issues related to examining larger landscapes. This engagement facilitates understanding factors, forces, and influences upon the built environment. In this investigation, it was discovered that much of the study area will experience hazards events that will perturb the built environment, sooner than some might expect. To be sustainable or resilient may mean that these disturbances may require thoughtful adjustment by citizens, government officials, the construction industry, and planning/design professionals. Landscape architecture has become a profession engaged in examining broader environmental

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91228*

concerns beyond site planning and detailed design.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

**5. Conclusion**

**Conflict of interest**

**Author details**

, Paige O'Keefe2

1 Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan

2 Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI, USA

4 Independent Scientist, Los Baños, Philippines

\*Address all correspondence to: burleyj@msu.edu

provided the original work is properly cited.

3 Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal

and Marifaye Regina Villanueva4

, Jon Burley2

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

\*, Luis Loures3

Yoichi Kunii1

*Landscape Hazards: Destructive Build Environment Zones and Safe Areas - An American Case… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91228*
