About ESALA

People

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Simon Bell

Senior Research Fellow OPENspace

Email: s.bell@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 5828

Location:

ECA Main Building, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF

Outline Biography

I am a forester and landscape architect, Senior Research Fellow and a director of the OPENspace research centre. My background lies in landscape aesthetics, forest landscape planning and design, outdoor recreation design and peri-urban landscapes. Formerly, I was Chief Landscape Architect to the British Forestry Commission and involved in policy, research commissioning and training. I combine research with an active design practice focussing on forest landscape design, recreation design and visual impact assessment. In OPENspace I have been active in developing the strategic direction of the unit and also leading a number of research projects for clients such as the Forestry Commission and English Nature. I am also active internationally, involved in EU funded COST Actions, such E33, Forest Recreation and Nature Tourism, of which I am the Chair and E39, Forests, Trees and Human Health and Wellbeing. I am also Professor of landscape architecture and head of department at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu Estonia and a visiting lecturer at universities in Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Turkey.Recent UK research work was on the application of the Disability Discrimination Act to Scottish forests and Cultural Landscape Values in Rural Latvia funded by a British Academy grant. A projectcalled PLUREL, funded under the 6th European Framework of Research, looking at urban, periurban and rural land use change, is also reaching its final outcome, a book of which I am an editor.

Research Interests

Forest landscape planning, design and aesthetics, including urban forestry

Outdoor recreation

Landscape and human health and welbeing, including quality of life

Research activity

PLUREL - Peri-urban land use relationships

CANEPAL - Sheep and the pastoral life of Europe

Cost Action on Closed cities of the Baltic region

CARe-FOR-US II - Forestry serving urbanised societies in the Nordic-Baltic region

Publications

Publications list for Simon Bell

Supervision

Projects supervised by Simon Bell

Teaching

Reading the Landscape: BA1 landscape architecture

Landscape planning and ecology: BA2 landscape architecture

Rural planning: MLA2 landscape architecture

This article was published on Jul 14, 2011