Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

Editor’s Introduction v on the revitalization of downtown neighborhoods in the Middle Susquehanna River valley in Pennsylvania. Victoria Chanse examines the contribution of TDAR perspectives for organizing and managing multiple volunteer groups in a regional watershed stewardship initiative in Contra Costa County, California. Three of the cases occur in rural settings. Christine Carlson, John Koepke, and Mirja Hanson from the University of Minnesota offer TDAR perspectives on their efforts to organize and coordinate the activities of the Laurentian Vision Partnership in reframing iron ore mining as a tool to make future ecologies and economies on the Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota. In Entlebuch, Switzerland, Olaf Schroth, Ulrike Wissen Hayek, Eckart Lange, Stephen R. J. Sheppard, and Willy A. Schmid of the Institute for Spatial and Landscape Planning, ETH Zurich and the University of British Columbia examine the contribution of interactive landscape visualizations for constructing transdisciplinary knowledge, dialogue, and consensus building in the search for solutions to rural landscape planning problems. Working with the Wisconsinbased Green Communities and Green Affordable Housing in Indian Country Initiative, Susan Thering integrates a grounded theory approach informed by social science literature to document and evaluate the intangible outcomes of transdisciplinary partnerships with Native American communities. Finally, two of the cases are statewide in their geographic focus. Cheryl Doble and Maren King of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry discuss lessons learned from the creation and operation of a statewide partnership to address remediation and redevelopment of small city waterfronts throughout New York State. Through his work with the Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity, Michael Rios, of the University of California, Davis, demonstrates the utility of social ecological approaches sensitive to various scales of social and spatial production to inform the development and evaluation of transdisciplinary approaches in the context of an obesity prevention initiative in Pennsylvania. We welcome the addition of Nicole Peterson to our editorial staff as an editorial assistant. Before commencing her graduate studies in Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, Nicole was an English and Media Studies major at St. Olaf College in Northfi eld, MN.