Visualization of New York pre-settlement ecology in 1609

The Manhatta Project explored the ecology of today`s area of New York for the pre-settlement time in 1609. Their research shows that 55 different ecosystem types existed in the area. With the help of GIS, the ecosystems and habitat relationships were reconstructed and finally visualized (with “Hollywood technology”). In the following video, landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson explains in detail how his team worked on the Manhatta Project. He finishes his remarkable talk with an outlook how to vision the city of the future now.

Thanks to Kristi for drawing my attention to this great example of landscape visualization, based on landscape ecology.