Abstract:
‘Plants Selection’ process in Landscape Architecture is a crucial aspect as it determines the quality of the whole Landscaping project based on the chosen plants for the outdoor spaces. Nevertheless, it is observed that the resource wastage is taking place in the process in terms of budget, time, energy and even in natural resources, affecting the whole project. To deep dive more into the identified problem and gather data, an extensive Literature Review and the interviews with the industry experts were conducted, alongside a survey shared among both industry experts and public for further problem validation. It was identified that the ability to successfully select plants for a site is highly dependent on the skill and knowledge of a professional; and less experienced professionals might hold a high failure rate leading to more resource wastage, even though there can be gaps in plants section by experienced professionals too. It was also evident that the Gardening Enthusiasts and the public who are engaged in gardening have been facing the same. The immediate objective of this project is to address this problem by introducing a solution platform to facilitate informed Plant Selection decisions which would ultimately mitigate the resource wastage while giving professionals more time to focus on the other aspects of the Landscaping venture. To drive this project, Iterative & Incremental Development methodology is employed helping to refine the solution iteratively based on the constant feedback from the experts and public. The proposed platform has demonstrated that it would not only offer Plant Selection, but also provide additional features as a full-fledged solution which help its users in the post-plant selection phase, helping to lessen the resource wastage which could happen due to Maintenance incompatibilities.
