James Hitchmough

B.Sc PhD

Head of Department
Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield
email : [email protected]
Since the mid 1980’s my main research interests have centred around the ecology, design and management of herbaceous vegetation. In Australia this lead to the development of a still active research group in the restoration ecology of Australian native grasslands. Whilst I still have a strong interest in “native” semi-natural herbaceous vegetation, increasingly I have re-interpreted ecologically based herbaceous vegetation in the cultural context of the public greenspace of towns and cities. This has resulted in a large volume of research on the creation of various native and non-native meadow, steppe and prairie vegetation from sowing seed in situ. This vegetation is designed to be much more sustainable than the traditional herbaceous plantings, however the main goal of the work is to produce ecologically informed herbaceous plant communities that are highly attractive to the lay public. The research employs standard restoration ecology methodologies and involves rigorous collection and statistical analysis data. As my interest in these new vegetation types has developed so has my desire to find out more about the aesthetic values and preferences of the public as they relate to urban vegetation. This has resulted in the development of a complementary strand of research based on the application of Environmental Psychology methodologies to designed urban vegetation.

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Found out more about my work at the London Olympic Park