People living in and around Aberdeen are being invited to volunteer one hour of their time to participate in The Macaulay Institute’s “Landscape Research Weekend” Event. The focus is on the future landscapes of places like Aberdeen’s beach area, including the possible offshore windfarm, Aberdeen’s city parks and open spaces, and the surrounding countryside.

Taking place from Friday 11 August to Sunday 13 August at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, the purpose of the event is to gain an insight into people?s attitudes towards alternative future landscapes and to improve the ways that we use to allow people to imagine how these would look, especially using modern computer graphics and 3D visualisation.

Professor David Miller from The Macaulay Institute’s Integrated Land Use Systems Science Group, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for people to see, use and react to the very latest technology for exploring different landscape options. Our virtual reality theatre is the first mobile facility of its kind in the UK and the Aberdeen event is a perfect opportunity to involve the wider community in our research programme. We are keen for as many people as possible to come along and take part.”

The Macaulay Institute is looking to attract more than 400 participants. Individuals, families and groups are asked to book a time to participate or drop in on the hour between 10 am and 5 pm each day. Children as well as adults are welcome.

In each case, volunteers will be asked to position wind turbines in the landscape models according to their preferences, ?walk-throughs? of virtual reality environments, and surveys of changes in landscape views, all to assist in the understanding of changes in landscapes. They will be able to vote on proposed changes, and explore a range of possibilities for themselves, navigating through computer-generated landscape models of the Aberdeen Links and other parts of the city.

There is no charge for attending any part of the events during the week and coffee, tea and soft drinks will be served. Anyone interested in participating should contact Jane Lund at The Macaulay Institute, on Tel: 01224 498200, email: enquiries@macaulay.ac.uk.

Children will be entered in prize draws for the under 18s.

As a thank you for participating, the names of all attendees during the week will be entered in a prize draw. Winners will be notified in the week beginning 21st August. Prizes will include bottles of whisky, cashmere scarves and gift tokens.

The Macaulay Institute is the premier land use research institute in the UK. Two hundred and seventy staff are based at the Macaulay Institute at Craigiebuckler in Aberdeen. The Macaulay Institute aims to be an international leader in research on the use of rural land resources for the benefit of people and the environment and is involved in research across the globe; from Scotland to Chile and China. More about the Macaulay Institute can be found at www.macaulay.ac.uk.

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For further information contact: Sally Wallis Tricker PR