Cal State University Long Beach 1

California State University, Long Beach | Colorado Lagoon: Augmented Reality Engagement for Native Wetlands: Visitors engage in site-specific augmented reality experiences – interactions make the value of preserving coastal wetlands personal – heightening the desire to protect this essential resource. | Goal 1: Resilient and healthy community environments where residents thrive in place. | Goal 2: Buildings and infrastructure that support human health and resilience. | Goal 5: Thriving ecosystems, habitats, and biodiversity. | Goal 6: Accessible parks, beaches, recreational waters, public lands, and public spaces that create opportunities for respite, recreation, ecological discovery, and cultural activities.

Public Awareness

Long Beach is a nexus of trade, tourism, recreation, and culture at the urban-ocean interface. The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as the two largest ports in the US, are vital to the economy of the region and the nation. Long Beach, a city of nearly half a million people, bordered on two sides by rivers, and with beaches facing a high-traffic seaway, suffers extensive regional runoff and waste contamination of beaches and wetlands. Environmental changes that go unnoticed inland, have a dramatic impact here. The Colorado Lagoon: Augmented Reality Engagement for Native Wetlands project seeks to generate a cohesive understanding and build public appreciation for this precious ecosystem. Leveraging 21st century technologies, we illustrate the critical environmental role played by our local wetlands. By providing opportunities to engage with this resource, we work to build a community of action. We invite people to experience a wetland as it sustains wildlife and stabilizes the surrounding environment. Multi-sensory, high- and low-tech interactions, web pages, digital twin 3D modeling, culminating in a virtually guided “art walk” through the wetlands, are designed to inform and inspire. This project demonstrates how the Colorado Lagoon can be integrated into the experience of our coastal experience – building a community of conservationists.

Team: Heather Barker, Professor of Design, Lead PI and Director of the Immersive Design Research Lab; Eva Nie; Mark Lim; Liliana Rodriguez

Community partners: Dr. Christine Whitcraft, Friends of the Colorado Lagoon

Presentation Materials

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