Is there a solution for smoothing out the LOD change/transition in the terrain and the popping of shrubs and other such objects as you run about outdoors? It's most noticable to me when I'm exploring the area surrounding Whiterun (obviously due to the unobstructed view distance). I'll be moving along, admiring the scenery, when suddenly a large swath of land in front of me goes from a soupy mess to suddenly detailed and displaying rocks, vegetation, logs, and other environmental objects. I have ugrids set to 7, along with the commonly recommended cell buffer and preload values. I also have grass view distance and density increased about as much as it can be, from what I can tell. I guess what I'm looking for is a fix that makes terrain LOD and objects behave similar to how shadows do, where they fade in and out as you move around.

Thx!

As far as I know, no.
That's just how bad the LOD is in Bethesda's games. A bit outdated for 2011 if you ask me.

I'd also love for things to fade in rather than pop in in massive chunks (and thanks to the pop ins there are also these really jarring lines near the LOD transition) . Looks awful and very unimmersive/intrusive. It's just as bad as in Oblivion 6 years ago.

These two mods however changes the textures of the distant land objects:
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1598
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3389
They make it look a bit better than otherwise

LOD pop in is common, but it's not as bad as it was in oblivion.

It shouldn't be popping in right in front of your though. Are you using a framerate limiter atall?

After about 50 hours on a character and nearing 150 hours total, I started to experience VERY drastic terrain texture pop in, like I'd run over LOD terrain texture for between 5-10 seconds before it loaded in the proper texture, which sounds like the same issue as what you're having. Not really sure why it's happening, I thought it might be my dying card/less than impressive rig but other than that it runs fine. And I started a new character recently and haven't experienced it at all so far on that character.

Try setting the LOD to Ultra, it helped with this in my game. I will be getting some LOD mods later on that make them higher res and less of a visual difference.

I suggest you to try this great mod:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=4834

Doesn't help with the pop-up problem, but blends a lot better the lod textures with the other Ines and is even compatible with many famous landscape texture packs!