Landscape Architecture Commons^™

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

How Useful Is Gsv As An Environmental Observation Tool? An Analysis Of The Evidence So Far., Katherine Nesse, Leah Airt

SPU Works

Researchers in many disciplines have turned to Google Street View to replace pedestrian- or carbased in-person observation of streetscapes. It is most prevalent within the research literature on the relationship between neighborhood environments and public health but has been used as diverse as disaster recovery, ecology and wildlife habitat, and urban design. Evaluations of the tool have found that the results of GSV-based observation are similar to the results from in-person observation although the similarity depends on the type of characteristic being observed. Larger, permanent and discrete features showed more consistency between the two methods and smaller, transient and judgmental …

Geological Principles Illustrated In The Art Along The Antelope Valley Hiker/Biker Trail – The Big X (Salt Creek Roadway/Antelope Valley Parkway) South To Q Street, Robert Diffendal, Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

When the weather is good (and even sometimes when it isn’t) I occasionally walk around the periphery of the UNL city campus, often over the lunch hour, now that the trails and the sidewalks allow one to walk a complete circuit. The walk along Antelope Creek from the Big X to Q Street is beautiful. The designers of the project made nice art works on the floor of the creek and on the retaining walls on the valley sides that add to the beauty of nature.

I am a geologist and wondered about some of the art and its meaning …

How Do Designers Of The Built Environment Attempt To Make Ecological Sustainability Sensory Legible?, Carly L. Bartow

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for making ecosystem function and ecologically sustainable design more perceptible or sensible to people through architecture and the built environment. Design features of the Bertschi School Science Wing and the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington are incorporated to illustrate the sensory legibility of ecological sustainability criteria.The criteria are available to designers to help educate a building's occupants on environmentally sustainable design and motivate more sustainable behavior.

Blacksmith Fork - Little Bear Watershed Alternative Futures Study, Scott Mccomb, Emmet Pruss, Thomas Terry, Conner White

Bioregional Planning Studio Reports

The following project was carried out in conjunction with the Logan River Task Force, under the chairmanship of Dr. Frank Howe. The Logan River Task Force was formed to develop an overall approach for managing the Logan River that balances ecology with people's social values for the river including public safety and property protection. Although the work of the Task Force has focused primarily on the Logan river, the Bioregional Planning graduate students have provided the Task Force with contextual information about the watershed, by exploring alternative futures for the Blacksmith Fork and Little Bear watersheds. This work expands on …

Know Tommorrow Brown University Poster, Shepard Fairey, Risd Archives

Ecology and Environment

Poster for Brown University student event to demand action to counter climate change. "Brown emPOWER is joining dozens of colleges across the country for Know Tomorrow, a national day of action to raise awareness about climate change and its consequences. 2015 is the year for climate action as world leaders meet for the UN climate talks in Paris to sign a global agreement on climate. On October 2nd, join us for an evening of live music, engaging speakers, and environmental action on the Main Green at Brown University! Featuring: Kerry Kennedy, What Cheer? Brigade, Voces Verdes- Latino Leadership in …

Ecoscience + Art Initiative: Designing A New Paradigm For College Education, Scholarship, And Service, Changwoo Ahn

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The paper presents a new initiative, EcoScience + Art, which blooms at George Mason University. The creator explains the background, history, and recent activities of the initiative, and also introduces an on-going special project called “The Rain Project”, a student participatory project to design, construct, and monitor a green infrastructure (i.e., floating wetland) for sustainable stormwater management on campus. The special project is geared to design and present a new paradigm to integrate college education, scholarship, and service. The relevance of the initiative and the special project to STEAM education is discussed.

Probabilistic Precipitation Estimation With A Satellite Product, Nir Y. Krakauer, Soni M. Pradhanang, Jeeban Panthi, Tarendra Lakhankar, Ajay K. Jha

Publications and Research

Satellite-based precipitation products have been shown to represent precipitation well over Nepal at monthly resolution, compared to ground-based stations. Here, we extend our analysis to the daily and subdaily timescales, which are relevant for mapping the hazards caused by storms as well as drought. We compared the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42RT product with individual stations and with the gridded APHRODITE product to evaluate its ability to retrieve different precipitation intensities. We find that 3B42RT, which is freely available in near real time, has reasonable correspondence with ground-based precipitation products on a daily timescale; rank …

Moor Movement: Automated Docking On Drought-Stricken Reservoirs, Daniel Beck

Landscape Architecture

Moor Movement establishes a mechanized docking system for unpredictable shoreline fluctuations on inland lakes and reservoirs. Due to climate change and warmer global temperatures, the threat of ocean level rise has initiated massive proposals to address the interface between ocean and man-made infrastructure. While this is a monumental problem, ocean level rise is not the only immediate threat. The recently declared emergency drought conditions in California are finally bringing attention to inland lakes and reservoirs. While ocean levels might rise 2-7 feet in 100 years, a lake could drop 100 feet in 5 years. What happens to access roads, marinas, …

St. Norbert College As Arboretum: Mapping The Trees On Campus, Jordan A. Mayer, Jason Mills, David Hunnicut

GIS Library

St. Norbert College as Arboretum: Mapping the Trees on Campus - Take a virtual tour of the trees on campus.

The tour is a multimedia ArcGIS Online story map and is available here.

Many of the trees on the St. Norbert Campus were planted by Fr. Anselm Keefe (1895- 1974) in the mid 20th century. It was Fr. Keefe’s vision to beautify the campus by creating gardens that were accessible to the public. This included planting a diverse variety of trees, including one of every tree species native to Wisconsin. It was Keefe’s mission to make St. Norbert College …

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

Whose Urban Forest? The Political Ecology Of Foraging Urban Nontimber Forest Products, Patrick T. Hurley, Marla R. Emery, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe, Brain Grabbatin, Cari L. Goetcheus

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Drawing on case studies of foraging in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, we point to foraging landscapes and practices within diverse urban forest spaces. We examine these spaces in relation to U.S. conservation and development processes and the effects of management and governance on species valued by foragers. These case studies reveal the everyday landscapes of urban foraging and suggest that ideas about what constitutes the suite of appropriate human-environment interactions in the sustainable city are contested and accommodated in diverse ways.

An Interpretive Plan Guide For Wilderness Park In Lincoln, Nebraska, Rachel J. Ward

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Wilderness Park, located in Lancaster County, Nebraska, is a public park of unique ecological and historical value to the city of Lincoln and to the surrounding region. The natural and historical features of the park present an opportunity to communicate environmental and historical topics that are relevant on local, national, and global levels, as well as inspire a lively sense of pride in the community. The problem is that many topics relevant to Wilderness Park are not currently being interpreted at the park, and that there are relatively few interpretive resources available to park visitors.

The purpose of this project …

Recovering The Moca River: An Exploration Through Sustainable Strategies For Developing Countries, Marleny Santana Diaz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Natural watercourses are being negatively affected by growing urbanization in different cities of the world. Within these circumstances the concept of river restoration has gained relevance, becoming a worldwide priority in water management. In developing countries, river restoration plans, conditioned by social and economic limitations, are mainly focused on a single approach, typically relying on short-term, low technology strategies.

In the long term, these strategies tend to fail because they usually avoid integral solutions that address the interconnected factors contributing to river degradation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a framework of river restoration planning for developing …

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

Issue Brief: Auditing Your Town's Development Code For Barriers To Sustainable Water Management, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This issue brief is intended for town officials who want to understand how development regulations in their community affect local water resources. Municipal development codes – the set of regulations that control the built environment – can have a great influence on the availability of clean and healthy water for drinking, recreation, and commercial uses. This in turn affects the community’s social, environmental, and economic vitality.

Comprehensive plans, zoning codes, and building standards are just a few examples of regulations that intentionally or unintentionally regulate the way water is transported, collected and absorbed. Regulations that produce dispersed development or large …

Urban Agriculture Stormwater Management In California Cities, Rachel L. Cohen

Master's Theses

Cities within California are beginning to incorporate urban agriculture into their land use designations. Prompted by residents and local organizations, cities are hoping to capture the benefits that urban agriculture provides. Research has shown that urban agriculture renews and beautifies neighborhoods, provides healthy food choices, increases public health, has the potential to help with stormwater runoff, creates jobs, and fosters community. In the last few years, several California cities have made headlines as they have adopted new zoning codes that include urban agriculture.

In reviewing these new zoning codes and exploring the topic of urban agriculture, it became evident that …

A Critical Examination Of The Stormwater Education, Based On Sites Parameters, In Landscape Architecture Departments In The Sec, Brandon Doss

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

The amount of accessible natural resources is dwindling and water could be the next world crisis. One response to this issue is the creation of methodologies which evaluate sustainability of new land development. A system to address the issues is the Sustainable Sites Initiative. This method was created in 2009 by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden. Their primary goal was to create a metric for rating development to encourage a more sustainable approach. A piece of this evaluation is water management. Landscape architecture is poised to address …

Drinking Water Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This document is intended to help local and regional planning agencies, and their constituent water utilities, integrate drinking water infrastructure planning and investments into plans for sustainable development. Resources listed here provide guidance on making land use decisions that protect water resources, setting adequate and sustainable drinking water rates, controlling water loss, funding water infrastructure projects, and managing water utilities.

The directory was developed by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. Through this program, EFCN is providing capacity …

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

Roger Williams Park Edible Forest Garden, Mark S. Scialla

Senior Honors Projects

An edible forest garden is a low-maintenance system that uses edible native and regionally-adapted plants arranged in beneficial relationships to meet human, wildlife and ecosystem needs. The forest garden in Roger Williams Park will transform underutilized urban land into a highly productive parcel producing market-viable fruits, nuts, vegetables, medicine and fiber. Forest gardens mimic natural forest systems in architecture and complexity. The design follows ecological principles to create a system that promotes biodiversity and enhances the surrounding ecosystem. This project also demonstrates the potential to grow food and create land-based livelihoods in the city.

Located on the edge of a …

A Health Impact Assessment Of Mixed Use Redevelopment Nodes And Corridors In Lincoln, Nebraska, Katie Clear

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Obesity is a growing threat to America’s health. The national rate of obesity is 34% (Health Consequences, 2011), and Lincoln, Nebraska is not far behind that trend at 20.7% (BRFSS, 2011). Increasing physical activity is one way to reduce weight gain, (Edwards, 2008) and further studies show that small changes to the built environment can induce people to use alternative and more active forms of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation (Edwards, 2008; Zheng, 2008). The 2040 Comprehensive Plan for Lincoln, NE includes language to create a more walkable community. The proposal is to redevelop existing areas within …

Wku-Habitat For Humanity Green Community: A Model For Engagement And Partnerships, Nancy Givens, Rodney Goodman

Education for Sustainability Summer Institute

No abstract provided.

Interview With Brighton West, Friends Of Trees, 2010 (Audio), Brighton West

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Brighton West by Brigitta Bazso at Portland State University on November 18th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Planning For Closure Of The Logan City/Cache County Landfill And Surrounding Landscape, Kristofor Lee Kvarfordt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Planning for closure requires in depth analysis into many operational, environmental, and social factors. Ideally, the planning process should resolve as many of the technical, social, and aesthetic requirements as possible by systematically addressing the various elements that influence the final design. This research identified the significant issues related to planning for the end use of the current Logan landfill after it reaches capacity in 18-20 years and the associated lagoons and wetlands. The current closure plan calls for simply recontouring the landfill to stabilize the slopes, then revegetating. The location of the site has serious implications for environmental impact …

Laurel Community Farmstand, Terje Johansen

Horticulture and Crop Science

The project was for us to come up with a temporary farmstand that would be set up to sell fruits and vegetables but mainly to draw people to the area to bring awareness that there were plans to build a development at that location. Our group, Dana Curtice, Robert Vasilieff and Terje Johansen met with the developers three times. New ideas and information were presented in the first two meetings. The third meeting was to present our final design.

Sustainability Initiatives In East Bayside Neighborhood Portland, Maine, Garvan Donegan, Henry Heyburn, Caitlyn Horose, Matt Klebes, Jennifer Riley, Damon Yakovleff, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

This is a bundle containing research on sustainability initiatives that could be implemented in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland, ME. These six essays were prepared by the Spring, 2010 Sustainable Communities Class known as CPD 602 at the University of Southern Maine. The class is part of the core curriculum of the Community Planning and Development program of the Muskie School of Public Service at the university. The instructor for the class was Samuel Merrill, Ph. D. who is also director of the New England Environmental Finance Center at the University. These papers were prepared in conjunction with Alan …

South Burlington, Vt: Mixed-Use Comes To O’Dell Parkway, Ryan Neale, Brett Richardson, Richard Barringer

Planning

The proposed redevelopment of an underutilized property along major travel routes in South Burlington presents possibilities for infill development. The City of South Burlington, the developer, neighbors, and a variety of public and nonprofit financial partners work together to create a mixed-use residential/commercial development to meet a variety of housing and community needs. The case study describes the obstacles overcome to make redevelopment possible through zoning and regulatory changes, negotiation with local residents over traffic and other concerns, support from state and local housing advocates, and political leadership; as well as the development’s application of smart growth principles.

South Burlington Vt: New Urbanist South Village, Jack Kartez, Richard Barringer

Planning

The 220 acre master plan for South Village, the largest project in the City of South Burlington’s history, encompasses multiple housing types and innovative provisions for affordable housing. It integrates housing with open space and natural resource conservation, including a major Community Supported Agriculture project developed by a nonprofit partner, the Intervale Foundation. While not a mixed-use project (that is, commercial as well as residential development), South Village nonetheless represents a qualitative change in approach for South Burlington by incorporating large-scale open space preservation as part of development and multiple housing-types in one project. The case study recounts events leading …

Interview With Ivy Dunlap, Bureau Of Environmental Services, 2009 (Audio), Ivy Dunlap

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Ivy Dunlap by Kris Thomason at Portland State University on May 23rd, 2009.

The interview index is available for download.