Land conservation, the design and planning of sustainable open space, and the cultural basis of how we see land and nature are central to my research. Since different cultures have very different ways of shaping their communities and understanding nature, it is important to me to work cross-culturally with a variety of communities in the United States and in a variety of locations around the world: Canada, the Czech Republic, Belize and Brazil. I believe strongly that understanding another culture illuminates our own, and indigenous and traditional lifeways can often lead to the reemergence of sustainable practices. Before joining the University of Massachusetts, I served as a Professor and Department Head in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University and as an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment. With a Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph, Canada, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland, I founded and managed the landscape planning firm, Land Ethics, Inc. until 2002.
Cultural Resource Documentation and Planning
Using Locative Media in Heritage Landscapes: A review of current practice (with Gordon McLennan), Association of Critical Heritage Studies Conference, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. (2012)
Locative media projects are beginning to be recognized in various arts and humanities disciplines as...
The Use of Spatial and Mixed Methods in Analyzing Cultural Landscapes (with Chingwen Cheng and Kristina Molnarova), Finding Center, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Annual Conference, March 28-31, 2012 (2012)
The cultural landscape is a complex phenomenon resulting from both natural-geographical and social-cultural processes. Defining...
Identifying cultural attitudes and values in community landscapes, Proceedings of Landscape and Legacy: Landscape Architecture between Art and Science, a joint conference of the International Study Group on the Multiple Use of Lands (ISOMUL) and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), Maastricht, Netherlands (2010)
Understanding culture and its attitudes and values towards space, place and nature is a critical...
Pluzina: the issues of documenting a vernacular landscape (with Kristina Molnarova), LANDSCAPE LEGACY: Landscape Architecture between Art and Science, a joint conference of the International Study Group on the Multiple Use of Lands (ISOMUL) and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Maastricht, Netherlands (2010)
This paper studies the remnants of medieval pluzina, a historical Central European field pattern dating...
Slave Landscapes of the Carolina Low Country: What the Documents Reveal, Landscape Imprints (2010)
Although much has been written about slave life in the antebellum south, comparatively little is...
Open Space Analysis and Conservation
Visual preferences for wind turbines: Location, numbers and respondent characteristics (with Kristina Molnarova, Petr Sklenicka, Jiri Stiborek, Kamila Svobodova, and Miroslav Salek), Applied Energy (2012)
There is a dichotomy in the view of wind farms among members of the public:...
Defining the Pattern of the Sustainable Urban Region - Development of Regional Measurement Methods (with Geoffrey McD. Lewis), ISOMUL 2002 Collaborative Planning for the Metropolitan Landscape Regional strategies for Smarth Growth: When City and Country Collide (2002)
To date, the debate on the sustainability of human settlements has focused on the urban...
Agricultural land fragmentation: the spatial effects of three land protection strategies in the eastern United States (with Chip Smith), Landscape and Urban Planning (2002)
Fragmentation of agricultural land by urban sprawl affects both the agricultural production capacity of the...
An evaluation of the effectiveness of cluster development in the Town of Southampton, New York, Urban Ecosystems (2001)
Clustering new development, and as a result retaining protected open space, has been a simultaneously...
Can we Protect Agricultural Land and the Scenic Rural Landscape? The spatial effects of three land protection strategies in the eastern United States (with Chip Smith), Fragmentation and Land Use Planning: Analysis and Beyond Proceedings (2000)
In order to assess the efficacy of the three most common types of agricultural land...
Land Use Law and Policy
Imperviousness and Land Use Policy: Toward an effective approach to watershed planning, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (2009)
Urban impacts to water quality and quantity have been a major focus of resource and...
Remnants of medieval field patterns - driving forces behind their disappearance, the role of hedgerows, principles of conservation (with Blanka Pittnerova, Petr Sklenicka, Kristina Molnarova, Peter Kumble, Katarina Pixova, and Miroslav Salek), Aktualni Otazky Ochrany Krajinneho Razu (2009)
Land Planning and Development Mitigation for Protecting Water Quality in the Great Lakes System: An Evaluation of US Approaches (with Peter Kumble) (2005)
Since 1978, studies by the International Joint Commission (the bi-national commission mandated to protect the...
Defining the Pattern of the Sustainable Urban Region - Development of Regional Measurement Methods (with Geoffrey McD. Lewis), ISOMUL 2002 Collaborative Planning for the Metropolitan Landscape Regional strategies for Smarth Growth: When City and Country Collide (2002)
To date, the debate on the sustainability of human settlements has focused on the urban...
Agricultural land fragmentation: the spatial effects of three land protection strategies in the eastern United States (with Chip Smith), Landscape and Urban Planning (2002)
Fragmentation of agricultural land by urban sprawl affects both the agricultural production capacity of the...
Development Impacts to Surface Water
Local Surface Water Policy Under Conditions of Climate Change (with Elisabeth Hamin and Chingwen Cheng), Proceedings of LANDSCAPE LEGACY: Landscape Architecture between Art and Science, a joint conference of the International Study Group on the Multiple Use of Lands (ISOMUL), and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), Maastricht, Netherlands (2010)
Climate change means two things for local stormwater managers – that storm events will become...
Imperviousness and Land Use Policy: Toward an effective approach to watershed planning, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (2009)
Urban impacts to water quality and quantity have been a major focus of resource and...
Land Planning and Development Mitigation for Protecting Water Quality in the Great Lakes System: An Evaluation of U.S. Approaches (with Peter Kumble), Emerging Issues Along Urban-Rural Interfaces: Linking Science and Society (2005)
A review of the land use/water quality interface of the Great Lakes system, and the...
Land Planning and Development Mitigation for Protecting Water Quality in the Great Lakes System: An Evaluation of US Approaches (with Peter Kumble) (2005)
Since 1978, studies by the International Joint Commission (the bi-national commission mandated to protect the...
Impervious Surfaces and Water Quality: A Review of Current Literature and Its Implications for Watershed Planning, Journal of Planning Literature (2002)
Impervious surfaces have for many years been recognized as an indicator of the intensity of...
Sustainable Land Use Planning
South Hadley Falls: Report on the Public Process (with Mark Hamin) (2012)
The goals of this design and visioning process were:
• to identify a common vision...
Visual preferences for wind turbines: Location, numbers and respondent characteristics (with Kristina Molnarova, Petr Sklenicka, Jiri Stiborek, Kamila Svobodova, and Miroslav Salek), Applied Energy (2012)
There is a dichotomy in the view of wind farms among members of the public:...
Local Surface Water Policy Under Conditions of Climate Change (with Elisabeth Hamin and Chingwen Cheng), Proceedings of LANDSCAPE LEGACY: Landscape Architecture between Art and Science, a joint conference of the International Study Group on the Multiple Use of Lands (ISOMUL), and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), Maastricht, Netherlands (2010)
Climate change means two things for local stormwater managers – that storm events will become...
Regional land pattern assessment: development of a resource efficiency measurement method (with Geoffrey McD Lewis), Landscape and Urban Planning (2005)
Debate on the sustainability of human settlements has recently been focused primarily on the urban...
Defining the Pattern of the Sustainable Urban Region - Development of Regional Measurement Methods (with Geoffrey McD. Lewis), ISOMUL 2002 Collaborative Planning for the Metropolitan Landscape Regional strategies for Smarth Growth: When City and Country Collide (2002)
To date, the debate on the sustainability of human settlements has focused on the urban...
Locative Media
Using Locative Media in Heritage Landscapes: A review of current practice (with Gordon McLennan), Association of Critical Heritage Studies Conference, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. (2012)
Locative media projects are beginning to be recognized in various arts and humanities disciplines as...
Telling the Springfield Story: Project Report (2012)
This project applies locative media technology (video on website and mobile devices) to spur community...