Natural landscapes are intricately tied to human health and well-being. While contemporary lifestyles have caused people to feel disconnected from the natural environment, this relationship is now recognized as vitally important, with landscapes increasingly valued for their stress-reduction, aesthetic, and restorative benefits. Providing an overview of the history, theoretical concepts, and individual and societal implications of human connection to natural landscapes, this book considers natural landscapes' role as an antidote to our modern, predominantly urban society.

This book explores how natural landscapes are linked to positive mental wellbeing. While natural landscapes have long been represented and portrayed as transformative, the link to mental wellbeing is an area that researchers are still aiming to comprehend. Accompanying five groups of people to rural Scotland, the author considers individual, external and group motivations for journeying from urban environments, examining in what ways these excursions are personally and socially transformative. Far more than traversing mere physical boundaries, this book illustrates the new challenges, experiences, territories and cultures provided by these excursions, firmly anchored in the Scottish countryside. In doing so, the author questions the extent to which people’s own narratives link to the perception that the outdoors are positively transformative – and what indeed does have the power to influence transformation. Grounded in extensive qualitative research, this contemplative and ethnographic book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of the outdoors and its connection to wellbeing.

How would the history of an urban area look if water were at the center of analysis? Water in the Making of a Socio-Natural Landscape explores the transition from early modern to modern water management in late nineteenth-century Rome. It merges local water management with national water policies aimed at promoting irrigated agriculture, industrial processes, and public health. It investigates perceptions and conceptualisations of water, changes in the water law, engineering projects, medical knowledge and practices, value of water in different productions, and needs and uses of local stakeholders. From which derives that water infrastructures are the complex outcome of the clash between different users and uses of water as well as the dynamic interaction between different levels of power. In this book, it builds upon Maria Kaika’s Cities of flows and Erik Swyngedouw’s Liquid power to introduce a new dimension to the analysis of urban water: the interaction among the three main uses of water: drinking, agriculture, and industry. Water in the Making of a Socio-Natural Landscape is written for a specialist readership with an interest in environmental and urban history and science and technology studies, but it can also be used by graduate and PhD students.

The book focuses on the relationship between nature conservation policies and landscape policies. This is a relevant subject due to the current need of reviving nature conservation policies, which are today affected by a general effectiveness deficiency. To this end, landscape policies can play a crucial role, bridging nature and culture, fostering more integrated approaches to nature conservation and stimulating the active participation of local communities. The book gathers reflections, researches and experiences developed on an international level on this subject by experts coming from different international contexts (Europe, U.S.A.), various disciplinary backgrounds (geographers, planners, biologists, historians, jurists, economists, etc.) and several institutional bodies (Universities, administrative bodies, international organizations such as IUCN, EUROPARC Federation, UNESCO, etc.). The overall reflections gathered in the book - which is divided in three main sections: regulations and institutional frameworks, policies, actions and tools - combine to suggest innovative visions about the relationships between nature policies and landscape policies.

"Natural landscapes are intricately tied to human health and well-being, and increasingly valued for their stress-reduction benefits. Providing an overview of the history, theory, and individual and societal implications of human connection to landscape, this book delivers a research-backed introduction for students, academics and policy makers"--

A bold and exciting exploration of the relationship and interactions between humans, the human landscape and the earth, looking at a diverse range of case studies from the nineteenth-century city to the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

The theme of the present volume concerns people' s response to the natural environment, considered at scales varying from that of a house hold plant to that of vast wilderness areas. Our decision to focus on this particular segment of the physical environment was prompted in part by the intrinsic interest in this subject on the part of a diverse group of sodal scientists and professionals-and of laypersons, for that matter and in part by the relative neglect of this topic in standard treatments of the environment-behavior field. It also serves to bring out once again the interdisdplinary nature of that field, and we are pleased to have been able to inc1ude representatives from geography, sodology, soda! ecology, and natural recreation among our contributors. We believe that this volume will serve a useful purpose in helping to integrate the find ings and concepts in this presently somewhat fragmented field, scat tered as they are over a very diverse array of publications representing a similarly varied group of spedalties. It is hoped that the result will be to stimulate future development of this area and to add a measure of in creased coherence to it. Volume 7 of our series will be devoted to the theme of elderly people and the environment, with M. Powell Lawton joining us as guest co-editor. The titles of the papers comprising Volume 7 are shown on page v. Irwin Altman J oachim F. Wohlwill ix Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nature-Based Design in Landscape Architecture showcases a range of built works designed by landscape architects from many countries of the world representing diverse environmental regions and uses. These projects demonstrate the transformative potential of a nature-based approach to landscape architecture. The nature-based design approach supports and encourages natural regeneration with a view to promoting sustainable environments, preserving natural resources, and mitigating the impacts of climate change and development. The projects selected for this book demonstrate the potential of nature-based landscape design to support healthy, natural and managed ecosystems, sequester carbon, and support the recovery of biodiversity. In addition to examples of design-led environmental interventions, Nature-Based Design in Landscape Architecture, the book, also demonstrates the potential for nature-based design to improve people’s relationship with their surroundings by encouraging them to be active participants in their communities. As such, each project featured in the book promotes a discussion around future scenarios in which landscape architects can and will be engaged, from minimizing environmental impact through sustainable design to fostering social justice through community engagement. This book will be a welcome supplement for undergraduate landscape architecture, survey or design studio courses, and may also be used at the master’s degree level either as part of a landscape architecture survey seminar or early design studio.

Neighbourhood landscapes are the quintessential forms of urban landscapes in most cities worldwide. They are pervasive, and hence experienced by the large majority of urban dwellers in their everyday life. More than parks, nature reserves or nature areas which are visited as destinations, neighbourhood landscapes provide the most immediate, frequent and convenient form of nature experienced by urban dwellers on a daily basis. They are also valuable as social spaces to bring residents together, foster social ties, and strengthen communities. Despite their importance, surprisingly little has been written to guide the planning and design of neighbourhood landscapes.This book is written for a specific purpose, to illustrate how the design of neighbourhood landscapes helps to deliver more benefits for urban dwellers and, at the same time, protect ecosystems that facilitate human well-being. This is in turn important as the synergistic relationships between human well-being, quality of biophysical urban environment, and health of human-environment interactions fundamentally underpin urban sustainability. The authors emphasize the role neighbourhood landscapes play in forging connections between people and nature, people and people, and people and place. Most of all, the book highlights the role of focusing on people in this endeavour, as it is only when landscapes are appropriately designed, and when people recognize these benefits, that they become valued and protected as a community resource.This book is organized into two parts. Part 1 focuses on the conceptual foundations that underpin the neighbourhood landscape design guidelines being developed. In this section, the authors describe the key concepts relating functions of neighbourhood landscapes to the key urban development goals of sustainability, liveability and reliance; how they can be represented in a framework; and how a synthesis of current knowledge of cities as socio-ecological systems helps to identify principles that can guide the designing of neighbourhood landscapes. Part 2 is more application focused, and is centred on neighbourhood landscape design guidelines inspired by the concept of ecosystem services. The guidelines consist of design approaches, practical strategies, design targets and performance monitoring indicators for tracking the performance of neighbourhood landscapes. The book is written for readers in academia and design practice, and anyone who has a role in shaping neighbourhood landscapes for the benefit of urban dwellers.