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This thesis reflects on the value of the study of field-names in understanding the historic landscape of Somerset. The post-medieval field-names recorded in the nineteenth century Tithe surveys of Somerset represent a comprehensive resource which offers evidence of how the people of a parish experienced and managed their working environment. This investigation considers field-names in their landscape, drawing on sources which offer indications of how the community understood and appreciated local conditions. The study will begin with sources post-1600, although earlier material will be included where appropriate. Wider sources such as records of archaeological investigations and aerial photography will allow additional insights into the nuanced naming of fields, boundaries and routeways and the changes which occurred over time. The focus of the study is particularly on the relationship between field-names and locality and how naming practices differed across contrasting parish settings. A key finding in this investigation was that field-names communicated a broad range of detailed information about the environment of the parish and the wider working countryside. A significant conclusion was that although parishes across the contrasting landscapes of the study area were seen to share many field-name elements, they used them in different ways and added locally distinctive elements more meaningful in their familiar environment. A significant indication was that field-names could illustrate change, for example through the naming of new field boundaries, access rights, routeways, landuse and crops. Field-names reflected the lives of the people of a parish and how they managed their land, processed materials and developed crafts for their complex lives.

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Many studies of natural landscape preference have demonstrated that qualities such as 'complexity' and 'naturalness' are associated with preference, but have struggled to define the key characteristics of these qualities. Recently, the development of software programs and digital techniques has offered researchers new ways of quantifying the landscape qualities associated with preference. Among them fractal geometry offers the most promising approach. Fractals have been defined as mathematical models of organic objects and patterns as opposed to the straight lines and perfect circles of Euclidean geometry found in man-made environments. Fractal patterns are mainly characterized by their dimension, which could be described as a statistical quantification of complexity. By applying this mathematical concept to digital images, several studies claim to have found a correlation between the fractal dimensions of a set of images and the images' preference ratings. Such studies have particularly focussed on demonstrating support for the hypothesis that patterns with a fractal dimension of around 1.3 induce better responses than others. However, much of this research so far has been carried out on abstract or computer-generated images. Furthermore, the most commonly used method of fractal analysis, the box-counting method, has many limitations in its application to digital images which are rarely addressed. The aim of this thesis is to explore empirically the suggestion that landscape preference could be influenced by the fractal characteristics of landscape photographs. The first part of this study was dedicated to establishing the robustness and validity of the box-counting method, and apply it to landscape images. One of the main limitations of the box-counting method is its need for image pre-processing as it can only be applied to binary (black and white) images. Therefore, to develop a more reliable method for fractal analysis of landscapes, it was necessary to compare different methods of image segmentation, i.e the reduction of greyscale photographs into binary images. Each method extracted a different structure from the original photograph: the silhouette outline, the extracted edges, and three different thresholds of greyscale. The results revealed that each structure characterized a different aspect of the landscape: the fractal dimension of the silhouette outline could quantify the height of the vegetation, while the fractal dimension of the extracted edges characterized complexity. The second part of the study focused on collecting preference ratings for the landscape images previously analysed, using an online survey disseminated in France and the UK. It was found that different groups of participants reacted differently to the fractal dimensions, and that some of those groups were significantly influenced by those characteristics while others were not. Unexpectedly, the variable most correlated with preference was the fractal dimension of the image's extracted edges, although this variable's predictive power was relatively low. The study concludes by summarising the issues involved in estimating the fractal dimensions of landscapes in relation to human response. The research offers a set of reliable and tested methods for extracting fractal dimensions for any given image. Using such methods, it produces results which challenge previous hypotheses and findings in relation to fractal dimensions that predict human preference, identifying gaps in understanding and promising future areas of research.

This research investigates new spatial forms that have emerged in China's urban landmark parks in secondary cities of the post -Mao era. These forms represent a new stage in China's history of landscape architecture. As design history and innovative design inquiry, a qualitative approach is employed and it draws from: - modernization theory: a framework for understanding transformation in post -Mao China - post -Mao China socio -cultural analysis: changing Chinese identity, nationalism and trends in the arts and architecture - design analysis and history of China's garden /park traditions and the larger context of the evolution of modern landscape architecture in China - analysis of international design trends in contemporary landscape architecture analysis of China's changing institutional context: education and development of the landscape architecture profession. In this research, I asked: has the fusion of international influences with the local Chinese design vocabulary in late 20th century China created a distinctive approach to public park design that is novel? If so, how has this taken place, and what does it mean for landscape architecture in China? Case studies provide a focused empirical setting to understand the new design paradigms and they create the foundation for a theory I call hybrid modernization. The study breaks new ground as the first documentation and analysis of the emergence of modern landscape architecture in twentieth century China. It creates a bridge between the literature in China and the west; and it contributes to closing the gap on the history of modern landscape architecture in China.

The purpose of this study is to delineate the role of a Utah State comprehensive health planning agency in environmental health planning. The scope and nature of environmental health planning was researched thus defining the data base. Secondary information sources and informal interviews were used as sources for data about the existing situations in Utah wbich affect the organization of environmental health planning. The analysis of existing situationa was presented in five sections: Goals for Environmental Health Planning; Intergovernmental Planning Coordination in Utah; Multicounty Health Districts in Utah; Utah State Agencies Having Responsibilities Related to Environmental Health; and Implications of Public Law 93-641 (the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974) and Utah Senate Bill No. 45 (the Health Resources Development Act of 1976). Analysis of information examined the organization and purpose of agencies and institutions as specified by secondary information sources and interviews. Recommendations for the role of an Utah State comprehensive health planning agency in environmental health were based on these analyses.

As water supplies in the American West become increasingly strained by growing populations and threats of drought and climate change, water managers and governments are working to maximize water-use efficiency. With well over half of municipal water being used on outdoor irrigation, improved landscape water efficiency has been a clear candidate for conservation messaging. Because social norms play a significant role in what conservation behaviors individuals adopt voluntarily, conservation messaging strategies often try to influence and shift norms in favor of improved behaviors. A clear understanding of the existing norms, demographics, and cultural values of an area is essential to tailoring relevant and effective conservation messages. The purpose of this research was to identify landscape norms in Washington County, Utah and whether residents had perceived a shift in norms over time toward desert-adapted landscapes. We also researched whether social norms played a significant role in the types of landscapes residents preferred. To answer these questions, we surveyed three populations: visitors to a popular, local conservation garden, participants in conservation programs and workshops, and members of a homeowner association. Based on their responses, we found that residents did perceive a shift in landscape norms toward desert landscapes. The vast majority of respondents also indicated approval of homeowners using desert landscaping in their neighborhoods, regardless of their own landscaping decisions. However, little social pressure exists to motivate homeowners to adapt to a specific neighborhood norm. As such, conservation strategies in Washington County should emphasize the approval and growing use of appropriate water-conserving landscape norms. To increase effectiveness, conservation messaging should address the needs of specific demographics. For example, because we found that homeowners with children tend to prefer larger amounts of lawn, conservation messaging needs to demonstrate how child-friendly alternatives to lawn-dominant landscapes can meet the needs of children. In addition to suggestions for improving voluntary behavior changes, we discuss how policies can help to accelerate changes in landscape norms.

An interest in the application of the concept of sustainability to the design of the domestic garden lead to the realisation that the social dimensions of sustainable design, that is, the capacity of the garden to meet human needs, was poorly understood. In the interests of achieving an holistic understanding of the hole of the domestic garden in meeting human needs, fourteen gardeners from rural north-west Hawkesbury were interviewed on the role that gardens and gardening plays in their everyday lives. Using Max-Neef's theory of needs and satisfiers as a reference and applying the principles of qualitative data analysis, the interview transcripts were analysed to identify evidence for the satisfaction of fundamental human needs in the lives of the participants, their partners and families. It was established that gardens and gardening have the potential to satisfy human needs within all nine of Max-Neef's axiological categories of need (Subsistence, Protection, Affection, Understanding, Participation, Leisure, Creation, Identity, Freedom) and across all fours existential states (Being, Having, Doing and Interacting). To present the data in terms which might usefully inform the practice of garden design, key satisfiers identified from the data were conceptualised into themes, which in turn became the basis for five conceptual models (Dwelling, Nurture, Pleasure, Enlightenment and "Being" Fully Human) which serve to define the broad domains within which needs might be satisfied within the garden. Collectively, these five conceptual models constitute the Congruent Garden. A series of garden prototypes relating to the themes of each conceptual model are proposed as the basis for the delivery of garden-related satisfiers. Some suggestions are made on the matter of further research work arising from this initial study.

[Truncated abstract] Remote biodiverse sites present unique problems to architects who seek to create greater connectivity between people and landscape. Such sites, particularly those along Australia's temperate coastlines, are rapidly being developed for housing yet in many cases these landscapes have no prior history of sedentary habitation. Not only do these sites lack relevant architectural precedents, they are yet to be measured and represented; the very acts that define the specifics of site and identity of place. These landscapes are as unrecorded as they are uninhabited and consequently there is little to resist the imposition of foreign architectural typologies - buildings which are inherently ecologically unsustainable and non site-specific. This thesis addressed these problems by testing an architectural design methodology which placed considerable emphasis on site measure and mapping. The key hypothesis that underpinned the research was that site-specific architecture cannot be realised independently of site-specific mapping. The research was conducted from the standpoint that maps are not simply abstracted 'grounds' upon which architectural designs are formulated, they are landscape representations and as such they engage with a broader cultural context by articulating our fundamental concepts of 'landscape'. The thesis is part theoretical discourse and part creative research. The research method involved first selecting a number of study sites in a new housing subdivision located within one of the world's most biodiverse regions. ... Several opportunities arose as a direct result of this publicly engaged process, most notably two professional commissions: the first as guest artist for a two-year state-wide exhibition; the second for a built work of architecture in the study area. Both projects provided a 'proof of concept' test of the applicability of the research method to architectural praxis. While the research primarily addresses the discipline of architectural design, it draws upon methods and approaches from landscape architecture, surveying, botany, photography, and art practice. These disciplines all face the same challenge as architecture in remote biodiverse sites: conventional forms of measure, representation and making must be reconceptualised in order to develop responses which are commensurate with the unique biophysical and cultural conditions which characterise these sites. Because biodiverse sites continuously change, as does our understanding of them, a direct causal link between site-specific mapping and site-specific architecture cannot be established. However, the research has shown that collectively such works provide a 'landscape of resistance': through a highly site-attuned multidisciplinary approach, greater connectivity is achieved between people and landscape and the manifestations of this connectivity - the sitespecific maps and buildings - help to form specifically local understandings of landscape. Building in remote biodiverse landscapes is a technical problem, a creative problem, a cultural problem and an ethical problem. The research presents a means of reconciling these problems in the midst of the present milieu, one which is characterised by extreme technical capacity and environmental anxiety.

The aim of this MFA Research Documentation is to present the ideas behind the photographs produced during the MFA Degree. In Chapter 2 I will briefly analyse photographers who have influenced or provided structure for my practice. In Chapter 3 I will detail my earliest work and follow with an analysis of the recent projects completed within the research time frame for this MFA Degree. These recent projects have been summarised under the following headings: Transition, which explores the different stages in the architectural construction and deconstruction process in particular sites that would generally be considered unpresentable - sites that are in either a state of decay or dereliction or a state of re-building; Frontier, which looks at new housing developments in outer Sydney suburbs and examines the influence of social imperatives and relevance at a time when aspects of environmental concern are at the forefront of social commentary; and Monolith, examines the remnant modernist vision of high-rise residential architecture, in Sydney and London. Land Mark Architecture ??? in an age of non-discovery is the urban landscape of landmarks and marks on the land. They should be viewed in the context of documentary photography. I have ignored the buildings that are deemed landmarks, and by following a less obvious path, have explored local, unclassified, and aesthetically uncertain areas of the built environment.