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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.

Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has always been more than just a house. It has also functioned as a workplace, a tourist destination, "the best all-time work of American architecture," and a cultural symbol. By talking to some of the people involved in its history and by examining "autho-ethnographic" texts found within the community, I attempt to use ethnographic methods to understand a complicated site. Nestled in the rural Appalachian foothills of southwestern Pennsylvania, Fallingwater is also isolated. It is tempting for visitors to view it as a work of art "plopped down in the middle of nowhere." And yet Fallingwater is fundamentally related to its site, both in its use of local materials and the place it holds in local memory. An attempt is made to connect this one place to a broader cultural landscape, and to understand the social and historic currents that led to its construction and eventual elevation to tourist icon. For data, I rely primarily upon tape-recorded interviews conducted while working as an oral history intern at Fallingwater in the summer of 1997. Local perceptions of Fallingwater and the creative role local builders played in construction are examined, with the author concluding that at a site such as Fallingwater, sole responsibility for the creativity of the finished architectural form cannot be attributed to the mind of a lone creator. The author examines local manifestations of modern architecture in the vernacular landscape, and concludes that local builders struggled with the same forces of Modernity that influenced famous high-style modernist architects such as Wright. The project's scope reaches beyond the historical constraints of the initial oral history project, however, to include an ethnographic analysis of competing contemporary tourist landscapes at Fallingwater and at neighboring Ohiopyle State Park. While Ohiopyle offers an individualized, vernacular tourist experience, Fallingwater is experienced in a highly ritualized way. The ritual of experiencing Fallingwater is designed to effect change in the visitor and to spur the visitor on to environmental awareness and action. The author contends that an ethnographic analysis of Fallingwater allows for the humane consideration of a larger cultural phenomenon, Modernity. By examining local manifestations of broader cultural forces, the author contends that folklore has a contribution to make to cultural analysis. By closely examining the "texts" collected by folklorists—however broadly those texts are defined—a more contextual understanding of broader cultural phenomena may be obtained.

This research is intended to help meet the growing demand for green schools that foster sustainability education by aggregating and cross-analyzing specific pedagogical strategies from buildings currently being used as teaching tools for sustainability. Over 350 specific teaching strategies were collected from 15 of the world’s highest performing academic buildings using Anne Taylor’s theoretical framework for linking architecture with sustainability education. These strategies were collected through interviews, literature reviews, web content, course curriculums, photographs, and site visits. This research also analyzed current educational theory that can be extended to the physical built environment, which was used to qualitatively analyze each pedagogical strategy. To specifically focus the data collection process, 36 of the most important sustainability issues related to the built environment were also compiled for this research and used to organize the teaching strategies. Additionally, four thematic categories (Multisensory, Outreach, Curricular, and Research) were created to organize the strategies based on their different educational goal, method of knowledge transfer, and intended audience. Finally, the 368 teaching strategies were cross-analyzed to determine the most common overall pedagogical strategies currently used. Educators, designers, and facility planners should use the information presented in this paper as a foundation for innovation in educational planning and design innovation. Also, the most common teaching strategies should be considered a benchmark for future buildings that teach. This list is not exhaustive, however, as the potential strategies for utilizing a building as a teaching tool is likely limitless. Therefore, all of the collected teaching strategies (over 350, attached in the Adobe Portfolio) are presented as individual design cards to display the pedagogical possibilities of buildings that teach and to inspire innovating strategies in the future.

“At the same time that we must respond to climate change and rising energy costs, we must also adjust our housing stock to fit a changing demographic and find more frugal form of prosperity. Such a transformation will require deep change, not just in energy sources, technology, and conservation measures but also in urban design, culture and lifestyles. More than just deploying green technologies and adjusting our thermostats, it will involve rethinking the way we live and the underlying form of our communities.” (Calthorpe, 2011) Our cities are built dependent on centralized systems of water and waste management, food and energy production. This practice has proven efficient for a while; nonetheless as our cities expand with immense speed and population increases, severe issues of food access, waste accumulation, floods, water contamination and increased energy demand reveal the obsolescence of those systems. The solution does not lie anymore only in conservation and precautionary measures but in a diverse way of thinking and redesigning existing infrastructures. Through this thesis, several systems of urban agriculture, decentralized water management and treatment, as well as energy production from waste were identified and studied through literature and actual case studies. The ultimate goal of the research was to create a toolkit for urban regenerative environments, which will be used to introduce those systems to designers. The key component of the toolkit is the quantitative link between the spatial demands of each system and its efficiency.

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Environmental concerns are now firmly on the agenda for engineers and designers. In recent years an increasing barrage of legislation accompanied by the public's increasing awareness of, and concern for, the environment is forcing industry to respond. Energy and resource consumption reduction have long been the concerns of industry but this narrow view is no longer appropriate with much more complex life-cycle environmental issues such as design for disassembly and environmentally conscious processing becoming apparent. In response many tools have been developed in recent years to assist engineers and designers in their attempts to address the emerging environmental problems. The most universally adopted is that of Life-Cycle Analysis or LCA. This procedure assesses the complete life-cycle environmental burdens of product or system with a view to evaluating and implementing opportunities to effect improvements. The initial stages of LCA which include initiation, inventory and impact assessment are well developed disciplines and standardised frameworks are appearing. However the improvement stage of LCA, in which changes in design are considered is currently an active field of investigation as attempts are made to develop efficient and reliable methods. The integration of LCA principles into current design and materials selection procedures, and thus completion of the improvement stage, is a task which needs addressing. Methods exist in the form of frameworks, guidelines, matrices and computer based tools, but all have drawbacks and 'blind spots'.This research looks at the problems facing designers and engineers both in terms of environmental concerns and the logistics of integrating these new concerns into current product development practices. Environmental problems are reviewed and responsibilities and possible solutions are identified. Environmental analysis procedures are explained and the process of LCA is studied in detail. The development of environmental design is discussed which leads to the presentation of the possibilities for integration of Design for the Environment (DFE) into current practices. Through a critical review of current practices in environmental design the following important unfulfilled needs are identified: the difficulty in comparing different design options in environmental terms; providing guidance in identifying appropriate product design strategies for different products; helping to train/advise engineers and designers in the use of environmentally sound products and materials and the development of tools which actively offer advice to designers and engineers. In fulfilling these needs this research presents a contribution to knowledge in the field of environmentally conscious design and manufacture in three ways: Development of a novel matrix-based method of environmental design; Integration of environmental concerns into the materials selection process, and, The development of a computer support tool for environmentally conscious design andmanufacture. Validation of the research is presented through examples and the conduction of a user survey. Finally this thesis summarises the conclusions drawn from the research and identifies areas of further work which will increase the knowledge base, scope and applicability of the work carried out.

The ultimate goal of this research paper was to gain a more acute perspective into the relationship between the physical environment and human behavior, so that architectural design may begin to promote and affect environmentally friendly behavior in its users. The three main fields of psychology that were the focus of this paper were social psychology, environmental psychology, and cognitive psychology, all of which were essential to understanding the unique relationship one has with their built environment. The definitive goal of the sustainability movement, or what I at least think it should be, is the creation of an environmentally friendly society. The widespread use of sustainable architectural design practices has been a great step forward, but if this movement is to be successful, I feel we must focus equally on the relationship between people and their physical environments. Ultimately, the sustainability movement depends less on the architectural environments that we create, and more on the cooperation of the people who occupy those environments.

This paper investigates the successes and failures of architectural design techniques used to improve the sustainability of occupants. It looks broadly at research that has taken place in the past and focuses specifically on the strategies used in Pomona and Sontag Halls - two dormitories constructed at Pomona College.