Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:39:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3642.pdf: 1014704 bytes, checksum: 475596f4153802b656f318f16cf812ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-18 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The model of society in which we operate does not guarantee and does not claim the right to a dignified life for all, since inequality prevails among the people. We believe that rationality is a greater bearing on the dichotomy between humans and nature is necessary for the construction of new forms of relating. Education emerges as a field of great importance to tackling environmental issues and to incorporate this dimension supports several methodologies, procedures, concepts and frameworks that guide the different practices in environmental education. In a critical perspective, environmental education role to assign collective participation and the educational work consistent with the pursuit of social and environmental transformation of reality. Concerned with the enhancement of life, with the present and future generations, to care for the environment, developing new ways of thinking about reality. These concerns must be present at school and also in materials that circulate in it, such as books, children's literature - rooted these ideals through reading, because we believe that when we read we get in touch with the world beyond, and from this experience, we have generated important tools for the formation of our own world. Aiming to encourage reading, the federal government implemented in 1997 the National Program for School Libraries (PNBE), which annually sends collections of various kinds of books to public schools in Brazil. This work attempts to draw a relationship between the books of children's literature and environmental education through the analysis of the works belonging to the collection for the school's 2008 PNBE addressing environmental issues. Aiming to understand the conceptions of environment present in books, guided by the classification Sauvé suggested in 2005 about the many relationships we have with the environment. The author has mapped current fifteen in environmental education, some of the older tradition and more recent. For the categorization of data, the method of discursive textual analysis. Our corpus consisted of seven books, each book was fragmented and subjected to categorization. To complement this categorization, we created a script in which proposing some parameters that are considered important in an approach to environmental issues. The communication of the senses in the books read was made by metatexts presented in text and systematized in tables. The mainstream was the naturalist and believe that one of the factors that enabled this occurrence were the creation dates of most of the works, between the years 1970 and 1990, by which time the currents prevailed earlier. According to the analysis we conducted, we noticed that most of the books offers many opportunities for work in the field of critical environmental education in the classroom, and good tools for problematizations about environmental issues and important tools in the formation of readers. / O modelo de sociedade no qual estamos inseridos não garante e não sustenta o direito a uma vida digna para todos, pois a desigualdade impera em meio aos povos. Acreditamos que uma racionalidade não mais pautada na dicotomização entre ser humano e natureza seja necessária para a construção de outras formas de nos relacionarmos. A educação se configura como um campo de grande importância para a abordagem das questões ambientais e, ao incorporar essa dimensão, sustenta diversas metodologias, procedimentos, concepções e referenciais que orientam as diferentes práticas em educação ambiental. Em uma perspectiva crítica, a educação ambiental atribui papel fundamental à participação coletiva e ao trabalho educativo coerente com a busca pela transformação da realidade socioambiental. Preocupa-se com a valorização da vida, com as gerações presentes e futuras, com o cuidado para com o meio ambiente, com o desenvolvimento de novas formas de pensar a realidade. Essas preocupações devem estar presentes na escola e, também, nos materiais que nela circulam, tais como os livros de literatura infantil alicerçando esses ideais por meio da leitura, pois acreditamos que quando lemos entramos em contato com o mundo do outro e, a partir dessa experiência, geramos importantes ferramentas para a formação de nosso próprio mundo. Com o propósito de fomentar a leitura, o governo federal implantou em 1997 o Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola (PNBE), que encaminha anualmente acervos de diversos tipos de livro às escolas públicas brasileiras. O presente trabalho procura traçar uma relação entre os livros de literatura infantil e a educação ambiental por meio da análise das obras pertencentes ao acervo para o ensino fundamental do PNBE 2008 que abordam questões ambientais. Com o objetivo de compreender quais as concepções de ambiente presentes nos livros, nos pautamos na classificação que Sauvé sugeriu em 2005 a respeito das múltiplas relações que estabelecemos com o meio ambiente. A autora mapeou 15 correntes em educação ambiental, sendo algumas de tradição mais antiga e outras mais recentes. Para a categorização dos dados, utilizamos a metodologia da análise textual discursiva. Nosso corpus foi constituído por sete livros, sendo que cada livro foi fragmentado e submetido à categorização. Para subsidiar a categorização, criamos um roteiro no qual elencamos alguns parâmetros que consideramos importantes em uma abordagem da temática ambiental. A comunicação dos sentidos lidos nos livros foi feita por meio de metatextos, apresentados em formato de texto e sistematizados em quadros. A corrente predominante foi a naturalista e acreditamos que um dos fatores que possibilitou essa ocorrência foram as datas de criação da maior parte das obras, compreendidas entre os anos 1970 e 1990, época em que predominavam as correntes mais antigas. De acordo com as análises que realizamos, percebemos que a maioria dos livros apresenta muitas possibilidades para o trabalho no campo da educação ambiental crítica em sala de aula, sendo bons instrumentos para problematizações acerca da temática ambiental e importantes ferramentas no processo de formação de leitores.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T15:09:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.PDF: 2014874 bytes, checksum: 0ab44d979977ec4ba40d89fbddf82398 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is proposed to develop a study of the relationships between man and nature in a Phenomenological Geography approach seeking theoretical and methodological alternatives witch promote new perspectives of teaching for the student. To do so, a survey of the life of primitive peoples was done in order to get more intimate relations with the Nature, as well as, aspects of contemporary man s contact with the natural world. Based on the conceptions of geographicity in Eric Dardel, the study of the Earth was analyzed in a perspective that exceeds the spacephysics elements of the objective science, the geometric and measurable space. We sought to understand the world as a consequence of an intersubjective phenomenon, in which the relations of the human body with the Earth assume a decisive character for the understanding of a teaching-learning process turned to the space experienced in life. From the notions of spatiality, we tried to discuss the construction of the space in a phenomenological vision. For the inquiry, the qualitative methodology was used due to its documentary and bibliographical character. The essential assumptions in the teaching of Geography present themselves still filled up with a distant reality of the immediate spatial relations of student. In this way, the present research aims to contribute both to strengthen the discussions that are locked around theoretical and methodological issues in this area of education, but also to the Geography in school be associated with an education conception that aims at the formation of individuals able to relate to the Nature in a physical perspective, waking up so, other ways to see the Earth highlighting the original dimension of human existence. / O presente trabalho se propôs a desenvolver um estudo das relações do homem com a Natureza numa abordagem da Geografia Fenomenológica buscando alternativas teóricas e metodológicas que promovam novas perspectivas de ensino para o aluno. Para isso, foi feito o levantamento da vida de povos primitivos no intuito de buscar suas relações mais íntimas com a Natureza como também, aspectos do contato do homem contemporâneo com o mundo natural. Baseado nas concepções de geograficidade em Eric Dardel, o estudo da Terra foi analisado numa óptica que ultrapassa os elementos físico-espaciais da ciência objetiva, do espaço geométrico, mensurável. Procurou-se compreender o mundo como conseqüência de um fenômeno intersubjetivo, no qual as relações do corpo do homem com a Terra assumem um caráter decisivo para a compreensão de um ensino-aprendizagem voltado ao espaço vivido. A partir das noções de espacialidade, buscou-se discutir a construção do espaço na visão fenomenológica. Para a pesquisa foi utilizada a metodologia qualitativa devido seu caráter documental-bibliográfico. Os pressupostos essenciais no ensino da Geografia apresentam-se ainda preenchidos de uma realidade afastada das relações espaciais imediatas do aluno. Desta forma, essa pesquisa tem a finalidade de contribuir tanto para fortalecer as discussões que se travam em torno de questões teóricas e metodológicas desta área de ensino, como também para que a Geografia na escola se associe a uma concepção educacional que objetive a formação de indivíduos capazes de se relacionarem com a Natureza numa perspectiva corporal, despertando assim, outros sentidos ao ver o planeta Terra destacando a dimensão originária da existência humana.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Este trabalho pretende apresentar a filosofia moral de David Hume a partir da associaÃÃo entre razÃo e sentimento, a formarem um composto inseparÃvel na aÃÃo e na distinÃÃo morais. Para tanto, considero sua teoria no domÃnio mental e no social. O filÃsofo acreditava que a artificialidade das instituiÃÃes nÃo implicava a negaÃÃo da natureza, mas sua extensÃo. Assim, virtudes e vÃcios sÃo reconhecidos pelos seres humanos enquanto aÃÃes que, respectivamente, lhes agradam e desagradam. Isto porque compartilhamos uma mesma natureza que nos capacita discernirmos a utilidade das condutas para nossa sobrevivÃncia de acordo com as circunstÃncias de tempo e espaÃo. Recusa-se, entÃo, um objetivismo metafÃsico e uma autoridade religiosa como fundamento da moralidade. Hume entendia seu projeto como um complemento da RevoluÃÃo CientÃfica do sÃculo XVII, ao estender o uso do mÃtodo experimental no campo da moralidade. / This work is intended to show that David Hume‟s moral philosophy associated reason to feeling, both in mental and social domains, like an inseparable compound in moral action and distinction. He believed that the artificiality of institutions did not implicate the negation of nature, but its extension. Thus, virtues and vices are recognized by humans as actions which respectively please and unplease them. This is because we share a nature in common that enables us to discern the utility of behavior for our survival according to the circumstances of time and space. Then, it means a refusal of the methaphysical objectivism and the religious authority as the foundation of morality. Hume understood his project as a complement to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, extending the use of experimental method in the field of morality.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / O objetivo deste trabalho à discutir a concepÃÃo de homem em Thomas Hobbes nos trÃs pilares que compÃe sua teoria: o estado natural, o contrato e o Estado. Em primeiro lugar, se analisa a igualdade entre os homens, as trÃs causas da guerra de todos contra todos, e como compreender a relaÃÃo entre a teoria do autor e o momento histÃrico em que ele viveu. Em segundo lugar, mostra-se a concepÃÃo de contrato como produto da capacidade humana de transformaÃÃo da realidade e, ainda, a relaÃÃo entre a mecÃnica e a moral, e a uniÃo de razÃo e paixÃes em sua antropologia. Por fim, destaca-se o Estado como detentor de uma autoridade divina e, em virtude disto, a possibilidade do descumprimento, por parte do poder soberano, com a razÃo de ser do pacto entre os indivÃduos, a preservaÃÃo da vida. Pretende-se demonstrar que o pensador seiscentista concebe a condiÃÃo humana como uma trajetÃria agÃnica, na qual atà mesmo a maior garantia de paz, o Estado, apresenta a possibilidade de sÃrios inconvenientes. / The aim of this work is to discuss the concept of man on Thomas Hobbes in the three pillars that make up your theory: the state of nature, the contract and the State. First, it discusses the equality of men, the three causes of war of all against all, and how to understand the relationship between your theory and the historical moment in which he lived. Secondly, it is shown the concept of contract as a product of human capacity to transform the reality, and also the relationship between the mechanical and the moral, and the union of reason and passion in your anthropology. Finally, it analyzes the divine authority of the state and, because of this, the possibility of failure on the part of sovereign power with the rationale of the pact between individuals, which is the preservation of life. It intend to demonstrate that the seventeenth-century thinker sees the human condition as an agonizing journey, in which even the best guarantee of peace, the State, presents the possibility of serious drawbacks.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-10-17T13:19:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcosedmorladeiramoreno.pdf: 655656 bytes, checksum: 40d75f6270477b02d3fa015dd3dc0b3c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-10-22T13:19:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcosedmorladeiramoreno.pdf: 655656 bytes, checksum: 40d75f6270477b02d3fa015dd3dc0b3c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-22T13:19:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcosedmorladeiramoreno.pdf: 655656 bytes, checksum: 40d75f6270477b02d3fa015dd3dc0b3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A lontra neotropical (Lontra longicaudis) ocorre desde o México até a Argentina, estando entre as espécies de lontra com a maior área de distribuição. Mas apesar desta grande área de distribuição pouco se sabe sobre sua ecologia, comportamento e relação com os homens. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo geral estudar as relações entre os produtores de peixes localizados em 3 Estados brasileiros (Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo) e as lontras, animais estes freqüentemente associados a ataques aos tanques de peixes. Para tal estudo um questionário foi enviado a 50 piscicultores presentes nos estados acima citados, tal questionário continha questões relativas ao levantamento de informações sobre os ataques realizados pelas lontras aos tanques de peixes e se estes geram um conflito entre estas e os piscicultores, assim como questões relativas ao conhecimento dos piscicultores sobre aspectos da ecologia e comportamento das lontras. Os resultados relacionados aos ataques indicam que apesar destes ocorrerem na maior parte das propriedades investigadas, as perdas serem tratadas como grandes pela metade dos investigados e que quanto maior o dano causado maior o sentimento negativo para com as lontras, tais elementos por si só não foram suficientes para a instauração de um conflito entre as lontras e os piscicultores, sendo sim o termo conflito de interesses mais bem colocado, uma vez que a idéia de conflito vem acompanhada de ações danosas entre as partes envolvidas, fato não demonstrado, pois dentre as medidas possivelmente adotadas para a resolução da predação pelos produtores a morte do animal figurou em último lugar. Alguns métodos foram propostos pelos produtores para a solução da predação, em destaque: a utilização de cães, a implementação de cercas e a baixa estocagem de peixes nos tanques. Com relação ao conhecimento dos produtores para com as lontras, estes nos forneceram informações sobre a presença destas em suas propriedades, pequenos córregos e brejos como principais locais de sua ocorrência, tendo as lontras como período de atividade toda a extensão do dia, com picos matutinos e noturnos, sendo animais de hábitos solitários ainda que relatos do avistamento destas em grupos tenham sido freqüentes e com o status atual de sua presença na natureza considerado estável pelos piscicultores que também colocaram que antigamente seu número fora maior. Aspectos de difícil avaliação como a caça e motivos desta também foram avaliados. As 7 abordagens do conhecimento dos produtores de peixes, apresentada neste trabalho foram efetivamente substanciais à obtenção e acréscimo de informações relativas às lontras. Embora exista, obviamente a necessidade de investigar mais detalhadamente algumas das informações obtidas junto aos produtores antes que sua veracidade possa ser atestada, os dados aqui relatados todos a partir do conhecimento dos produtores são uma importante fonte de embasamento e direcionamento para ações conservacionistas a serem desenvolvidas na região, além de contribuírem significantemente para o aumento do conhecimento das relações homem e natureza. / The Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) occur since México toward Argentina, staying among the most widespread species of otter in the world. In spite of this great distribution area a little is known about its ecology, behavior and human relation. The present work aim was to study the relationship between fish farmers placed in three Brazilian States (Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo) and the otters, animals frequently associated with fishing tanks’ attacks. For such study, a questionnaire was sent to 50 fish farmers located in the states cited above, containing questions to rise information about the otters’ attack to fishing tanks and if these generate potential conflict between otters and fish farmers, as well as questions concerning the fish farmers’ assessment about otters’ ecology and behavior aspects. The results accounted to attacks shown that, in spite of these attacks occur in the majority of the investigated farms, the losses being threatened as big by the half of investigated and that as larger the damage larger the negative feeling to the otters, such elements by itself were not enough for the establishment of a conflict involving otters and fish farmers, being interest clash the better put term, once that the idea of conflict comes accompanied with harmful actions among the involved parts that in fact, was not verified, cause the dead of the animal figure last in the middle of possible actions adopted by the fish farmers to solve the predation problem. Some fish farmers’ proposed methods to minimize the predation, in prominence: the use of dogs, to implement of fence and low down the stock of fish in fishing tanks. Regarding the farmers’ assessment to the otters, the information supplied by them about otters’ presence in their property, show up small streams and swamps as main place of otters’ occurrence, having as activity period the whole day extension, with morning and night picks, being animals of lonely habits although sighting them grouped reports have been frequent and with current presence status in nature stable by fish farmers that in addition assumed that formerly its number had been larger. Difficult evaluation aspects as the hunt and the reasons of this were also appraised. The approaches of fish farmers’ assessment, presented in this work were substantial indeed to obtaining and increase information about the otters. Although there is, obviously the need of deeper investigation of some information obtained through the farmers before its could be truly attested, the data here reported, from farmers’ assessment onwards, are an important basis and direction source for conservationist actions for being developed in this region, further than significantly contribute to raise the knowledge of human-nature relation.

The dissertation builds a bridge from the social-philosophical works of Hobbes, Rousseau, and Smith to current game theoretical models explaining social order to two empirical applications in a rural region of Guinea. The work focuses on the central role of natural resources for human societies and uses two empirical studies to test general hypotheses on the drivers of the sustainable exploitation and the equitable distribution of natural resources. The work strictly follows a quantitative empirical approach. After discussing the methodological foundations of statistical causal analysis in a first step, the various approaches are evaluated in a simulation study. Finally, the most successful of these approaches finds its application in the analysis of the empirical data, which was collected during field research in Guinea. In the observational study, socioeconomic data are combined with environmental data to model the influence of humans on the occurrence of wild species that are exploited for economic purposes in the study area. In the experimental study, socioeconomic data is linked to experimental data from a resource distribution game to identify factors affecting the people’s behavior when sharing a common natural resource. Both the exploitation of wild species and the sharing of a natural resource show that the social context is crucial for the understanding of human behavior, as postulated by Hobbes, Rousseau, and Smith: reputation, market integration, inequality and homogeneity of the population, as well as the salience of moral norms and property rights are essential dimensions. / Die Dissertation widmet sich der zentralen Rolle von natürlichen Ressourcen für menschliche Gesellschaften. Anhand zweier empirischer Studien werden allgemeine Hypothesen zu den Determinanten der nachhaltigen Ausbeutung und gerechten Verteilung von natürlichen Ressourcen getestet. Dabei wird in der Arbeit eine Brücke von den Werken der Sozialphilosophen Hobbes, Rousseau und Smith, über aktuelle spieltheoretische Modelle zur Erklärung sozialer Ordnung, hin zu zwei empirischen Anwendungen in einer ländlichen Region Guineas geschlagen. Die Arbeit folgt strikt einem empirischen quantitativen Ansatz. Nach der Erörterung der methodischen Grundlagen der statistischen Kausalanalyse werden die verschiedenen Ansätze im Rahmen einer Simulationsstudie evaluiert. Schließlich findet der erfolgreichste dieser Ansätze in der Auswertung der Daten, die bei der Feldforschung in Guinea erhoben wurden, Anwendung. In der Beobachtungsstudie werden sozioökonomische Daten mit ökologischen Daten verknüpft, um den Einfluss der Menschen auf das Vorkommen von wilden Arten, die zu ökonomischen Zwecken ausgebeutet werden, im Untersuchungsgebiet zu modellieren. In der Experimentalstudie werden sozioökonomische Daten mit Experimentaldaten aus einem Ressourcenverteilungsspiel verknüpft, um Faktoren zu identifizieren, welche sich auf das Verhalten von Menschen beim Teilen einer gemeinsamen natürlichen Ressource auswirken. Sowohl für die Ausbeutung der wilden Arten, wie auch für das gemeinsame Teilen einer natürlichen Ressource gilt, dass der soziale Kontext für das Verhalten der Menschen von großer Relevanz ist, wie von Hobbes, Rousseau und Smith postuliert: Reputation, Marktintegration, Ungleichheit und Homogenität der Bevölkerung sowie die Salienz moralischer Normen und Eigentumsrechte sind entscheidende Dimensionen.

Human-nature connection is recognized for its importance for our well-being, development of our environmental identity, and potentially leading to pro-environmental behaviour due to the support of an individual’s intrinsic values. However, the fostering of this connection is not supported and being implemented within society at large. This research set out to explore the causes of the weak relation to nature and identify potential design interventions to enable the recuperation of nature as part of our identity.  For this exploration, Speculative Design and Transition Design were chosen. In particular, Design Fiction as a method was adopted, not only it allowed us to speculate the future, but also materialise and explore the human-nature connection in ‘objects’. Transition Design was used due to its flexibility to explore interdisciplinary research and solutions, providing ground for the 'constructed reality’ and enabling the built-up of a roadmap towards this preferable future.  Drivers that caused this problem were identified, and it showed how they are closely intertwined and influenced by, or are a result of, each other. One of these is how control and illusion of control plays a role in our weak human-nature connection. Through qualitative fieldwork, some of the ‘characteristics of nature’ and factors that influence human-nature connection were mapped, and they were embodied into objects situated in a ‘constructed reality’. These material objects have taken the form of home products in a product catalogue (‘diegetic prototype’) as human-nature connection can potentially be fostered at home as well as in nature.  The response showed a potential in how a speculative ‘diegetic prototype’ can influence a person's sense of identity in relation to nature. Proving that the ‘diegetic prototype’ has an actual effect on the sense of identity would be impossible due to the complex nature of identity development as many different factors play a role. This research also provided a list of factors for designers to explore with regards to enhancing our human-nature connection through design. It has also shown the potential role of food and home in establishing human-nature connection, on which further research is needed.

The M.A. thesis Metaphors of Nature in the Czech Weekly 'Reflex' explores the question of how the changing human-nature relationship is reflected in this journal's writing on nature over the period of the last twenty years. The rationale for the choice of the Reflex weekly magazine is that it is not focused on nature or nature-related themes, and thus what we find in it can help us understand how the relationship between humans and nature has changed not only in the journal, but also in society. The principal assumption underlying the present effort is that the many and variegated existing forms of the relationship between humanity and nature transform themselves into various metaphors. By uncovering and analyzing these metaphors we are able to better understand this relationship itself. The theoretical section of this thesis discusses various ways of understanding the metaphor in general, including the conceptual metaphor approach developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson which is applied to the textual material in the subsequent empirical section. The theoretical chapters also present a number of metaphors of nature that have previously been analyzed in the literature, and their implications for the human-nature relationship are indicated. The empirical section contains an analysis of the...

The engineering design process can underutilize nature-based solutions during infrastructure development. Instances of nature within the built environment are reflections of the human-nature connection, which may alter how designers ideate solutions to a given design task, especially through virtual reality (VR) as an embodied perspective taking platform. Embodied VR helps designers "see" as an end-user sees, inclusive of the natural environment through the uptake of an avatar, such as a bird or fish. Embodied VR emits empathy toward the avatar, e.g., to see as a bird in VR, one tends to feel and think as a bird. Furthermore, embodied VR also impacts altruistic behavior toward the environment, specifically through proenvironmental behaviors. However, limited research discovers the impact of embodied VR on the human-nature connection and if embodied VR has any impact on how designers ideate, specifically surrounding nature-based solutions as a form of a proenvironmental behavior during the design process. This research first presents a formal measurement of embodied VR's impact on the human-nature connection and maps this impact toward design-related proenvironmental behaviors through design ideas, i. e., tracking changes in nature-based design choices. The design study consisted of three groups of engineering undergraduate students which were given a case study and plan review: a VR group embodying a bird (n=35), a self-lens VR group (n=34), and a control group (n=33). The case study was about a federal mandate to minimize combined sewer overflow in a neighborhood within Cincinnati, OH. Following the plan review, VR groups were given a VR walkthrough or flythrough of the case study area of interest as a selected avatar (embodied:bird, self-lens:oneself). Participants were tested for their connectedness to nature and a mock-design charrette was held to measure engineering design ideas. Verbal protocol analysis was followed, instructing participants to think aloud. Design ideation sessions were recorded and manually transcribed. The results of the study indicated that embodiment impacts the human-nature connection based on participants' perceived connection to nature. Only the bird group witnessed an increase in connectedness to nature, whereas the self-lens and control groups did not report any change. This change in connectedness to nature was also confirmed by engineering design ideas. The bird group was more likely to ideate green-thinking designs to solve the stormwater issue and benefit both nature and socioeconomic conditions, whereas the control group mostly discussed gray designs as the catalyst for minimizing combined sewer overflows. The self-lens group also mentioned green design ideas as well as socioeconomic change, but mostly placed the beneficiary of the design toward people rather than nature in the bird group. The mode of analysis for these findings was driven by thematic content analysis, an exploration of design space as a function of semantic distance, and large language models (LLMs) to synthesize design ideas and themes. An LLM's performance lent accuracy to the design ideas in comparison to thematic content analysis, but struggled to cross-compare groups to provide generalizable findings. This research is intended to benefit the engineering design process with a) the benefit of perspective-taking on design ideas based on lenses of embodied VR and b) various methods to supplement thematic content analysis for coding design ideas. / Doctor of Philosophy / The use of nature in the constructed world, such as rain gardens and natural streams for moving stormwater, is underused during the design process. Virtual reality (VR) programs, like embodiment, have the potential to increase the incorporation of nature and nature-based elements during design. Embodiment is the process of taking on the vantage point of another being or avatar, such as a bird, fish, insect, or other being, in order to see and move as the avatar does. Embodied VR increases the likelihood that the VR participant will act favorably to the subject, specifically when the natural environment is involved. For example, embodying another individual cutting down trees in a virtual forest increased the likelihood that individuals would act favorably to the environment, such as through recycling or conserving energy (Ahn and Bailenson, 2012). Ultimately, this research measures the level of connection participants feel with the environment after an embodied VR experience and motions to discover if this change in connection to nature impacts how participants might design a solution to a problem. This design experiment is based on a case study, which all participants were provided alongside supplemental plan documents of the case. The case study used is about stormwater issues and overflows from infrastructure in a neighborhood in Cincinnati, OH, where key decision-makers were mandated by the federal government to minimize the overflows. The bird group (a bird avatar) performed a fly-through in the area of interest in VR, whereas the self-lens group (first-person, embodying oneself) walked through the same area. The control group received no VR intervention. Following the intervention, participants were asked to re-design the neighborhood and orate their recorded solution. Then, participants were required to score a questionnaire measuring their connectedness to nature. The results show that when people experience the space as a bird in virtual reality, they felt more connected to nature and also included more ideas related to nature in their design. More specifically, ideas involving green infrastructure (using nature-based elements, e.g., rain gardens and streams) and socioeconomic benefits were brought up by the bird group. This research presents embodiment as a tool that can change how engineers design. As stormwater policy has called for more use of green infrastructure (notably, through the Environmental Protection Agency), embodiment may be used during the design process to meet this call from governmental programs. Furthermore, this research impacts how embodiment's effects on design can be interpreted, specifically through quantitative methods through natural language processing and the use of large language models to analyze data and report back on design-related findings. This research is intended to benefit the design process with a) using different avatars in embodiment to impact design ideas and b) a comparison of thematic content analysis and large language models in summarizing design ideas and themes.

No description available.