As the population of the United States increases, pressures on Park boundaries are also increasing. The buffer zones around park units are disappearing due to external encroachment, causing adverse effects to park resources. It has always been assumed that there will be a negative effect on Park resources resulting from near park development, but the effects have not been documented. This research examines the effect that near park development has on the overall quality of visitors experience at Tuzigoot National Monument. Subjects showed a preference for natural settings by consistently rating non-built development alternatives higher than residential and commercial alternatives.

In view of the pressures accompanying modern life and population growth, there is great need and importance in the preservation of historic sites, which can create balance between the past and future and strengthen the sense of stability and cultural continuity. This study critically analyzes plans for preservation and development of four of the seven colonies which were founded in Palestine in the 19th century by the German Templers who immigrated because of religious convictions. The history of the group and their contribution to the development of Palestine are described, as are the present condition of the colonies. Criteria for critical analysis of preservation plans which drawn from existing laws in the modern state of Israel, international charters, and interviews with people connected to the colonies in one way or another. The conclusions from this analysis show that only one plan fits the criteria.

As public and private groups around the country--spurred on by the deforestation of our cities--gear up for a major tree planting effort between now and the turn of the century, many planners are seeking examples of successful planting programs to give them ideas about how best to proceed. An extensive survey of 13 acknowledged successful street tree planting programs was undertaken to illuminate a shared framework for fruitful action, including organizational structure and funding strategies. Street tree programs were targeted because these trees planted in the public right-of-way are truly community trees. Both governmental and privately run programs were part of the survey. A major finding is that many cities are moving toward a partnership between private organizations and city forestry programs to fund the planting and maintenance of trees. While the surveyed programs have proved fairly adept at matching trees with existing planting sites, there is almost a complete lack of master planning of the vegetative resource and no thought given to altering prevailing modes of urban development to make more room for trees.

This dissertation constructs a political ecology of two modern irrigation communities in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. In assessing the impacts of the 1992 restructuring of Mexico's water policy, the study contributes to debates within geography about global economic integration, the transformation of the state-society relationship, the interface of ecological change with structural and political demands, and the prescription of decentralization, privatization, and free trade strategies for improving water management in developing countries. The dissertation investigates these questions: How have the restructuring of water and agricultural policy impacted local producers in irrigation districts in Sonora? How have small communal producers (e.g., ejidatarios) responded to the water reform package? An underlying assumption is that Sonoran producers in irrigation districts are among the nation's most-advantaged, given their proximity to U.S. markets, access to irrigation, technological package, and experience with commercial production. Mexico's water and agriculture policies are intended to allow the strongest, most efficient producers to become more competitive. I argue, however, that the water and agricultural reform package overall does not benefit Sonoran producers, and particularly disadvantages the ejidatario sector of farmers, due to a cost squeeze driven by rising water and input costs, retrenchment of state support, and loss of subsidies, among other factors. Most ejidatario producers have abandoned production and their water and land assets are being privatized. Despite this overall finding, some ejidatarios have found entrepreneurial ways to adapt their productive responses to the new challenges. The global-local linkages in the districts demonstrate that different free trade agreements can have distinct impacts on producers of different crops and transnational companies can pose challenges to water-strapped local communities. The prolonged drought has contributed to a water shortage that limits profitability of agriculture. The state's promotion of water consumptive, export crops is at odds with the demands of nature that dictate less intensive agriculture in arid regions like Sonora, with implications for the sustainability of commercial agriculture. A concept of water as a social good---rather than a purely economic good---needs to be resuscitated in order to satisfy the rural development needs of Mexico's ejidatario producers.

Through the historical analysis of a public housing project built in Greenbelt, Maryland in 1937, this dissertation investigates how federal housing policies attempted to impose middle-class gender roles and relations on members of the working-class as a central means to alleviate class tensions heightened during the Great Depression. Informed by recent developments in Women's History and the Social History of Architecture, this project examines how attempts to rehabilitate working-class families and communities necessitated removing them from cities and imposing paradigmatic gender norms. A new form of housing and town-planning became a critical means to achieve these ends. This federal housing project in Greenbelt has long been celebrated as the first successful example of federal support for progressive urban planning. The planners of Greenbelt drew from existing progressive ideologies that understood decentralized communities, or suburbs, as the answer to the decay and squalor of urban centers. Viewing Greenbelt solely in terms of its progressive legacy is limiting, however, unless that legacy is investigated using class, race, and gender analysis. With the planning, design, and administration of the new community in Greenbelt, New Deal planners envisioned a new form of architecture, town-planning and administration that would provide a social and physical environment conducive to the formation of viable, stable, working-class families. These planners assumed that if working-class residents adopted the gender relations that were normative in the middle-class, long term problems of poverty and social disorder would disappear. The built environment of Greenbelt, contemporary photographs, and federal administrative records provide significant evidence to study the relationship between "class rehabilitation" and gender norms. This project offers a new approach to understanding the New Deal housing policies and the construction of a domestic ideal.

This dissertation examines the spatial and public health dimensions of class relationships, social control, and state power in Mexico City during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It focuses specifically on the process of urban planning and public works that the Bourbon state undertook during the late colonial period, and considers the variety of reasons and justifications given for the projects themselves. City leaders pointed to the environmental and health benefits that would go along with improved sanitation, new drainage systems and paving of city streets, the expansion of the public water supply, the renovation of city markets, and new bathhouse regulations. Elites, however, viewed these improvements as a way to gain leverage over the plebeian classes. Elites viewed the urban poor as the root of many of the environmental problems the viceregal capital faced, and considered common practices among the popular classes, such as the indiscriminate dumping of garbage and waste, defecating and urinating in public, loitering, washing clothes and other personal items in public fountains, and public nudity as a threat to civic order and safety. Elites feared that this type of activity would also transgress into other types of disorder, namely criminal activity. These behaviors also represented to elites the uncivilized nature of the urban masses, challenging the cultural norms upon which elites based their social superiority. This "polluting" behavior also reflected badly on the state, illustrating their lack of political control over city residents, and undermining its legitimacy. In the end, the programs instituted did little to alleviate many of the environmental problems of Mexico City: the scope of programs was limited, focusing on the city center at the expense of the surrounding poorer barrios where improvements were most needed; enforcement of legislation passed to change many plebeian habits was lackluster at best; and funding for the projects was clearly insufficient.

Forty-seven sites along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park were presented to observers at the University of Arizona in one of four different presentation methodologies. The representational validity of the presentation methods for quantification of scenic beauty of locations was assessed by means of comparison among the presentation conditions. Results indicate that in heterogeneous landscapes, such as the Grand Canyon, independent ratings of individual photographs from a common location can not simply be averaged to find the overall rating of the location as a whole. In addition, when assessing the scenic beauty of locations that are constrained by a linear feature (Colorado River), the order of presentation is an important variable to consider in conjunction with the mode of presentation.

Colonia Solana neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona was designed in 1928 by landscape architect Stephen Child. The use of native plants and topography as the basis for the site plan was unusual in 1928, and also has applicability today as the basis for an ecologically sound, self-sustaining landscape. Factors influencing Tucson's early development were examined as the background of this subdivision. Thus Colonia Solana neighborhood, the last work known to have been designed by Child prior to his death in 1936, became the starting point for inqueries into the life and other works of the landscape architect. It was discovered that Stephen Child (1866-1936) was not only a landscape architect, and one of the early advocates for the use of native plants; he was also a charter member of the American City Planning Institute in 1917. His works in Boston, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Tucson were documented.

Of the many aspects which influence Third World urban systems, the historical role of large metropolitan areas as the centers of political and economic power is particularly important. In this detailed study of the evolution and development of Peru's urban system, the complex interactions among social, economic, historical, and political forces will be demonstrated as they affect urban primacy. In spite of the considerable growth of secondary cities in Peru since 1940, Lima remains the dominant city in the urban hierarchy of Peru. Nevertheless, the data presented here indicates that urban primacy in Peru peaked in 1961 and has declined since then. Although it still exists, the pattern of primacy in Peru is currently less conspicuous than in previous years. The growth of population and the expansion of economic activities in coastal cities have been particularly important in building a more balanced urban system in Peru.

There is increasing popularity for greenway projects that utilize stream and river corridors. Benefits encompass many social and environmental values. Although these corridors can accommodate multiple uses, conflicts can occur. Public education may be used to manage these conflicts. Greenway education programs are common, but the role that these programs play is not often well defined. This thesis investigates what role public environmental education is playing in greenway projects today. There are many excellent greenway education programs with good public support. Many elements of these programs are very successful, while other elements need further research and refinement. The success of today's programs are an encouraging indication of the even greater potential of future programs.