A look into established planning activities, as housing, transportation, economic development, parks and recreation, indicates that there is a missing layer of actions created exclusively from the point of view and the care of the physical environment. At the same time research exists in ethics, ecology and alternative cultural frameworks which points to a level of planning to assume responsibility for the land, a level by which beliefs, values and knowledge systems will be visibly manifest in a distinctive form of the physical environment. I will call this level the Plans for Regional Landscape Structure (PRLS). The planning process has not been revised in a way to capture the maximum possible benefits from interdisciplinary studies. While discrete restrictive provisions exist, overall the United States lacks an active strategy at the national level to conserve biodiversity and sustain healthy ecosystems. This research looks at a continuum from philosophical research in ethnomethodology, ethics, theology, to planning methods and design praxis, so that beliefs, values and knowledge systems will be visibly manifest in a distinctive form of the physical environment. The research contributes to filling the void in planning by proposing the creation of Plans for Regional Landscape Structure (PRLS). These plans are developed specifically from the point of view of the environment and for the care of the physical environment. These plans are designed to be spatially comprehensive and temporally preceding other plans for development. The PRLS is a strategy set at the national level, whose implementation would occur in a multi-scale, hierarchical, iterative process. The PRLS is a four level process that: (1) identifies key, place-determined features, (2) compares alternative networks of connections, (3) establishes a main frame to protect, and (4) evaluates the remaining, surrounding matrix for areas where future change might occur. An application of the PRLS is illustrated by a series of maps of the Six Nations Indian Reserve on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The study looks at the Six Nations Indian Reserve/Grand River Territory to develop coherent actions with respect to the territory, to repair and strengthen ecological integrity, to increase the quality of visual image and to reinforce cultural identity of the landscape
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-2082 |
| Date | 01 January 2002 |
| Creators | Canzonieri, Carmela M |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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