College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1598
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item Spreading the Seeds of a Solidarity Landscape: Co-creating a Biophilic Landscape and Training Curriculum in Northern Italy(2024) Christensen, Mary Elizabeth; Ruggeri, Deni; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A wealth of research explores the link between biophilia, access to nature, health, well-being, and quality of life (Wilson, 1984; Kellert, 1997; Louv, 2008; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Cooper Marcus & Sachs, 2013). Drawing on this body of research, nature-based interventions employed by social work professionals promote positive connections to nature and improve health and well-being for vulnerable populations (Obeng et al., 2023; Overbey et al., 2021). This thesis explores a participatory action research project using the case study of Villaggio Solidale, a charitable co-housing community in Northern Italy. Following the use of participatory methods, including co-creation, listening, observation, and prototyping, researchers are co-designing a Solidarity Landscape and co-creating a training curriculum with community social workers and educators to integrate nature-based interventions, biophilia, and well-being into the larger ecosystem surrounding Villaggio Solidale, ensuring that the landscape will become a central tool to support community solidarity, health, and well-being.Item SOUND OF THE CITY: Creating a balanced sound composition in urban green spaces(2021) Gray, Lauren Reed; Sullivan, Jack; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Sounds in the landscape are an important, and an often-ignored aspect of the human experience. In urban landscapes, the sounds in the landscape create a symphony. Combining the beloved sounds of nature and humans, with the often less desirable, but no less important sounds of traffic and sirens. This thesis aims to put that symphony of sounds and its relationship to the landscape under the microscope. By first looking into the theories of composers John Cage and R. Murray Schafer, and then applying those theories to the soundscape and landscape, the exploration and examination of the conscious, subconscious, beautiful, and necessary, as it pertains to soundscape and landscape design, will be revealed.Item WALK ALONG THE RIVER: COMMUNITY DESIGN PROCESS FOR THE NORTON RIVERWALK(2017) Reilly, Charles Dylan; Ellis, Christopher D; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The City of Norton, nestled in Southwest Virginia’s coal country, has a proposed 2-mile Riverwalk running along the Guest River and connecting to an existing Safe Routes to School sidewalk. The designer employed informal interviews, a design charrette, and formal presentations during the summer of 2016 to better understand the challenges and opportunities for the Riverwalk. Design ideas from the community engagement process were triangulated and compared against the site analysis, to better understand which ideas had the most support and were feasible. The resulting design from this process focused on improving pedestrian connectivity; improving quality of life for residents and attracting visitors; and telling Norton’s history, from towering chestnuts to coal mining. The community engagement process reached about 145 people and produced media buzz for the project with four front-page articles in local and regional newspapers. The charrette brought residents from diverse perspectives to the design table.