College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES ON BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN REGULATION OF ANIMAL DISTRIBUTIONS, POPULATIONS, AND BEHAVIORS IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS(2024) Herrera, Daniel Joseph; Gallo, Travis; Environmental Science and Technology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Animal populations are simultaneously governed by both bottom-up (e.g., habitat availability) and top-down (e.g., predation) regulation. While ecologists historically sought to differentiate the roles of bottom-up and top-down regulation on ecosystems, the two are not so easily defined in urban ecosystems due to the immense influence humans have on ecological processes in cities. In Chapter One, I present this argument from a philosophical perspective and comment on how this philosophy has shaped my worldview. In Chapter Two, I examine the legacy of historical park planning on urban bird assemblages using archived municipal maps and historical bird data. My analysis found a positive correlation between percent park area and both species richness and functional richness of birds. Additionally, I found the effect size of park area was larger than the effect of certain life history traits thought to facilitate urban exploitation. These results indicate that landscape features and life history traits are equally responsible for the success of synurbic species. Chapter Three explores the effect of urbanization on animal behavior by analyzing anti-predator behavior of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in relation to ambient light, noise, and human activity. Despite negligible predation risk in my study area, deer expressed higher vigilance behavior in dark and noisy conditions, and increased their foraging group size during noisy conditions. These results suggest that anti-predator behaviors are a response to the perception of predation risk rather than a response to the actual presence of predators. Although predation of deer is rare in urban ecosystems, predation of smaller wildlife species by mesopredators, such as non-native domestic cats (Felis catus) is common. Chapter Four examines the potential for predation and zoonotic disease transmission between cats and eight native mammals by estimating the spatial and temporal overlap between species. I found that cat distribution was largely driven by anthropogenic features, whereas native wildlife was generally deterred by anthropogenic features and instead occupied forested areas. I also found that cats, as a species, were active on the landscape during the full 24-hour cycle. As a result, while spatial overlap between cats and wildlife varied across the study area, temporal overlap was possible anywhere cats and wildlife co-occurred. Chapter Five expands on Chapter Four and investigates predation directly by using observations of cats carrying prey documented by motion-activated cameras. I found that predation by cats was higher in areas where supplemental cat food was prevalent, but declined near forested areas. Additionally, my results indicate that cats within 250 meters of a forest edge predominantly preyed on native wildlife, whereas cats generally preyed on non-native rats (Rattus norvegicus) when greater than 250 meters from a forest edge. Each chapter provides applied recommendations to the management and conservation of urban wildlife, but together, my work demonstrates the entanglement of bottom-up, top-down, and anthropogenic forces in urban ecosystems. In light of these findings, I advocate for a more nuanced understanding of ecosystem regulation through a socio-ecological lens.Item IMPROVING TREE CANOPY COVER WITHIN SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL FRONT YARDS AND THE CASE FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TREES CASE STUDY: GALWAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT(2023) Bentley, Daniel; Myers, David DM; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Trees contribute to many social and health benefits for citizens when trees areplanted appropriately and maintained into maturity. A healthy tree canopy cover layer should be enjoyed by all residents no matter their location or income level. While many communities and organizations have developed robust tree program and provide free trees, homeowners have difficulty imagining what mature trees might look like and what the benefits of the trees would be to them. This thesis strives to develop design methods to support homeowner decision-making for tree planting . A case study focused on the selected front yards of residential homes in the Galway Elementary School walk zone will be used to document these methods. The research is focused on how to demonstrate tree placement to homeowners, tree benefits and but also bring to their attention the opportunities offered to make the process simple and rewarding for the future of their children and the neighborhood.Item Applying Green Complete Streets on Georgia Avenue NW: Redesigning an Urban Right-of-Way for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Water Quality(2023) Mejias, Aliya; Ellis, Christopher D.; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The public right-of-way (ROW) makes up nearly one-third of all the public space in cities. With the majority global population expected to reside in cities by 2050, climate change posing a significant threat to urban residents and infrastructure, impervious urban surface impacts on water quality, and knowing traffic fatalities in the US reached a 16-year high, cities must reconsider how this public good can serve people and the environment over to car-centric mobility. Using a segment of Georgia Avenue NW in Washington, DC, this thesis removes automobiles from the ROW to demonstrate how Green Complete Streets, which prioritizes sustainable transportation and urban water quality, can support urban livability on a corridor scale.Item Incorporating Complete Streets Principles into Main Streets of America’s Rural Small -Towns: A Design Case Study in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota(2021) Rausch, Matthew G; Myers, David N; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research thesis suggests that Complete Streets principles, and other related current street design principles and best practices, can complement the National Main Street Center’s design approach for use in rural small towns. The addition of these principles would strengthen the design component for the Main Street approach. Since the scope of current street design guidelines and principles are so broad, targeting the key principles of these programs, provides an appropriate level of detail to add to the Main Street design process. The resultant design proposals, using an improved design framework, could be scalable in both cost and implementation to accommodate the needs and the means of rural small towns. Sleepy Eye, Minnesota is used as a case study to demonstrate how the principles and elements of this approach can be scalable and flexible to improve a selected small-town main street. Complete Street principles and related street design best practices are a useful first step for rural small-town Main Street designs.Item DESIGNING THROUGH THE LENS OF LANDSCAPE URBANISM(2020) Espinoza, Maria J; Ellis, Christopher D; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Cities of the 21st century are impacted by uniquely modern phenomena such as sea-level rise, urban flooding, and decentralization. As environmental impacts and urban dynamics change, we are forced to view urban spaces differently than we have in the past. Landscape Urbanism developed in the early 1990s as a response to this need, turning to the landscape as a foundation for viewing, constructing, and rehabilitating urban spaces. Although Landscape Urbanism theory does provide a platform to determine what sites are ideal for development and how to design with environmental and ecological systems on a site, the abstract nature of the literature of Landscape Urbanism creates challenges in practice. This thesis combines investigation into Landscape Urbanism theory with research on the methodologies of Sustainable Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Ecological Urbanism to create a framework for the application of Landscape Urbanism to site design. This framework is then tested in the conceptual redevelopment of a former industrial site in Baltimore, Maryland.Item THE ECONOMIC EFFECT OF COMMUNITY MANAGED OPEN SPACES ON RESIDENTIAL HOUSE SALE PRICES IN THE CITY OF BALTIMORE, MD(2020) Russell, Sherry Lynn; Kweon, Byoung-Suk; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The value of open space is a fundamental issue in landscape architecture. In post-industrial cities, population decline and low land demand have led to a large amount of vacant land. A small percentage of this land is being transformed by community groups into Community Managed Open Spaces (CMOSs). This research paper investigated the effect of parks and CMOSs on residential house sale prices in Baltimore, MD using a hierarchical regression analysis after controlling for property features and neighborhood social, economic and crime information. This study found CMOSs had a positive economic effect on house sale prices, adding 2.7% to properties sold within a quarter mile. These results provide evidence to support CMOSs as an alternative path for communities and planners to manage vacant urban land and the importance of public investment in these types of spaces.Item THE CREATION, EVOLUTION , AND DEGRADATION OF THERAPEUTIC LANDSCAPE DURING THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES IN THE UNITED STATES(2017) Mabadi, Reza; Cook, Kelly Dianne; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)During the 18th and 19th centuries, planners, and medical reformists emphasized the restorative effects of natural settings in healthcare facilities. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, many hospitals campuses across the United States extensively applied therapeutic landscapes in their designs. While the architectural history of hospitals has been studied thoroughly, the gardens of healthcare institutions have not been independently investigated. In the 20th century, socio-cultural changes and modern technologies caused a degradation of therapeutic landscapes in hospitals. Today, new approaches to medicine and health necessitate a reexamination and reinvention of hospital landscapes in order to better align hospital atmospheres with modern healthcare goals. The goal of this dissertation research is to understand the transformation of hospital landscapes, their evolution and degradation within their socio-cultural context during the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States. This study will also addresses the broad concept of therapeutic landscapes and holistic approaches to using hospital gardens for restorative purposes. Therefore, this research aims to redefine the therapeutic landscape in healthcare facilities by proposing ideas to expand their socio – cultural capacities and extend their therapeutic properties beyond conventional practice. This research hypothesizes that throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States, the therapeutic landscape in hospitals was degraded, and that the reemergence of conventional landscape practices is insufficient to address the whole healing properties of hospital sites. To achieve the stated goal, this research applied a qualitative approach through a case study method. Data collection was conducted via a triangulation strategy, and included semi- structural interviews, content analysis, and an extensive literature review. In analyzing the collected data, I used thick description, spatial-comparative analysis, and content analysis integrated into a holistic framework, in order to examine both historical and modern practices. Analysis of results concluded that throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the therapeutic hospital landscapes in the United States became degraded due to the introduction of new technologies. In addition, the reemergence of conventional landscape practices, such as small healing gardens, does not fully address the restorative potential of hospital sites. Therefore, many new possibilities need to be explored and implemented.Item SHIFTING SCALES, ADJUSTING LENSES: A FRAMEWORK FOR INVESTIGATING BALTIMORE’S URBAN VACANCY(2016) Mohamed, Amina Ibrahim; Chanse, Victoria; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis addresses contemporary gaps of vacancy within literature by using qualitative and quantitative methods and tools to determine the quantity, location, and interspatial relationships of vacant buildings and lots located in Baltimore Maryland. Spatial analyses were conducted to answer three questions of vacancy: 1) how many vacant lots and buildings exist, 2) whether there are spatial patterns of vacancy, such as clustering around geographic locations or within watersheds, and 3) how to prioritize intervention opportunities that respond to the city's larger issues? Using the city’s vacant lot and building data-sets, two concepts emerged from these investigations. First, Utilized Landscapes as a classification system that identifies lands that serve a function but have un-traditional qualities that make them susceptible to being labeled “vacant.” Second, the development of Transitional Zones, geographical areas with a high density of vacant buildings or lots that should be prioritized.Item The Micro -Landscape Modular Urban Apartment Gardens(2014) Haberman, Shoshanah Zahavah; Kweon, Byoung-Suk; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis proposes affordable and adaptable modular balcony and patio gardens as a way to mitigate the increasing alienation between urban apartment renters and the land. These modules would adapt the concept of a garden to the compact reality of urban densification with an aim towards mitigation of urban stresses and improved well-being of apartment renters. Large-scale implementation would have environmental benefits, including stormwater capture and treatment, pollution control and heat island effect mitigation. This thesis design also has the potential to encourage renters, garden supply retailers, landscape professionals, architects and developers to incorporate private gardens, on a more extensive basis, into the fabric of the urban built environment.Item Healing Invisible Wounds: Landscapes for Wounded Warriors Suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)(2013) Ashmun, Sarah C.; Sullivan, Jack; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Characterized by pervasive symptoms of intrusion, numbing, and hyperarousal, coping with PTSD can be a tenacious and lifelong challenge for sufferers (Cahill and Foa 2010). Given the recent surge of war veterans resulting from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom with a high prevalence of PTSD, landscapes may provide a free and accessible means for veterans to successfully cope with their PTSD symptoms and seek treatment. The intention of this project is to merge holistic therapies for PTSD with successful landscapes for trauma patients into the creation of adaptable design principles. Guiding Principles for PTSD will be incorporated into the design of a Healing Woodland for wounded warriors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, while also providing potential solutions for other sites aiming to incorporate holistic therapies for PTSD into the landscape.