Treesearch

Man's sensory mechanisms evolved by natural selection in natural settings and humans survived as a species not so much by the "club in the hand" but by the "plan in the head." That plan or ability enabled man to remember, interpret, and predict environmental events. Humans have an innate capacity (but not necessarily a developed ability) to find most natural stimuli compatible with their psychiological makeup. Many urban people do not have the familiarity and experiences necessary for them to be comfortable in natural environments, and therefore cannot enjoy fully one of their "human...

Though the emphasis in American life is upon dramatic social change, the firmer reality is our great continuity in social behavior and institutions. For example, though many strategies of child rearing have cycled through human society, the basic problems and responsible social unit remain the same. Of necessity, children have an ordered and holistic view of nature and the urban places where they live. We, in the people-thinking trades, can learn much if we are willing to listen before we prescribe.

A multifunctional building in which residents could live, work, and entertain themselves without contact with the surrounding external urban environment is the subject of this study. To what extent do inhabitants of this structure perceive their thermal and acoustical environments within the building to be different from or similar to that outside? To what degree are discrete climatic and sound zones perceived within the structure itself? What factors account for such perceptions? Answers to these questions were provided by an analysis of the responses by 246 residents of the John Hancock...

Analysis of motives indicates that minimal consideration is given to the physical environment when urban households select from among alternative residential locations. There is a greater awareness of, and response to the economic and social conditions of the residential environment among movers. When the motivations of highly-educated white-collar professionals are correlated with their household characteristics and residency experience, few variables discriminate at all between those who view the physical environment as an important motive for relocation, and those who do not. The...

The author discusses the role of home and neighborhood in the lives of old people and explores the impact of the physical and social organization of these spaces on an old person's perception of his immediate environment and his subsequent activity patterns. Home and neighborhood reinforce an old person's sense of identity and mediate between the old person and the larger society. Information about the meaning of home and neighborhood in the lives of old people contributes to the data available to those making the decisions that affect the distribution of social and physical resources in...

Behavior patterns in parks and plazas in downtown Syracuse, New York, are discussed. After an introduction of the spaces and their principal users, fundamental concepts borrowed from ecological psychology are defined. Then using these concepts, the behavioral significance of the environment is illustrated in a comparison of two case studies. The concepts employed here are shown to allow a discussion of the important effect of environment on behavior without producing deterministic distortions.

This paper justifies and illustrates (in simplified form) a landscape planning approach to the environmental management of the metropolitan landscape. The model utilizes a computerized assessment and mapping system, which exhibits a recent advancement in computer technology that allows for greater accuracy and the weighting of different values when mapping at the regional scale. It assesses resource, hazardous, and developmentally suitable areas in order to determine the consequences of development in these areas, and to channel development to the most environmentally appropriate of these...

The author discusses the growth-inducing pressures on Nashville, Tennessee, describes the application of the Delphi technique to develop an inventory of the community's growth goals, and suggests that the development of a list of community goals is a necessary first step toward growth management.

Relationships between the characteristics of the physical environment of a metropolitan area and the activities of its human inhabitants can be used to predict probable future dynamic trends, both demographic and environmental. Using simple linear regression, we were able to highlight several dynamic features of the metropolitan area of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Computer movies of the growth of Tulsa and attendant air-pollution problems were used for showing demographic and physical features simultaneously to facilitate the information-assimilation process so critical to planning.

Chemical monitoring is the classical way of defining air quality. However, the ability of plants to reflect changes in air quality must not be overlooked because certain species respond in definite ways to gaseous pollutants. In New Jersey, chemical-monitoring data and plant-injury data have proved supportive for SO2. While oxidant concentrations seemed to agree with plant data, recent changes in monitoring procedures have made the relationship unclear. Plant data have provided the only evidence for the presence of toxic amounts of fluoride in the air and have warned of the existence of as...