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Ecological design, education + outreach for a better future

Design is the means whereby we shape our environment. Merging Ecology + Design brings together ecologists and design professionals to research and develop frameworks, criteria, and strategies for planning, designing, restoring, and assessing ecologically productive landscapes.

Wetlands + Climate Change Explored

This episode of the “Growing Impact” podcast by the Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) features E+D Director Andy Cole’s research into hydrologic changes that may have occurred due to climate changes.


Read article on Penn State News | Visit Podcast Page


Vision

It is E+D’s vision to be the international center of research, outreach, and education in ecological design.


Mission

E+D’s mission is research-activated ecological design, research-informed ecological design education, and outreach that work to improve the ecological health of the built and natural environment.

This center studies the intersection of ecological science and environmental design to provide innovation and leadership in the design of our built environment to improve ecological function — a claim made frequently by engineers, architects, landscape architects, and other professionals, but rarely substantiated.

Through E+D, we develop ecologically sustainable design procedures and methods that leverage natural system processes, account for landscape history — including social histories — and provide for temporally resilient ecosystems.



Goals

E+D has three primary objectives: research-activated ecological design, education in ecologically-based design, and outreach through a variety of classes, symposia, speakers, podcasts, workshops, and publications. The need for an ecologically-based approach to design is evident in the increasingly complex environmental problems that cannot be solved with a singular philosophical approach. The world is facing a tipping point where ecosystem integrity is increasingly compromised, leaving vulnerable those very ecosystem services upon which we depend.

E+D utilizes design as an organizing principle to continue to bring together ecologists, designers, and allied professionals to address ecological issues across a broad scale, from site to region. We expect the results of our work to be of importance to landscape architects, ecologists, planners, developers, architects, land managers, engineers, public health professionals, conservationists, and anyone else that seeks to both understand and modify the landscapes where we live.

In addition, the work of E+D is of importance to our community at-large because properly functioning ecosystem services can mitigate the extremes of climate change, hazards, and disasters, while providing a healthier everyday quality of life.


Students and faculty stand around a pinup board with landscape plans on it.

Publications

E+D Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • Cui, Z., J. Dillard, J. Pinto, A. High, J. J. De La Cruz, S. Mainzer, C. A. Cole. A. Media Contributions to a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Collective Identity: A Tale of Three Cities. Environmental Management. [Accepted September 2022].
  • Flohr, T., M. Heris, and E. Derycke. 2022. An ENVI-met simulation data pipeline for evaluating urban tree patterns impacts on urban micro-climate. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture 7-2022.
  • Traub, J. (Graduate Student), and S. Mainzer. Holistic Wellness in Elementary Schoolyard Environments: An Analysis of Performance Factors in Post-2000s Literature. Children, Youth and Environments. [Submitted May 3, 2022].
  • DuRussel, L., and D. Meehan. 2021. The Tools of Engagement: A Hybrid Community Conversation Strategy to Build Public Trust. CELA Conference Proceedings (in press).
  • Horton, M., S. Zolfaghari, E. Bernabé, B. Leroux, L. Andrews, J. A. Alarcón, M. Echevarria, J. Zunt, and A. L, Seminario. 2021. An assessment of pediatric dental care and family quality of life in an informal Amazonian community. Annals of Global Health 87, no. 1: 10. DOI: 10.5334/aogh.3331
  • Stempel, P., and A. Becker. 2021. Is it Scientific? Viewer perceptions of storm surge visualizations.
    Cartographica, The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, 56(2),48. 10.3138/cart-2020-0004
  • Stempel, P., A. Becker, P. Rubinoff, and S. Fultineer. 2021. Beyond the Blue Blob, Visualizing Impacts Instead of Inundation for Public Engagement in Coastal Resilience. Digital Landscape Architecture, 6.
  • Wu, H., Y. Yang, and J. Hu. 2021. Nurturing nature in a mega-city: a decadal assessment of the Beijing Olympic Forest Park. Socio Ecol. Pract. Res 3:91–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-021-00076-5
  • Bera, A., and H. Wu. 2020. Changing Waterscapes: The Dichotomy of Development and Water Management Surrounding the Wetlands of Calcutta Since the British-Colonial Era. 2020 International Ph.D. Symposium: Divergence in Architectural Research. Atlanta, GA: Georgia Tech College of Design.
  • Cole, C. A. 2020. Created ecosystems and the concept of succession. Landscape Journal 38 (1-2):75-85.
  • DuRussel, L., and D. T. Meehan. 2020. Under The Eye: Using an Ecosystem of Digital Tools to Analyze and Solve Land Use Planning Issues. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 5-2020.
  • Flohr, T. L., H. Wu, and N. Tebyanian. 2020. A Web App for Urban Pollinator Site Assessment. Landscape Research Record No. 9, 16.
  • Rothman, S. E., C. A. Cole, M. A. Bruns, and M. Hall. 2021. The influence of soil amendments on a native wildflower seed mix in surface mine restoration. Restoration Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13440
  • Mainzer, S. P., C. A. Cole, and T. Flohr. 2019. Deep decarbonization and renewable energy in the Appalachian Mountains (DDREAM): a socio-ecological systems approach to evaluating ecological governance. Socio-Ecological Practice Research. 1, 3-4. 249-263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00030-6
  • Weaver, T., and C. A. Cole. 2019. Barriers and incentives to stream conservation: The influence of culture on buffer design and implementation. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science. 93(1):63-81.
  • Alarcón, J. O., J. A. Alarcón, and L. Andrews. 2018. Epidemiología, arquitectura paisajista, “Una Salud” e innovación: Experiencia en una comunidad amazónica, (English) Epidemiology, Landscape Architecture, “One Health” and Innovation: Experiences in an Amazonian Community, La Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. 35(4):667-74.
  • Korn, A., S. Bolton, B. Spencer, J. A. Alarcón, L. Andrews and J. Voss. 2018. Physical and Mental Health Impacts of Household Gardens in an Urban Slum in Lima, Peru. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 15(8): 1751-1762.
  • Andrews, L. and N. Rottle. 2017. Deploying Living Walls as Kinetic Facades. Journal of Living Architecture. 4(2): 17-31.
  • Mainzer, S., and A.E. Luloff. 2017. Informing environmental problems through field analysis: toward a community landscape theory of pro-environmental behavior. Community Development. 48(4):1-16.

Book Chapters

  • Andrews, L., R. Bachman, and S. P. Fernandez. 2022. Living on Water: Amphibious communities in the Amazon Rainforest. In Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim, Y. Ko and A. Taufen, eds., Chapter Editor K.Yocom. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis / Routledge, ISBN/ISSN: 9780367471149
  • Andrews, L., et al. 2022. Fog-Water Farm Park and Gardens Project. In Diseño Ecológico: estrategias para la ciudad informal y el cambio climático (Ecological Design: strategies for the informal city and climate change), J. Sordi and S. Patiño, eds. Buenos Aires: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (Inter-American Development Bank, Housing and Urban Development).

People

Faculty, staff, students, external researchers, and industry professionals work within E+D to propose innovative solutions to ecological crises.



Core Faculty Researchers


Andy Cole

Charles Andrew “Andy” Cole

Professor of Landscape Architecture and Ecology +
Director of E+D | Profile


Leann Andrews

Leann Andrews

Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture | Profile


Travis Flohr

Travis Flohr

Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture | Profile


Lisa Iulo

Lisa Iulo

Associate Professor of Architecture +
Director of the Hamer Center for Community Design | Profile


Stephen Mainzer

Stephen Mainzer

Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture | Profile


Hong Wu

Hong Wu

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture +
Director of the Stormwater Living Lab | Profile


Affiliate Researchers


Pep Aviles

Pep Avilés

Associate Professor of Architecture | Profile


Mallika Bose

Mallika Bose

Professor of Landscape Architecture +
Associate Dean for Research, Creative Activity, and Graduate Studies | Profile


Laia Celma

Laia Celma

Assistant Teaching Professor of Architecture | Profile


Mehrdad Hadighi

Mehrdad Hadighi

Professor of Architecture | Profile


Marc Miller

Marc Miller

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture | Profile


Peter Stempel

Peter Stempel

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture | Profile


A student leaning over a map on a table with a marker as community members watch.
A group of students carrying notebooks walk on a path surrounded by rows of corn.
Two researchers hold a graph in front of them to show other researchers who are gathered around them on a site visit.

Partners


Douglas Bird

Douglas Bird

Professor of Anthropology | Profile


Rachel Brennan

Rachel Brennan

Professor of Civil and Evironmental Engineering | Profile


Mary Ann Bruns

Mary Ann Victoria Bruns

Professor of Soil Microbiology and Biogeochemistry | Profile


Kenneth Davis

Kenneth Davis

Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Science | Profile


James Dillard

James Dillard

Distinguished Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences | Profile


Jonathan Duncan

Jonathan Duncan

Associate Professor of Hydrology | Profile


Paola Ferreri

C. Paola Ferreri

Associate Professor of Fisheries Management | Profile


Leland Glenna

Leland Glenna

Professor of Rural Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society | Profile


Alan Graefe

Alan Graefe

Professor of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management | Profile


Andrew High

Andrew High

Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences | Profile


Megan Hoskins

Megan Hoskins

Institute of Energy and the Environment | Profile


Jason Kaye

Jason Kaye

Distinguished Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry | Profile


Natasha Miles

Natasha Miles

Research Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science | Profile


Odette Mina

Odette Mina

Institute of Energy and the Environment | Profile


Lauren McPhillips

Lauren McPhillips

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Profile


Eric Plutzer

Eric Plutzer

Professor of Political Science | Profile


Scott Richardson

Scott Richardson

Research Professor of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science | Profile


Erica Smithwick

Erica Smithwick

Distinguished Professor of Geography and Ecology | Profile


Andrew Warner

Andrew Warner

Institute of Energy and the Environment | Profile


A close up of hands encircling a new plant sprout growing out of a mound of dirt.

Advisory Committee

Graduate Student Researchers

  • Mahsa Adib
  • Abhinandan Bera
  • Lara Garcia

External Partners

  • Stephen Apfelbaum – Applied Ecological Services
  • Chris Barnes – SCAPE
  • Kyle Beilder – Cranberry Township, PA
  • Keith Bowers – Biohabitats
  • William Braham – University of Pennsylvania
  • Meghan Hazer Álvarez – Baltimore City Department of Public Works
  • Kristina Hill – University of California, Berkeley
  • Prakash Mistry – Baltimore City Department of Public Works
  • William Mitsch – Florida Gulf Coat University
  • David Orr – Oberlin College
  • Dan Santoro – Cranberry Township, PA
  • Doug Wilcox – SUNY Brockport
  • Bo Yang – University of Arizona

Learn more about E+D

News from A&A

Stuckeman School to host open house highlighting design research

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Penn State is hosting a Research Open House on Sept. 13 from noon to 1:30 p.m. to


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NASA-funded research seeks to address vulnerability to extreme heat in cities

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new NASA-funded project will support the development of an internet-based design and planning-decision support platform that will help equitably address urban heat management at the


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Stuckeman research units to host lecture series highlighting design research

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The research units housed in the Penn State College of Architecture’s Stuckeman School – the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing (SCDC), the Hamer Center for Community


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