Reddit reviews Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications

Great! For some reason, I was imagining someone who was just getting interested in those subjects when I was throwing things out. At that level, anything I can think of that you're not already familiar with would not really be 'popular reading' style books, but academic publications, and you already know how to seek those out.

I was thinking mostly about how many economics classes you may have had when I mentioned anything more technical than Natural Capitalism. I think that book would be fine for most people, I just know most Economists would dismiss it as too anecdotal, not enough statistically significant examples.

>I'm a stubborn reader, thus I can chew through most heavy pieces with ease as long as their are not overloaded with numbers and statistics.

Hmmm. I can't really think of more advanced resource economics or environmental engineering books than you've already read that aren't going to be exactly that. Or perhaps it's just that I avoid the ones that are not, as I suspect they must be too agenda driven.

For human development (I have a suspicion we're using the term "human development" differently, but) "Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up" by Jonathan Kingdon is interesting.

Oddly, I was just saying on another thread here how we use the same terms to mean different things in different fields. I think I know what you mean by "environmental engineering", in the sense that business and ecology majors may imagine it. But, in the Engineering school, it means something more like 'the wastewater treatment process and stormwater diversion and soil mechanics', and therefore those books are all about explaining the processes very specifically and walking you through the calculations necessary to design the systems. So, very equation heavy, and thus not what I generally recommend to most people who don't have to be designing one.

Have you read through, or seen the lectures of, Architect William McDonough? I'd guess you have, depending on what school you went through. But if not, you should seek those out. I'm just guessing that angle on it may be more what you're looking for than the comparatively uninteresting intro to environmental engineering textbooks I'm thinking of. Those and a bunch of landscape planning ones, like this one, which you may have already had in class.

Beak of the Finch, I guess, but that's pretty basic.

Nature's Numbers perhaps, but it needs some updating.

For self-sustainment, maybe "EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture"? I'm trying to think of ones that don't require the common structural engineering core sequence of classes as a background, and struggling.

Seeing an old Joel Achenbach article yesterday reminded me of how I used to appreciate how his, and David Quammen's, articles/writings would start out being about a particular subject, but end up touching at least a bit on the pitfalls of for- and not-for-profit organizations trying to work in these areas. That part's interesting and useful to ponder.

Speaking as an ecologist/MLA student, I'd recommend:

[Land Mosaics - The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions] (http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/life-sciences/ecology-and-conservation/land-mosaics-ecology-landscapes-and-regions#Z1soSK6SqqTFIWBR.99) by Richard Forman (more classic, approachable, design-relevant)

Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice by Turner & Gardner (more technical/scientific, quantitative, up-to-date)

Also rec'd and relevant is Marsh's Landscape Planning, basically an applied spatial/environmental planning text/manual.

Landscape ecology is basically a sub-discipline of ecology (the study of interactions among/between organisms and their environment) with a spatial, and often broad-scale focus (sq-km to 10,000s of sq-km). As /u/OneiricGeometry says, it's an academic discipline more than a professional field, but one highly relevant to work in design, planning, and environmental management.

Edit: Also highly rec Design With Nature, even if it's a bit dated, it communicates well in words, photos, and graphics, a way of thinking that is central to landscape planning and design.