Rapid changes in land use, especially in growing metropolitan areas, have created problems that increasingly indicate an urgent need for techniques and procedures for making intelligent land-use decisions. This book identifies the potential undesirable effects of land-use changes and provides techniques for estimating and minimizing them. Based on several years of research conducted by a team of thirty-four faculty and assistants, the study shows how planners and decision makers can benefit from such contemporary planning tools as remote sensing, statistical analysis, and computer technology, as well as a variety of evaluation procedures. Part 1 describes the problems of contemporary urbanization and offers a set of planning principles and tools for working with the environmental landscape. These principles and tools are the basis of the procedures detailed in Part 2; the assessment procedures, in turn, are an essential part of the two current planning approaches-the holistic, landscape approach and the parametric approach-described in Part 3.

Introduction -- The Emergence of Landscape Concern and Planning Techniques -- The Problems of Metropolitanization -- The Evolution of Landscape Planning Principles -- The Tools of Landscape Planning -- Environmental Assessment Procedures -- Assessment of Landscape Resources -- Assessment of Landscape Hazards -- Assessment of Development Suitability -- Assessment of Human Impact on the Environment -- Synthesis -- Landscape Planning Procedures