Environmental Planning

Urban planning is often referred to as the ordering and design of human settlements. Accordingly, environmental planning then becomes the consideration and analysis of how existing and proposed human settlements affect ecosystems, with subsequent assessment of the extent to which these impacts can be avoided and/or mitigated now or in the future. As our awareness of human impacts on the environment continues to expand, the practice of environmental planning will continue to take on new importance because it provides an important conduit for scientific knowledge to inform policy development and ultimately potentially change human decision making and behavior, leading to better environmental outcomes. While environmental planning is complementary to the study of environmental geography, it differs from the latter and efforts to respond to sustainable ...