Ervin H. Zube

The Development of Perceived Environmental Quality Indices

The assessment of environmental quality can serve many useful purposes, by (1) clarifying the goals of environmental policy, (2) judging the effectiveness of environmental protection programs, (3) gauging the environmental impacts of proposed public and private projects, and (4) communicating trends in environmental quality to public officials, citizens, and decision-makers. For example, federal, state, and local governments have formulated environmental protection programs which may involve the commitment of billions of dollars; objective, quantitative procedures and indices for assessing environmental quality can be used to monitor the effectiveness of programs and assure a systematic form of accountability. As a recent Library of Congress report on environmental quality assessment observes: “The concept of environmental indices is not a product of academic whim; it evolved from a recognized need by policy makers” (Library of Congress, 1973, p. 2).

Perception of Landscape and Land Use

Air, water, fire, and earth were declared by Aristotle to be the four essential elements of life. Recent history has clearly demonstrated the significance of his declaration. As public awareness developed that all was not well with our environment, and as supporting evidence accumulated during the past two decades, attention was focused initially on the first two of these classically defined elements, air and water. Relationships between air and water quality and public health and safety were defined and, where possible, quantified and steps were taken to establish standards that were deemed to be consonant with desired and acceptable health and safety conditions. These standards, promulgated primarily through the legislative process, were based both on professional judgments and empirical data. The standards were defined in terms of physical parameters of the elements such as parts-per-million, units of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), or units of discharge per unit of time.

Summary and Research Strategies

Review of the three research workshops reveals the recurrence of themes and issues across the environmental domains, but also important matters addressed in one area and neglected in others. For example, Table I represents estimates of the current state-of-the-art for research on the major issues delineated in Chapter 1, across the principal environmental domains. This summary matrix consists of best estimates of the number of studies available, based upon recent review papers by Brush, Marans, Barker, Coughlin, and Weinstein, discussed in the three research workshops, and a final consultative review session attended by participants drawn from each of the research workshops. Table I is descriptive of the present organization of research activity.

Dynamic Space: Proxemic Research and the Design of Supportive Environments

Frank Lloyd Wright once reportedly described design as “art with a purpose.” This description highlights a current view of design. Although the basis of design is aesthetics, design, unlike art, is also characterized by a responsibility to its users. Concern about this responsibility, and with the general topic of human-environment interactions, has prompted a wide variety of design professionals and behavioral scientists to participate in the multidisciplinary research area of environmental behavior. Within the span of a decade, this area has begun to acquire academic respectability as it formed professional organizations, founded journals, and produced many books and articles.