Landscape Architecture: LArch 590 MLA Thesis Seminar

Subject Guide for Landscape Architecture Students.

Possible Topics

Possible Thesis Topics

There are some basic starting points for all research topics and these would include:

UW LIbraries Catalog (books, journals and dissertations/theses within the Orbis/Cascade system)
Worldcat (Worldcat provides the fullest list of books on any given topic)
Google Scholar (Has citation count numbers)
Academic Search Complete
Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global
Municipal Resource Services Center (MRSC) Research Tools

Urban Water Recycling and Stormwater Capture and Use
- Connected disciplines: environmental science, fisheries, civil engineering
- DBs: Agricultural and Environmental Science DB; Web of Science; ASCE Database; Earth, Aquatic and Atmospheric Science Database;
- Local web sties from city, county and state governments
- MRSC
Green Stormwater Infrastructure, including Seattle Public Utilities’ Efforts
- Connected disciplines: environmental science, fisheries, civil engineering, political science
- Websites: City of Seattle Green Stormwater Infrastructure in Seattle Implementation Strategy 2015-2020;
- DBs: Agricultural and Environmental Science DB; Web of Science; ASCE Database; Earth, Aquatic and Atmospheric Science Database; Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS),
Climate Change and Design for Resilience
- Connected Disciplines
- Seattle
  - Connected disciplines: civil engineering, atmospheric science, botany, animal biology
  - Websites: Seattle city government plans on resilience, new seawall, tunnel, health of Elliott Bay (Salish Sea); Puget Sound Regional Council; King County
- Drought/Flood
  - Connected disciplines: civil engineering, atmospheric science, resilience studies (urban planning)
- Seattle’s Harbor Island as Potential Remediation Site
  - Connected disciplines: local history, biochemistry, pollution studies, Gas Works as model, civil engineering
  - Local newspapers: Seattle Times, Seattle Star, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  - DBs: America History and Life, Agricultural and Environmental Science DB;
  - Books: Matthew Klingle, Native Seattle;
  - Archival information: Seattle Municipal Archives, UW Special Collections, Seattle Public Library Ferguson Room
Urban Trees in the Context of Climate Change
- Connected disciplines: botany, biochemistry, atmospheric science studies (climate change)
- DBs: Treesearch (USDA); Agricola (USDA);
Place Identity/Connection in the Context of Sea-Level Rise
- Connected disciplines: environmental psychology, botany,
- Books: Christian Norberg-Schultz, Genius Loci; Jennifer Demitor, Revealing the Essence of Place; Ian Simkins and Kevin Thwaites, Experiential Landscape: An Approach to People, Place, and Space; Kevin Lynch, Image of the City; Laurie Olin et al., Placemaking; Michael Van Valkenburg Associates, Reconstructing Urban Landscapes; Native Seattle
- DBs: PsycInfo
Bicycle Path Networks for Bellevue
- Connected disciplines: Transportation studies,
- Websites: City of Belleuve sites, King County sites: King County Bike Map, Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) sites
- DBs: Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals; Trid
Effectively Communicating/Teaching about Ecological Design
- DBs: Education Resource Information Clearinghouse (ERIC), Education Source, PsycInfo
- Books on current teaching strategies
- Articles: Daniel Capps, Barbara Crawford, Journal of Science Teacher Education, Inquiry-Based Instruction and Teaching about Nature of Science: Are They Happening?
Giving Voice to Immigrant Groups in Public Spaces
- Connected disciplines: immigrant studies, law, political science, environmental justice
- DBs: Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS); Search under ejournals kw: "immigration"
- Books: Liza Nell, Jan Rath, Ethnic Amsterdam: Immigrants and Urban Change in the Twentieth Century; Rachel Buff, Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of Citizenship;
Food Politics
- Connected disciplines: Agriculture, agribusiness, political science, ethnic studies, American history
- DBs: Google Scholar: J. Guthman, Geoforum, "Neoliberalism and the making of food politics in California;" J. Clapp, Journal of Peasant Studies, "Financialization, Distance and Global Food Politics,"
- Books: Enrique C. Ochoa, Political Histories of Food; Michael S. Carolan, Embodied Food Politics; Marion Nestle, Food politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health;
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Local Landscape Construction Materials
- Connected disciplines: materials science, economics, construction management
- DBs: ASCE Database, Avery index to Architectural Periodicals,
- Websties: Sites focused on green landscape topics
Integrating Landscape and Architecture
- Connected disciplines: environmental psychology, architecture, urban planning
- DBs: Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals; PscyInfo
- Open Web Links and Journals: Council of Educations in Landscape Architecture (CELA), American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), American Institute of Architects (AIA), Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)
Values of Sustainable Landscape Design in Commercial Real Estate Development
- Connected disciplines: real estate, economics, urban planning, housing, architecture
- DBs: EconLit, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
- Ejournals: Urban Planning
- Websites: green development, sustainable development; Urban Land Institute (ULI)
- Talk with faculty in UW Dept of Real Estate
“Urban Nature” as Concept and Potential for Green Infrastructure
- Connected disciplines: urban ecology,
- DBs: Agricultural and Environmental DB, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals,
How to Effectively Get Citizen Feedback on Urban Design, and How This May Affect Design
- Connected disciplines: political science, sociology, psychology, education
- DBs: ERIC, Education Source, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts
How Urban Preschools May Connect Children with Nature, Learning from Forest Preschools
- Connected disciplines: Education,
- DBs: ERIC, Education Source
- Journals: Journal of Science Teacher Education