Ecological Landscape Planning 

Ecological Landscape Planning advocates the study of the biophysical and sociocultural systems of a place to determine optimal land use patterns. The approach strives for an understanding of the many and complex relationships that influence communities within the context of a bioregion. 

Links

Center for Urban and Regional Ecology, a joint project of a number of Georgia universities, is an integrated multidisciplinary team committed to research, education, and service endeavors that explore and promote options for sustainable human health and prosperity while improving air, water, land use, and biodiversity at the scale of regional ecosystems in which cities are embedded.

Society for Ecological Restoration International is a non-profit organization of individuals and organizations actively engaged in ecologically-sensitive repair and management of ecosystems. The Society seeks to promote ecological restoration as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth and reestablishing an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture.

Urban Ecology Institute, a non-profit organization with offices at the Boston College Law School, promotes the health of urban ecosystems through research, education, and advocacy. Their Natural Cities Program is conducting an inventory of the urban ecosystem surrounding Boston.

Urban Ecology Research Laboratory, at the University of Washington, is studying the impact of urban development patterns on ecological conditions in the Greater Seattle Area, and how patterns of urban development (urban form) alter ecological conditions (species composition) through physical changes.

International Association of Landscape Ecology, United States Chapter, is an organization focusing on the intersection of related disciplines including conservation biology, ecology, geography, landscape architecture, and planning.

Online Articles

Natural Cities: Urban Ecology and the Restoration of Urban Ecosystems, a 2002 working paper from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Ecological Society of America offers its Issues in Ecology publications online in text format, including Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems. Journal articles on the subject, such as "Ecological Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land," are also available. In addition, the ESA publication Ecological Principles for Managing Land Use is made available online by EPA.

Publications 

Design with Nature, by Ian McHarg, Wiley, 1995. 
A seminal book introducing the foundation of the ecological landscape planning method. 

Design for Human Ecosystems: Landscape, Land Use and Natural Resources, Van Nostrand Rheinhold Company, Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-442-25943-3. 
Describes the "principles, methods, and techniques for shaping landscape, land use, and natural resources in ways that can make human ecosystems function in the sustainable ways of natural ecosystems."

Futures By Design: The Practice of Ecological Landscape Planning, New Society Publishers, 1994. ISBN 0-86571-298-0 
An anthology covering the history and theory of ecological landscape planning.

Landscape Ecology Principles In Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning, Island Press , 1996, ISBN 1-55963-514-2. 
A concise handbook that lists and illustrates key principles in the ecological landscape planning and presents specific examples of applications. 

Landscape and Urban Planning: An International Journal of Landscape Ecology, Landscape Planning, and Landscape Design, Elsevier, ISSN 0169-2046. 
A journal concerned with conceptual, scientific, and design approaches to land use. Presents issues dealing with ecological processes and interactions within urban areas, and between these areas and the surrounding natural systems which support them.

The Living Landscape: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000, ISBN 0070793980
This revised second edition covers techniques of ecologically sound landscape design.