Human ecology involves the interrelationships among people, other organisms, and their environments. Human ecology emphasizes complexity and change. Geographic information systems, remote-sensing technologies, and the Internet enable a greater understanding about human–environment connections. Urban morphology and landscape ecology offer two approaches to study the structure, function, and processes of human settlements. People organize themselves spatially at various scales from the individual room within a house, office, school, or factory to the neighborhood and community on to the region, province or state, and nation. Human ecology provides a useful framework for environmental impact assessment as well as community and regional planning.

This autobiographical reflection traces my work in land suitability analysis and plan-making. The suitability practice has resulted in two rating systems: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Land Evaluation and Site Assessment System and Green Business Certification Inc.’s SITES Rating System. Plans have been made for US counties, cities, and towns; Italian provinces; regions and watersheds; and university campuses. My practice is grounded in human ecology. I have attempted to address the issues people face with an especial focus on environmental quality and social equity. Examples of work from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas in the United States as well as Italy and Mexico are noted. I explore how reflection, often with collaborators and students, has informed my practice and how it can help advance the fields of planning and landscape architecture.

Concepts about designing regionally with nature predated the emergence of the science of ecology. As Darwinian ideas about evolution and fitness spread, designers and planners began applying the expanded knowledge from biology. The Scottish town planning theorist Patrick Geddes was clear about the utility of biology in regional planning; Benton MacKaye and Ian McHarg were even more so explicit about the application of ecology. Where Geddes advanced the idea that humans can participate in our own evolution through town and regional planning, McHarg advocated the use of ecology for people to design an appropriate fit of their settlements to the landscape. MacKaye was straightforward: "Regional planning in short is applied human ecology" (1940, 351). These theoretical origins continue to evolve through bioregions, urban and landscape ecology, megaregions, and ecosystem services. Theory has resulted in practical outcomes in regional design, such as methods for ecological surveys and environmental assessment, greenways, and ecological infrastructure. Regional design—the shaping of physical form—in the Anthropocene clearly demands ecological literacy in order to heal the wounds of the past and to create more healthy communities for the future.

Show me any civilization that believes that reality exists only because man can perceive it, that the cosmos was erected to support man on its pinnacle, that man—exclusively—is divine, and then I will predict the nature of its cities and landscape; the hot dog stands, the neon shill, the ticky-tacky houses, the sterile core, the mined and ravaged countryside. This is the image of anthropocentric man. He seeks not unity with nature but conquest. Yet, unity he finds when his arrogance and ignorance are still and he lies dead under the greensward.”

This article is an overview of six lectures given at the Inaugural Tongji Advanced Lecture Series on Frontiers in Ecophronetic Practice Research. Lectures focused on the problems and current state of ecophronetic practice (i.e., use of practical wisdom) and included discussion of place-dependent actions, global ideas into local practice, the integration of systems, working with communities and the teaching of ecophronetic practice.

"Community and regional planning involve thinking ahead and formally envisioning the future for ourselves and others," according to Frederick R. Steiner. "Improved plans can lead to healthier, safer, and more beautiful places to live for us and other species. We can also plan for places that are more just and more profitable. Plans can help us not only to sustain what we value but also to transcend sustainability by creating truly regenerative communities, that is, places with the capacity to restore, renew, and revitalize their own sources of energy and materials." In Making Plans, Steiner offers a primer on the planning process through a lively, firsthand account of developing plans for the city of Austin and the University of Texas campus. As dean of the UT School of Architecture, Steiner served on planning committees that addressed the future growth of the city and the university, growth that inevitably overlapped because of UT's central location in Austin. As he walks readers through the planning processes, Steiner illustrates how large-scale planning requires setting goals and objectives, reading landscapes, determining best uses, designing options, selecting courses for moving forward, taking actions, and adjusting to changes. He also demonstrates that planning is an inherently political, sometimes messy, act, requiring the intelligence and ownership of the affected communities. Both wise and frank, Making Plans is an important philosophical and practical statement on planning by a leader in the field.