Robert Ryan, FASLA

PhD in Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, 1997

MLA and MUP, University of Michigan, 1995

BSLA, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, 1985

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Professor Ryan, FASLA, PhD is a professor of landscape architecture and regional planning at UMass Amherst. His courses have an interdisciplinary framework integrating landscape architects, planners, and allied professionals in order to give students the skills to deal with the increasingly complex interdisciplinary environmental problems. His course, People and the Environment, shows students from a variety of disciplines how to apply environmental and behavioral research to design and planning. He also teaches a sustainable green infrastructure seminar that has an emphasis on climate change adaptation.

Professor Ryan's research addresses the question: What motivates people to become engaged in sustainable landscape design, planning, and management practices that benefit the environment, and how does that affect their attitudes and behaviors in the landscape? His studies on urban parks, rural and suburban landscapes, and national forests have shown that people’s connection to nearby nature or landscape (i.e, place attachment) is critical to developing better land stewardship. A key part of this work has been to understand the landscape patterns that are both ecologically beneficial, as well as perceived as beautiful by local residents. Additionally, Professor Ryan's research has shown that place attachment can promote connections between local residents and urban parks, particularly those undergoing ecological restoration. His research focuses on visual resource management, greenway and green infrastructure planning, and sustainable site design.

Most recently, Robert Ryan's research focuses on using urban green space to ameliorate the challenges facing inner city residents in cities. He has also studied local residents' attitudes toward landscape water conservation and stormwater management practices in the Ipswich River Watershed.

Robert Ryan recently served as the Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass Amherst. He is also a committee member for the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning, which celebrated its 8th proceedings on April 11-13, 2025. 

Professor Ryan is the co-editor (with Elisabeth Infield and Yaser Abunnasr) of Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities,  (2019, Routledge Press).  He is also the co-author of the award-winning book, With People in Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature, with environmental psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan. He is also an author of a book chapter in the Sustainable Sites Handbook (edited by Meg Calkins). He serves on the Editorial Board of the international journal, Landscape and Urban Planning, and was a technical advisor to the ASLA’s Sustainable Sites Initiative Human Health and Well-being Technical sub-committee. 

• (2023) Fellow, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture
• (2013) Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects

• (2024-2028) Massachusetts Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (MA Experiment Station), Project: "Understanding the Urban Tree Canopy in Residential Neighborhoods: Planning for Resilience." Principal investigator: Robert Ryan; Co-principal investigators: Theodore Eisenman
• (2021-present) ReDirect, Project: "Applying the SEE Framework to Landscape Architecture Design." Principal investigator: Robert Ryan

• REGIONPL / LANDARCH 587: People and the Environment: Applications of Environmental Psychology Research to Planning and Design
• LANDARCH 591I: Sustaining Green Infrastructure Planning and Design

Books

• Infield, E.Y., Abunnasr, Y., and Ryan, R.L., eds. (2018). Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities. New York: Routledge Press.

Book Chapters

• Ryan, R.L. and Buxton, J. (2015). "Applying RPM to urban greening projects: Insights from the inner city." In Kaplan, R. and Basu, A. (Eds.), Fostering reasonableness: Supportive environments for bringing out our best. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing (Maize Books). pp. 176-193.

Refereed Journal Articles

• Ryan, R.L. (2023). Research in Landscape Architecture Design Firms: Lessons from Practice. Landscape Journal, 42 (2):129-144.
• Warren, P. S.; Ryan, R.L.; Bushouse, B.K.; Harper, K.; and Stinson, K. (2023). Sustaining urban forests in post-industrial cities: Place attachment, ecology, and stewardship potential. Cities and the Environment (CATE): Vol. 16: Iss. 2, Article 4.
• Salvador Costa, M. J., Melo, P., Azeiteiro, U., Carvalho, S., and Ryan, R.L. (2023). Nursing interventions to reduce health risks from climate change impact in urban areas: A scoping review protocol. Nursing Reports, 13(1), 496-505.
• Ryan, R.L. (2022). Julius Gyula Fábos memorial: A passion for landscape planning and greenways. Socio-Ecological Practice Research 4(3):267–272.
• Lu, H. and Ryan, R.L. (2022). The influence of policy design on club good provisions: A study of for-profit shopping mall roof gardens in Shanghai. Land Use Policy, 121 (2022), 1063430.

• Kupec, A. (2024, August 30). UMass Amherst Researchers Map Chicopee’s Urban Forest: Five-year study will catalog and analyze treescape in seven neighborhoods. Inside UMass.