Septic Tank Options & Alternatives by Feidhlim Harty is a user-friendly guide through the maze of selecting an eco-friendly sewage treatment option for your home. With so many different treatment systems and technologies available, it can be a challenge to make the choice that really reflects your values and priorities. This book lists conventional and alternative sewage treatment systems and outlines the pros and cons of each in a straightforward and non-technical way. Septic Tank Options covers The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved systems, plus innovative sustainable solutions, and also proposes alternatives where site and soil conditions are suboptimal. This book is a must for anyone worried about how well their current system is working, for people undergoing inspections, or for those who know they need an upgrade but don't know where to start. It is an invaluable guide for architects and engineers who are guiding clients through the options available, and gives treatment options that may be less costly, less energy intensive and more eco-friendly than an inspector may propose. It covers: Initial check - assessing your current treatment situation, Making good - examining the potential for repairs and improvements, Taking stock - looking at your site characteristics, priorities and personal preferences, Options available - different treatment systems explained, Putting it into action - planning, implementation and maintenance. If you want to be proactive about getting your system working and make sure you have as eco-friendly and cost effective option as you can, then this holistic overview is the book to read.

Explanations for what makes one landscape scene preferred over another - formalistic, cultural and ecological - continue to be generated by landscape architects and land managers, philosophers and psychologists.This is needed for planning in the countryside and the protection of natural scenery, yet agreement still eludes us. This book does not favour any particular theory, but critiques the many theories seen over the last half-century. It informs readers of the main lines of argument so that they can make up their own minds. Part one, on post-war aesthetics, examines ideas about the unconscious, holism, overarching 'metanarratives', and the search for objectivity. Part two describes the consequences on the 'cultural turn' in that period, giving rise to new theories taking the human as reference. Cultural geography, cultural landscapes, changes in methods of assessment and some new ideas on landscape design are set in this context. Ecocentrism proposed a very different approach. The final part looks into the philosophical input, expanding upon 'environmental aesthetics'. It concludes with a more down-to-earth analysis of 'satisfactions' from immediate formal qualities, the sublime, meanings, and beauty. The balanced, didactic approach taken will make this a standard text for all those in teaching and in landscape practice.