Environmental planning is a field of study that since the 1970s has been concerned with a given society's collective stewardship over its resources that ultimately includes those of the entire planet. The aim of environmental planning is to integrate the public sector urban planning with the concerns of environmentalism to ensure sustainable development, notably of air, water, soil and rock resources. 

Planning seeks to include into consideration for future growth of society factors other than those urban planners have traditionally factored in economic development, such as transportation, sanitation, and other services in legislator decisions, by working with environmental planners to add sustainable (social, ecological & equity) outcomes as important factors in the decision-making process.

ELEMENTS:

What exactly constitutes the "environment", however, is somewhat open to debate among these practitioners, as is the exact scope of the intended environmental benefits. Chief concerns among environmental planners include the encouragement of sustainable development, equity, justice, green technologies, and the preservation of environmentally sensitive areas.

The primary concern of environmental planning is expressed in the assessment of three spheres of environmental impact by human economic activity and technological output:

  Biophysical environment

  Socio-economic environment

  Built environment

The environmental planning assessments encompass areas such as land use, socio-economics, transportation, economic and housing characteristics, air pollution, noise pollution, the wetlands, habitat of the endangered species, flood zones susceptibility, coastal zones erosion, and visual studies among others, and is referred to as an Integrated environmental planning assessment

An objective view of the environmental planning process is often framed in perspectives offered by the integration of assessments of the natural resources, the environment as a system, the scientific perspective, and the social scientific perspective.

Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1940s has made the concept more explicit.

Environmental design can also refer to the applied arts and sciences dealing with creating the human-designed environment. These fields include architecture, city (or urban planning), landscape architecture, and interior design. Environmental design can also encompass interdisciplinary areas such as historical preservation and lighting design.

In terms of a larger scope, environmental design has implications for the industrial design of products: innovative automobiles, wind-electricity generators, solar-electric equipment, and other kinds of equipment could serve as examples. Currently, the term has expanded to apply to ecological and sustainability issues.

HISTORY:

The first traceable concepts of environmental designs focused primarily on solar heating, which began in Ancient Greece around 500 BCE. At the time, most of Greece had exhausted its supply of wood for fuel, leading architects to design houses that would capture the solar energy of the sun. The Greeks understood that the position of the sun varies throughout the year. For latitude of 40 degrees in summer the sun is high in the south, at an angle of 70 degrees at the zenith, while in winter, the sun travels a lower trajectory, with a zenith of 26 degrees.

Greek houses were built with south-facing façades which received little to no sun in the summer but would receive full sun in the winter, warming the house. Additionally, the southern orientation also protected the house from the colder northern winds. This clever arrangement of buildings influenced the use of the grid pattern of ancient cities. With the North-South orientation of the houses, the streets of Greek cities mainly ran East-West.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_planning