About

Charles Andrew "Andy" Cole serves as a professor and the ecologist within the Department of Landscape Architecture at Penn State. He brings ecological understanding into the curriculum to enhance students' thinking and design skills. Cole teaches courses including basic ecology, plant identification, restoration ecology, and watershed stewardship. He is involved in various studios to assist students in applying ecological principles to their designs. With a background as a wetland ecologist and wildlife biologist, his research interests focus on restoration ecology as it applies to damaged landscapes, particularly wetlands, and the creation and development of wetland ecosystems. Cole is the director of E+D: Ecology Plus Design, a landscape architecture initiative that emphasizes research-activated design, graduate education in ecologically-based design, and outreach through symposia, speakers, workshops, and publications. This initiative aims to address complex environmental problems by integrating ecologists and designers into a research and education consortium that tackles ecological issues from site to regional scales. He served as the interim head of the department from January through July 2021.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Archaeology
• Fishery
• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Geography
• Civil engineering
• Engineering
• Agronomy
• Law
• Environmental resource management
• Soil science

Selected publications

• Collective Identity: Making the Case for a Stage Model Approach to Addressing Water Quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

  Environmental Management · 2024-08-28 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The Chesapeake Bay watershed encompasses six states and the District of Columbia. Consequently, the people within it display great diversity in terms of values, allegiances, and experiences. That diversity may help to explain an apparent inability to coordinate actions aimed at redressing the dismal water quality throughout the watershed. In this paper, we bridge theory to an applied scenario to examine the importance of developing a collective identity within the watershed to bring about changes in individual behavior and policies. We present the current conditions of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, propose a stage model for the development of a collective watershed identity, outline theoretically grounded determinants of each stage, and discuss the challenges in developing a collective identity. We further suggest several guiding questions for future research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Wetland(s)

  2023-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Regenerative landscape design: an integrative framework to enhance sustainability planning

  Ecology and Society · 2023 · 19 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Environmental resource management

  Addressing contemporary environmental and social crises requires solutions-based, systems-level changes. To achieve these changes, transdisciplinary research approaches are needed to align problem framing with solution deployment at landscape scales. However, practical frameworks to guide this work are lacking. Here we propose a new framework to help bridge this gap: regenerative landscape design (RLD). We define RLD as a process for finding pattern-based solutions, emphasizing cooperative, iterative, and facilitated engagement for the co-production of locally relevant knowledge for desirable landscape stewardship. To do so, we review how key components of RLD (e.g., landscapes, design thinking, and regenerative processes) have been differentially and unevenly applied in disciplines ranging from resilience, landscape ecology, geography, architecture, agriculture, sociology, tourism, and more. We then put forward research considerations of a RLD approach to enhance social and environmental well-being. We use two emerging case studies (i.e., Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Pennsylvania, USA and Narok County, Kenya) to put forward pathways for implementation of the RLD strategy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Media Contributions to a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Collective Identity? A Tale of Three Cities

  Environmental Management · 2022 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Geography
  • Fishery
  PublisherDOI

• Media Contributions to a Chesapeake Bay Watershed Collective Identity:A Tale of Three Cities

  Research Square (Research Square) · 2022

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Geography
  • Computer Science

  Abstract Although collective action is needed to address many environmental challenges, it cannot proceed in the absence of collective identity. The current study sought to address the question of whether or not a collective identity exists among residents of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and, if so, what it might look like. The raw data were news stories drawn from local papers published in municipalities located at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River, midway down the Susquehanna, and where the river meets the bay. Computerized content analysis assessed the frequency with which the Chesapeake Bay and watershed were mentioned alongside a set of keywords thought to represent different facets of identity (e.g, agriculture, fishing, swimming ). The results showed substantial variation in frequency across time and place, but, low absolute levels of coverage of the bay and the watershed. Multidimensional scaling revealed different structures to collective identity as a function of place. These differences in content may be attributable to varying demographic and environmental characteristics. Proximity to the bay may partially explain some of these differences, but, to the extent that a collective watershed identity exists at all, it is complex and heterogeneous.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The influence of soil amendments on a native wildflower seed mix in surface mine restoration

  Restoration Ecology · 2021 · 9 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Agronomy
  • Ecology

  With a multitude of physical, biological, and chemical soil characteristics disrupted or degraded during surface mining, it is challenging to achieve proper reclamation, much less restoration, post‐mining. We sought to assess the potential of a native wildflower seed mix (NWSM) to establish and achieve high vegetative coverage in the first season using soil amendments. We also evaluated the influence of amendments on community composition and soil quality. In May 2018, we seeded a NWSM on a surface mine in experimental plots treated with either inorganic fertilizer, spent mushroom compost, or left untreated. Plant coverage and community composition within experimental plots were assessed in October 2018. Soil samples were collected at the beginning and end of the season to identify potential changes in organic carbon, nitrogen availability, bulk density, and pH. First‐season vegetation results indicate that soil amendments may not be ecologically necessary or economically sensible for initial revegetation using a NWSM. Unamended plots surpassed compost‐amended plots and equaled or surpassed fertilizer‐amended plots in coverage, species richness, and proportion of seedlings present that originated from the mix. However, results from soil analyses suggest that compost may be beneficial to meeting surface mine restoration goals by improving important soil characteristics, such as percent organic matter, labile carbon, nitrate content, and pH, that could aid ecosystem recovery. Given the high degree of heterogeneity both within and between surface mines, future work should focus on identifying initial soil characteristics that could enable land managers to meet both reclamation and restoration goals using a NWSM.

  PublisherDOI

• Deep decarbonization and renewable energy in the Appalachian Mountains (DDREAM): a socio-ecological systems approach to evaluating ecological governance

  Socio-Ecological Practice Research · 2019-08-26 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Created Ecosystems and the Concept of Succession

  Landscape Journal · 2019-01-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Ecosystems whose structure and function do not resemble those found in nature are increasingly referred to as “novel” ecosystems. The term has come to refer to ecosystems that have been fundamentally changed or altered because of human activity. This article discusses current lines of inquiry surrounding novel ecosystems, highlights some definitional problems with the phrase, and discusses how the concept of succession fits into the definition. It examines the idea of human-made sites, considers these as the most deserving of the concepts behind novelty, and suggests that we refer to created ecosystems as the only truly novel ecosystems.

  PublisherDOI

• 8. United States Wetland Regulation, Policy, and Assessment

  2019-05-07

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Assessment of a judgment‐based hydrogeomorphic wetland classification using long‐term hydrologic data

  Ecohydrology · 2016-06-16 · 10 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) wetland classifications are becoming increasingly common but lack substantial review of assumptions behind those classifications. In this paper, I compare an HGM classification of wetland sites developed by best professional judgment with a classification developed using long‐term hydrologic data over those same sites. Forty‐two wetlands, covering five HGM subclasses, were sampled for over a decade in central Pennsylvania. Using median depth to water as the metric, four groups were identified through cluster analysis (created, riparian depression/slope, and two combinations of headwater/mainstem floodplains). The groundwater‐fed sites (riparian depressions and toe‐of‐slopes) were clearly separated by their more consistent source of water, whereas other slopes and floodplain sites were less clearly defined. Long‐term assessment of hydrology generally supported an HGM classification scheme developed under less stringent conditions and produced by best professional judgment, but improvements in the assessment of drier sites are needed.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Robert P. Brooks

  Pennsylvania State University

  19 shared

• Howard Butler

  Pennsylvania State University

  9 shared

• Jessica Mangus

  Pennsylvania State University

  8 shared

• Michael R. Kemme

  8 shared

• Kenneth Krach

  Pennsylvania State University

  8 shared

• Benjamin Burns

  7 shared

• Byung Gon Kim

  Kyung Hee University

  6 shared

• Denice H. Wardrop

  Pennsylvania State University

  6 shared

Labs

• Ecology plus Design (E+D)PI