The research embraces many disciplines, including history, civil engineering, ecology, environmental planning, urban design, and landscape architecture. The work explores the convergence of two seemingly dissonant theses:

• that technically demanding engineering and ecological problems can be opportunities for making creative, engaging landscapes

• that technical issues, if they are to be of value to a community, must be framed as cultural issues.

The products of Kathy Poole's water research include a range of "tools": theoretical papers, hypothetical designs, and explorations in the representation of Wet Lands. The primary intention of this work is to provide tools for design professionals and for ordinary citizens--for creating landscapes that are ecologically positive and positively engaging of our imaginations.