def load_environment(global_conf, app_conf):
    """Configure the Pylons environment via the ``pylons.config``
    object
    """
    # Pylons paths
    root = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
    paths = dict(root=root,
                 controllers=os.path.join(root, 'controllers'),
                 static_files=os.path.join(root, 'public'),
                 templates=[os.path.join(root, 'templates')])

    # Initialize config with the basic options
    config.init_app(global_conf, app_conf, package='studio', paths=paths)

    # Defines custom config parameters
    config['resources_dir'] = os.path.join(root, 'resources')
    # path to mapserver dir containing default fonts and symbols
    config['mapserver_dir'] = os.path.join(config['resources_dir'], 'mapserver')
    # path to default directory datastore
    config['default_datastore_dir'] = os.path.join(config['resources_dir'], 'default_datastore')
    # path to the template including the <script> tags
    config['js_tmpl'] = os.path.join(paths['templates'][0], 'index.html')

    # Convert the debug variable from the config to a boolean value
    config['debug'] = asbool(config['debug'])

    config['routes.map'] = make_map()
    config['pylons.app_globals'] = app_globals.Globals()
    config['pylons.h'] = studio.lib.helpers

    # Create the Mako TemplateLookup, with the default auto-escaping
    config['pylons.app_globals'].mako_lookup = TemplateLookup(
        directories=paths['templates'],
        error_handler=handle_mako_error,
        module_directory=os.path.join(app_conf['cache_dir'], 'templates'),
        input_encoding='utf-8', output_encoding='utf-8',
        imports=['from webhelpers.html import escape'],
        default_filters=['escape'])
    
    # Setup SQLAlchemy database engine
    engine = engine_from_config(config, 'sqlalchemy.')
    init_model(engine)