The environmental field has evolved in the past century from a popular and political movement to a profession demanding analytical and decision-making skills to solve specific problems or cases often of global and catastrophic proportions. These skills focus on how to assess the impact of human activity on the natural environment and the ability to design policies and plans to manage the human/environment interface effectively and equitably. Urban areas pose particularly unique challenges, where scientific, legal, administrative and political factors converge in unusual ways to shape policies and plans for urban area environments. This course provides students with skills to support planning, policy and management choices about the use and protection of environmental resources in urban areas. These skills are first presented in the context of unique cases to balance environmental conditions with societal needs and priorities. Major substantive environmental areas are then covered to develop expertise in water management, environmentally sensitive natural resources (ecosystems), solid and hazardous wastes, and air quality. Global and trans-national problems, such as global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain, and other cross-cutting themes, including energy, sustainability and security are key overarching areas of emphasis.
|Fall 2011||Carlos Restrepo||Syllabus|
|Spring 2010||Rae Zimmerman||Syllabus|
|Fall 2008||Rae Zimmerman||Syllabus|