Environmental Studies

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to environmental and natural resource economics. It is assumed that students have a good grounding in basic microeconomics. Core components of the course include: environmental sustainability concepts and ethics; the welfare economic foundation of environmental economics; externalities and the design of policy instruments to address environmental problems; the economic concept of value and measurement of environmental benefits using non-market valuation methods; and optimal utilization of renewable and non-renewable natural resources. The course develops a systematic understanding of the economic rationale behind the use of environmental policy instruments, economic valuation principles, and criteria for optimal use of natural resources. Through examples, the course examines how principles of environmental and natural resource economics have been applied or are being proposed to address a range of sustainability concerns. These include sustainable management of water, sustainable use of terrestrial and marine resource and biodiversity conservation, mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its impacts, and promotion of sustainable consumption and production.   

Environmental issues pose increasingly difficult challenges to our societies. What is the nature of these challenges? Where have they come from? How have political institutions adapted to them, at the national and international levels? What further changes might be necessary to better meet them? How might these changes come about? What effects might they have on the future of politics? This course will engage these kinds of questions as an introduction to some theoretical and practical dimensions of environmental politics.

This course introduces students to field biology including the basic techniques involved, sampling design, and basic data gathering and data management. Through local field study sessions, students experience and encounter tropical environs and habitats, namely coastal, mangrove, and primary and secondary forests. The course includes a 1-week field trip to the luscious tropical island, Pulau Tioman, off East coast of Peninsular Malaysia where students experience unique tropical ecosystems such as rainforest, freshwater stream, mangroves, and the coral reefs under the guidance of experienced field biologists.

This course analyzes coastal zone management. Lectures cover waves in the ocean and calculation of properties such as wavelength from the parameters of wave period and water depth; surf zone processes and coastal groundwater: wave setup, wave run up, rip currents, and long shore currents; how the processes of saltwater intrusion into agricultural areas are generated and managed; sea level rise, the Bruun rule, and coastal sediment budgets; constitutional and legislative frameworks looking at the State of the Marine Environment Report; and evolution of integrated coastal zone management in Australia. Case studies are used to examine specific issues in Australia. The Barrier Island case study looks at geomorphic and ecological characteristics and processes, land use and development history, and contrasting approaches to management. The Venice case study examines environmental history, coastal structures, catchment impacts and management, resource exploitation, coastal subsidence, storm surge, ecological and engineering solutions, and sustainability. Students also participate in field trips to the Gold Coast and the Port of Brisbane.

This course introduces students to research at the intersection of several disciplines, using methods derived from botany, anthropology, ecology, economy, ethno-medicine, and climate and conservation science. This course studies the core concepts of ethnobotany which is followed by advanced studies of people-plant relations, focusing upon the importance of wild and domesticated plants to local livelihoods and opportunities for sustainable use of tropical natural resources. The course highlights patterns in plant use and the role that local peoples’ knowledge, institutions, and cultural perspectives can play in plant resource use, management, and conservation. It is composed of alternating lectures, exercises, and discussions, including student presentations and lectures by external specialists. Students work in interdisciplinary groups to define a common research project and plan field work.