Environmental Studies

This course focuses on our environment(s), which function as public goods in providing benefits but can, as common pool goods, be affected by the positive or negative externalities resulting from private behavior. Although `‘the environment'' is often defined as nature (e.g., land, water, air), it is more broadly defined to include the shared spaces (e.g., markets, classrooms, websites, electromagnetic spectrum) that nobody owns but everyone gains from. The course explores the value of environments, discusses how actions produce positive and negative impacts on environments, evaluates the magnitude of those impacts, and discusses different theories for managing and methods of protecting environments in the traditions of Pigou, Coase, and Ostrom. A knowledge of microeconomics is useful but not essential to this class (basic concepts will be reviewed and taught). Among other ideas, the course discusses assessing the incentives for behaviors and distribution of costs and benefits from policies (e.g., polluter pays, discounting, and mis-matched political-economic jurisdictions) as well as how aggregated environmental impacts and policies alter the market landscape within and among countries (e.g., pollution havens, and intergenerational equity, and environmental Kuznets curve). Students apply these ideas to a course paper on the topic of their choice that uses a cost-benefit analysis of market and non-market values to explore the existing distribution of costs and benefits as well as policy proposals that might move the distribution (and overall impact) of those polices closer to sustainability.

This is an undergraduate-level course, suitable for students without any background in marine geology and geophysics. The course covers geological processes across scales, spanning plate tectonics, marine sediment types, formation and process, as well as paleoceanography. Some of the topics covered are across disciplines, such as sediment type (chemistry) and benthic bioturbation (biology), with emphasis on the link between different branches of oceanography.  

This course explores the principles, problems, and methods of sustainability. After a critical historical introduction, the course studies what the natural sciences tell us about processes and cycles on our planet from a systems point of view. Ecology, the end of fossil fuels, alternative energy sources, environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity, and climate change are reviewed. Besides relevant facts, the sciences also provide interpretive theories with important, but often uncertain, implications for the future. The course then moves into environmental ethics and a critical analysis of the relationship of humans to nature. Having heard the facts and discussed values, the course turns to the social, economic, and political aspects of sustainability, and considers the clash between competing interests and different cultures. Possible solutions to such problems are explored, including environmental economics. The relevant agents, government, NGOs, or grass-roots groups are discussed. Finally, the course integrates the different approaches and points of view in an attempt to arrive at policy recommendations. Preferred prerequisites include a course on Earth Studies or Physics.

Note: Was previously code UCINTSUS21 Sustainability. You cannot take both courses; they are the same.

This course discusses agricultural water resource planning issues and related subjects. The course covers agricultural water usage, irrigation water usage estimation, irrigation methods, irrigation regulation, irrigation management; agricultural water supply (source, pump, water rights, effective rainfall); water shortage risk analysis and planning assessment. Other topics include relationship between water, soil, and crops; effective rainfall, irrigation system configuration; and regional irrigation of crops. 

This course examines the theories, concepts and applications of urban green equity and urban environmental justice, with particular focus on implications for urban forest policy, planning, management, and design.

This course examines the study of how organisms in rivers and lakes interact with each other and their environment. It covers the ecological communities of rivers and lakes, linkages with adjacent terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and the management of freshwaters including conservation and restoration.

This course introduces food systems and their actors as a framework for understanding and analyzing the development in the food sector. It provides a basis for handling future changes of food systems in a societal context. The course explores food systems and food networks as conceptualizations of the complex system behind food products and as useful tool in analysis of food related developments. It examines the historical development and structure of food systems (mainstream and alternative food systems), including an overview of changing technologies; structure, location, and actors as well as salient political issues characterizing food systems in different periods. The course then discusses the governance of food systems, including an introduction to dynamics of policy processes, and questions of the power and interests of core actors as well the role of social movements. Finally, it presents key concepts and theories useful for understanding an analyzing the development and transition of food systems, such as socio-material approaches to food systems change, sustainability, and actor understandings.