Environmental Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the location and design of wastewater treatment plants together with main rules of outfall discipline. Special attention is placed on the preliminary designs for main urban wastewater treatment plants and their outfall effects on water volumes. The course is split into three parts. Part one discusses wastewater; sewage characteristics; technical laws; industrial, agriculture, and domestic discharge; Hygiene Municipal Regulation; water outfall discipline; wastewater reuse regulations; variations in flowrate and characteristics of domestic and industrial wastewater; and treatability in rainy weather conditions. Part two discusses wastewater treatment: Kinetics and biochemistry of bacterial and algal biomass; growth and death in suspended and attached biomasses; septic tanks and Imhoff tanks design; the project of a full-scale domestic wastewater treatment plant operating in steady state; choice and location; raw and fine screens; sand removal; primary sedimentation; biodegradability and biological phases for secondary treatment; secondary sedimentation; active sludge plants upgrading to obtain phosphorous and nitrogen removal; separate scheme; Wuhrmann scheme; Ludzack-Ettinger scheme; Bardenpho scheme; A2/O process; Phoredox process; trickling filters; granular settling biofilters; wastewater disinfection; treatment and disposal of sludge; active sludge models.; sequencing batch reactors; natural system design for wastewater treatment or finishing; biological ponds. FWS and SFS phytotreatment; “on site” treatment for domestic wastewater coming from small communities; building and managing costs; and functional test. The third part of the course discusses outfalls in water volumes: water volumes protection and sanitary reclamation plans; wastewater discharge in rivers; effects of natural and domestic organic loadings on low exchange basin; ocean and river disposal of treated and untreated wastewater; offshore pipes.; diffusers; and aquatic ecosystem modeling criteria. The course includes lectures and practical exercises. The exercises focus on different real-scale biologic wastewater treatment plant projects based on attached and suspended biomass and natural appropriate treatment systems. The course requires students to have basic understanding of hydraulics and chemistry as well as a basic course in environmental sanitation engineering as a prerequisite.

This course deepens students’ knowledge of the “collective action dilemma” from a social science perspective and acquaints them with two interdependent global problems: climate change and energy.  It analyzes and discusses possible political solutions to the management of climate and energy issues as well as dilemmas over natural resources at the local, regional, and international levels.
 

This course is designed for students wishing to clarify and advance their career goals through an 8-week internship in Thailand. It provides a structured learning environment to help students make the most of their internship experience. While there are no regularly scheduled class meetings, internships are conducted under the close academic supervision of the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University. An assigned internship coordinator provides oversight and guidance for the duration of the internship. The course requires a minimum of 288 total work hours. 

This course examines the essentials of understanding and managing climate risk, including how climate risk may manifest as a challenge in a wide range of sectors such as built environment, engineering, business, health, law, economics and policy.

The course explores the social, political, and economic factors of the water crisis and other environmental issues, along with the challenges and potentials of sustainable development in the country. This course uses Jordan's geopolitical position in the region and the current debates over water management, its nuclear program, its agricultural sector, access to petroleum products, growing urbanism, and exploding population as a lens for exploring local and regional issues of diplomacy and development vis-à-vis environmental issues and policy. While doing so, the course also addresses the politics of the region since Jordan and most of the MENA countries share many resources, especially water, where across borders cooperation and/or conflict play a major role in managing these limited resources. It examines different environmental NGOs and initiatives in an attempt to understand their role in environmental management, protection, advocacy, and awareness. Students also develop a better understanding of the dynamics of environmental activism in Jordan.

This course takes students on a journey of discovery and wider understanding, when thinking about complex sustainable development challenges. The focus is on the global problems of climate change and social inequalities, as well as the societal responses to these, particularly from an economics lens. Contrary to the conventional way of teaching economics, the course pursues a tour-de-force of diverse and rich economic perspectives, rather than following standard textbooks and their typical insistence on a particular strand of economic thinking. The course is problem-oriented with special attention given to critical thinking, differing views, and practical and policy implications. The emphasis is first on observed empirics and factual trends concerning the respective sustainability provocations, before diving into the explanatory body of pluralist economics and wide range of policy actions. Moreover, the course boosts students’ creativity and imagination, engages participants, and allows for plenty of interaction. It also proposes a novel, experimental element to the teaching method by connecting economic thinking with the world of arts and culture to illustrate a point more vividly,