Environmental Studies

Access to clean water, fertile soil, critical metals, and cheap energy is crucial for modern society. However, the unsustainable use of these natural resources is changing the face of our planet at an unprecedented rate. This course builds on the understanding of planet Earth gained in ES1001, and it highlights the work done by earth scientists to solve 21st century resource and environmental challenges. The course investigates the geological processes that generate Earth's "traditional" resources, such as metals and hydrocarbons, and their environmental impact. Equally, students study "new" alternative energies such as geothermal and hydro power, and discuss resource requirements of a "Green New Deal" and potential environmental solutions, such as carbon capture and pollution remediation strategies. There is a fully-funded six-day residential field excursion to the Highlands of Scotland.

This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the principles of energy, air pollution, and global climate change to provide an understanding of the importance of various natural processes and human activities that shape the modern Earth and lead to global environmental change. The course also discusses the energy crisis, alternative energy, nuclear energy, air pollution, and global change assessment and policy measures.

This course is an introduction to the application of knowledge and principles of agroecology and forest ecology to global agroforestry systems. It includes a one-weekend field trip.

This course brings in instructors who are best in their fields of research, and includes topics related to atmospheric science, environment science, physical and social geography in Taiwan. It provides a background in this wide range of disciplines, instilling a greater understanding of Taiwan. Besides the lectures, students also participate in various filed trip to NTU Herbarium and Zoological Museums, Evergreen Maritime Museum, and Guandu Nature Park. 

The course introduces the research approaches used in both human and physical environment areas.  Students are introduced to basic types of research and are equipped to use research in planning, implementing, and evaluating programs and projects. The course covers the initial stages of thinking theoretically about a research project, which covers both the human and physical environment approaches that are pertinent to environmental studies.  The course covers the basic knowledge of research as a scientific tool used to study social phenomena. Students are expected to have an understanding of basic principles of data collection, both quantitative & qualitative, and simple methods of data analysis as well as the importance of research design.

This advanced course covers the main ocean and atmosphere systems, with a particular emphasis on their biogeochemical functioning. This includes an introduction to the major marine biogeochemical cycles, seawater carbonate chemistry, phytoplankton-nutrient interactions and growth kinetics, surface ocean-lower atmosphere interactions, and an introduction to Earth system dynamics. The physical forcings and their biogeochemical and ecosystem responses are quantitatively illustrated for upwelling systems, oligotrophic systems, coastal systems around South Africa, and the Southern Ocean. Emphasis is placed on treating the systems in an integrative manner. Methods of data sampling and analysis, computation of biogeochemical pools, and rates and feedback are covered in the tutorials and practicals.

This course compares the political ecologies of Spain and California, two regions of the world with significantly different environmental histories, political systems, and socio-economic and political actors but strikingly similar Mediterranean type ecosystems. In particular, this course focuses on two crucial environmental issues for both these regions—water and land use—and how these have emerged as central items in the political agendas in both regions. The course explores the nature of the so-called “water wars” in California and Spain and how both regions have attempted to reconcile conflicting public and private interests over water use rights. It also looks at landscape planning and how urbanization has often ignored crucial ecological disturbance processes, such as landscape fires, with unforeseen and often catastrophic consequences. The class excursions include a visit to the public company that provides water to the Madrid region, the Canal de Isabel II, to learn about water policy in Madrid, and to the chestnut forest ecosystems of two different autonomous regional community governments in Avila and Madrid to witness the diverging impacts of different governance policies on the same natural system. A meeting with representatives of the Ministry of the Environment to learn about landscape planning is also scheduled.

This course examines the physical processes and linkages operating within the biosphere (biogeography) and lithosphere (geomorphology), with a focus on the role that temporal and spatial scales impact environmental processes.