Environmental Studies

An introduction to environmental studies, this course covers what the environment is; what kind of situation we are currently in, and how one's daily life influences the environment in the local and global scale. The course presents the basic system structure of the environment and current efforts of balancing human well-being and environment.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program in Sciences and Management of Nature. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course focuses on the distribution of human biodiversity in the world and on the main adaptive processes that have influenced it through patterns of phenotypic and molecular variation in human populations. The course explores how the different and changing environments have prompted ecological and cultural shifts that have introduced new selective pressures that have impacted the human genome. Special attention is placed on cases in which ecological and cultural contexts have changed so rapidly in the modern era that they have trigger adaptive traits that were previously shaped by natural selection and now are shaped by maladaptive selection. The course also provides elements useful for understanding the evolutionary causes of differential susceptibilities to complex diseases in human populations. The course presents the main theoretical models developed so far to describe the processes by which human populations have biologically adapted to a variety of environmental conditions. Moreover, it describes patterns of molecular and phenotypic variation that underlie some of the most well-studied human adaptive traits. Finally, evidence supporting dis-adaptive processes undergone by present-day human populations due to rapid changes occurred in their environmental and/or cultural contexts is presented. The course is organized as follows: evolutionary principles, processes enabling human biological adaptation to environmental settings, contextualization of human adaptive traits in the overall landscape of human biodiversity, case studies describing adaptive processes of human populations in response to environmental stresses, and case studies describing dis-adaptive processes of human populations due to rapid environmental/cultural changes.

This course examines international & Australian approaches to conserving biodiversity values, ecological processes, products, goods & services in coastal zones, with an emphasis placed on planning & management of marine & coastal protected areas in a regional context.

This course examines various pollution problems, including the pollution sources, pollution identification, the dispersion, deposition, and their effects. The impacts on agriculture, forest, fishery, animal and human health are especially expressed with color pictures. The laws and regulatory methods in controlling the pollution are also discussed. Environmental consciousness in individual and the whole society is emphasized. Students are encouraged to do environmental protection through the homework that includes some personal practices and activities, to promote the environmental protection in the country. Text: E.J. Sun, ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF ITS ADVERSE AFFECTS. Assessment: midterm report (40%), final exam (50%), participation and attendance (10%).

This course focuses on the functions of the biophysical environment of the city state of Singapore. The topics include geology, soils, river systems, water supply, natural reserves, green areas, land reclamation and coastal environments. The environmental problems that arise from the development of a large tropical city within a limited area, and the possible solutions for such problems are examined. The course emphasizes current events in Singapore and discusses what Singapore's environment may look like in the future.

Cities have become major actors on environmental policy. However, the crosscutting nature of environmental problems involves the city in a web of relationships with other levels of government and non-governmental actors. Therefore, the understanding of environmental policy in cities raises the need to unveil the “black box” of the different dimensions of governance (urban, metropolitan, multi-level). The aim of the course is to introduce students to the complexity of implementing public policies in urban contexts through the particular complexities of the environmental issues. For such purpose, the course addresses the basic concepts of policy analysis, the different discussions and theories on governance and orients them towards the specific case of environmental problems in different contexts. Particular attention is placed on air quality, mobility, and climate change.

The rapid decline of coral reefs around the world motivates research to better understand how this complex ecosystem will respond to future environmental changes. This course reviews current knowledge on reef organisms and coral reef ecosystems, and studies the factors responsible for reef degradation. The course also introduces basic elements to assess resilience of this ecosystem. Students are provided with an up-to-date understanding of the coral reef crisis and the immediate actions to take for the long-term conservation of these fragile ecosystems. Many examples are based on reefs in Taiwan, and speakers may be invited to illustrate specific topics.