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Visit the MES Program Course
List for an overview of the classes taught through the MES
Program. Brief descriptions of the courses are available below.
CORE COURSES
EVSS 601 ECONOMIC THEORY FOR POLICY ANALYSIS:
This course develops and applies microeconomic models and theories
to the analysis of contemporary public sector issues. Attention
is given to the conceptual and practical problems associated with
resource allocation decisions when there is conflict among efficiency,
equity and limited information in policy making. The foundations
of welfare economy and techniques and applications of cost-benefit
analysis as they relate to specific policy areas and programs
are examined as well. Syllabus
EVSS 602 PUBLIC POLICY: This course seeks to
develop a firm understanding of the public policy making process
in the United States. Students study policy making though various
perspectives on implementation. The roles of major institutions
including the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of
government, the bureaucracy and interest groups in this process
are addressed. Integrated within this study of the process are
various perspectives and interpretations of policy making, including
incrementalism, rationalism, pluralism and elitism. Selected areas
of public policy, including transportation, poverty, energy and
the environment are used to illustrate both the process and the
different perspectives. Syllabus
EVSS 632 SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODS: This course
will introduce students to social science methodologies used to
understand humans’ relationships to the environment. The
course will provide a basic understanding of the practice of collecting
both quantitative and qualitative social science data, developing
mixed-methods or interdisciplinary projects, and train students
on how to interpret such data. Syllabus
EVSS 646 GRADUATE CORE SEMINAR: This seminar
course on environmental studies topics will offer an introductory
review of the environmental studies discipline. Students will
review recent scholarship, including primary sources, with an
emphasis on interdisciplinarity, providing them an environmental
studies overview. Syllabus
STATISITICS CORE COURSES (choose one):
EVSS 624 BIOMETRY: A broad treatment of statistics
concentrating on specific statistical techniques used in biological
research. Topics covered include sampling procedures and analysis
of distributions (binomial, poisson, and normal), hypothesis testing
and estimation with emphasis on analysis of frequencies, regression
and correlation. Several nonparametic and multivatiate methods
are also discussed. Emphasis is on application of statistical
techniques and not theory, therefore a knowledge of mathematics
through calculus is expected. Syllabus
or
EVSS 659 ENVIRONMENTAL
STATISTICS: This course provides an introduction to environmental
statistics. Topics include probability, correlation, regression,
hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, model testing, residual
analysis, and nonparametric models. Environmental applications
will be provided throughout the course. (Statistics prerequisite
required). Syllabus
SCIENCE CORE COURSES (choose one):
EVSS 610 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY: This course
emphasizes the application of fundamental toxicological and microbiological
concepts to problems which exist in the real world. The course
should prepare the student interested in environmental problems
with the necessary practical information to make sound judgments
in assessing meaningful solutions to existing environmental problems.
Syllabus
or
EVSS 631 POLLUTION
IN THE ENVIRONMENT: Multidisciplinary study of fundamental physical,
chemical, and biological processes that affect transport and fate
of human-induced and natural pollutants in the environment. This
course is for students who have strong interests in environmental
sciences, with basic preparation in sciences such as chemistry,
geology, and/or biology. Syllabus
or
EVSS 640 EARTH SYSTEMS SCIENCE: This course
investigates the interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, ice,
solid-Earth and biological systems. Students will study the evolution
of solid-Earth, the formation of the atmosphere and oceans, and
the origin of life. Rate and scale of changes of the Earth's environment
will be examined through an analysis of changing climates. Finally,
the course examines human evolution and technological development
to gain an understanding of human impacts on the global environment.
Syllabus
or
EVSS 650 ENERGY PRODUCTION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
A study of the nature of energy and scientific issues relating
to its production, storage, distribution and use from a physics
perspective. Production methods to be studied include: Hydroelectric,
fossil fuel, fission, fusion, wind, photovoltaic, bio-mass and
solar-dynamic. Scientific issues will be related to the cultural
and philosophical framework surrounding energy infrastructure
and policy. Syllabus
POLICY
ELECTIVES
EVSS 605 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & REGULATORY
POLICY: This course concentrates on the development of environmental
laws and regulations in this country. The course is taught
by an attorney and will help students develop an understanding
of the scope and substance of environmental laws and the methods
by which these statutes address environmental issues using different
regulatory techniques.
EVSS 607 ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: A study of the
legislative, adjudicatory, and general policy-making powers of
administrative agencies and regulatory commissions, and the scope
of judicial review of administrative action. The course is directed
primarily toward an analysis of the political nature of the bureaucracy,
and secondarily toward the procedural requirements for administrative
policy-making.
EVSS 608 PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
The study and practice of public administration in the United
States in the 20th century and today. This course examines the
historical development of the field of public administration and
current approaches to the study and practice of public administration.
EVSS 609 ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY:
A critical examination of the legal, political, professional,
and organizational accountability demands made on administrators
and their relationship to ethical decision making and ethical
integrity.
EVSS 630 NATURAL RESOURCE LAW: This course
is about the laws and policy that regulate and affect the use
of natural resources including: (1) air, water, and sensitive
ecosystems; (2) range land, wilderness areas, endangered species,
fish and wildlife; (3) gold, silver, iron, copper and other "hard
rock" minerals; (4) forest land and timber; (5) water in
rivers, lakes, marshes and underground reservoirs; (6) energy
sources such as oil, gas, coal, uranium and falling waters; (7)
alternative energy sources such as geothermal resources, wind
and biomass; and (8) most importantly, land. This survey/overview
course will include an introduction to the administrative law
of federal agencies that regulate the use of public lands and
resources.
EVSS 633 URBAN PLANNING: This course analyzes
contemporary issues/problems in the urban arena and the role of
planning in implementing solutions to them. An overview of urbanization
and the planning process is given to begin the semester. The majority
of the time, however, is spent on studying a variety of issues
from economic development through the environment to homelessness.
The emphasis is on connecting planning and what planners do with
ideas and events in the larger society; less time is spent on
dates and names of federal programs and specifics of the planning
process. Students are expected to achieve a knowledge of contemporary
urban issues, potential planning solutions, and apply this information
to an empirical study in the metropolitan Charleston area.
EVSS 635 LAND USE LAW: This course examines
zoning and land use control in the United States and incorporates
illustrations and cases from South Carolina in particular. It
focuses on enabling legislation for local governments, regulation,
the process of development, eminent domain, contract and conditional
zoning, and enforcement and violation of land use regulations.
EVSS 637 WETLANDS POLICY: This seminar will
provide graduate students with a broad understanding of the social
origins, philosophies, and political, economic, and cultural impacts
of wetlands protection in the United States. What are the goals
of wetlands protection? What are the problems associated with
the implementation of wetlands regulations? How have policymakers
addressed these problems? What innovative solutions are policymakers,
developers, nonprofit organizations, and consulting firms proposing
to address the land use and other conflicts and implementation
difficulties innate in wetlands policy? These and related questions
will be explored from a variety of points of view. Those whose
views are critical or uncertain about the protection of wetlands,
as well as those who are sympathetic to it, are welcome in the
seminar. Throughout this course, substantial attention is placed
on the citizen’s role in the protection of wetlands and
local level approaches to wetlands policy. There is no specific
graduate course that students need to have taken before enrolling
in this seminar. Several field trips to locations such as Caw
Caw Interpretive Center, Hampton
Plantation along the Santee, and Bull Island in the Cape
Romaine National Wildlife Refuge are included in this course
to promote connections between real world cases and academic research.
SCIENCE
ELECTIVES
BIOLOGY
EVSS 619 BIOLOGY OF CORAL REEFS: An introduction
to the biology and ecology of reef-building corals and coral reefs.
Topics to be covered include coral ecology (nutrition, reproduction,growth,
population structure), taxonomy and systematics, distribution,reef-building
processes, and natural and human induced disturbances.
EVSS 620 PHYSIOLOGY & CELL BIOLOGY OF MARINE
ORGANISMS: A study of the regulatory mechanisms found in marine
organisms especially as they relate to interactions between the
organism and the environment. Mechanisms will be discussed at
the organismal, organ-system, tissue, and cellular levels.
EVSS 622 ECOLOGY OF MARINE ORGANISMS: The study
of living organisms in the marine environment - population and
community ecology, reproduction and life histories, productivity,
evolution and biogeography. A broad overview of these elements
is followed by detailed consideration of major coastal and oceanic
ecosystems around the world.
EVSS 623 PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY: A study of the
physics and chemistry of ocean and estuarine water, circulation,
waves, and tides. Lecture and laboratory work will emphasize the
interrelationships of physical, chemical, geological, and biological
processes in the sea.
EVSS 626 ENVIRONMENTAL IMMUNOLOGY: This course
provides an introduction to the field of basic immunology, an
understanding of scientific approaches and techniques used for
assessing the effects of environmental stressors on human and
wildlife populations, and training in the critical review and
presentation of literature in the areas of immunotoxicology, clinical
and comparative immunology.
EVSS 627 MARINE TETRAPOD BIOLOGY: This lecture,
laboratory, and field course emphasizes both the diversity and
common themes of the physiological, behavioral, and anatomical
adaptations that characterize certain lineages of reptiles, birds,
and mammals that exploit a wide array of marine habitats. Highlighting
the faunas of South Carolina, we will evaluate marine tetrapods
as models for advanced studies in evolution, physiology, behavior,
ecology, and conservation.
EVSS 628 PLANT ECOLOGY: Plant Ecology will explore
the population ecology of plants covering the genetic, spatial,
age, and size structure of plant populations. The focus will be
on understanding the origin of these different kinds of structured,
understanding how they influence each other, and understanding
why they change with time.
EVSS 629 CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: A course exploring
the origin, maintenance, and preservation of biodiversity at all
levels: genetic, population, community, ecosystem and biosphere.
The focus will be on applying ecological, genetic, and evolutionary
principles to problems in conservation. The lab component of this
course will consist primarily of field trips that emphasize local
and regional conservation issues.
EVSS 721 AQUACULTURE: This course will take
a holistic perspective on aquaculture and how it is practiced
in both freshwater and saltwater, domestically and globally.
EVSS 722 MARINE INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY: A study
of the functional morphology, life history, taxonomy, and other
selected aspects of the biology of marine invertebrates.
EVSS 723 BIOLOGY OF CRUSTACEA: A study of the
biology of crustacean arthropods. Topics include evolution, taxonomy,
functional morphology, physiology, embryology, ecology, behavior,
commercial management and aquaculture.
EVSS 724 ICHTHYOLOGY: A study of fishes, emphasizing
diversity and evolution, morphology, physiology, ecology, life
histories, behavior, systematics and biogeography. Laboratory
work will focus on groups important in the local fauna.
EVSS 725 MARINE BOTANY: Introduction to taxonomy,
morphology, phylogeny, and ecology of marine plants. Major groups
of planktonic and benthic algae and vascular plants from the coast
of South Carolina are studied.
EVSS 726 FISHERIES SCIENCE: A general introduction
to methods of harvesting aquatic resources and collection and
evaluation of biological data to effectively manage these resources.
Topics include age and growth analysis; mortality, recruitment,
and yield; production and early life history; stock assessment
techniques; and detailed study of certain important fisheries.
EVSS 746 AQUATIC TOXICOLOGY: An introduction
to assessing the effects of toxic substances on aquatic organisms
and ecosystems. Topics include general principles of toxicology,
fate and transport models, quantitative structure-activity relationships,
single-species and community-level toxicity measures, regulatory
issues, and career opportunities. Examples will be drawn from
marine, freshwater and brackish-water systems.
GEOLOGY
EVSS 638 INTRODUCTORY HYDROGEOLOGY: Course provides
introduction to quantitative nature of water flow within geologic
media. Discuss significance of water flow theory and the dynamics
of many natural flow systems in geologic settings. Quantitative
analysis of water resources in a decision making format.
EVSS 639 WETLANDS AND WATERSHEDS: Introduction
to water flow and biogeochemical processes in wetland systems.
Discuss the significance of hydrology in wetlands and importance
of biogeochemical cycles on water quality in wetlands. Quantitative
analysis of water budgets and biochemical. Lectures and student-led
seminars.
EVSS 641 AQUEOUS GEOCHEMISTRY: A detailed examination
of the chemical processes that affect ground-and-surface waters,
especially those which control the migration of common water contaminants.
Topics include mass transport, equilibria, chemical retardation,
Eh-pH stability, stable isotopes and geochemical cycles.
EVSS 642 GEOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING:
Course will cover the fundamentals and applications of remote
sensing. Topics include: remote sensing theory, data collection,
reduction and application, computer software tools, data acquisition
and ties to geographic information systems (GIS). The course emphasis
is on environmental problems.
EVSS 645 COASTAL ISSUES AND PROCESSES: This
course will provide an in-depth understanding of the coastal environment,
including coastal policies and environmental issues that result
from the activity of humans. Subjects that will be covered include:
origin of coastlines, physical processes, coastal hazards, and
coastal zone management.
EVSS 649 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: This
course will covers spatial types and quality, data input operations,
database management, data analysis, and software design concerns.
We will also examine institutional and political concerns for
using GIS. Computer-based GIS software (Unix, PC, and Mac) will
be used throughout the course.
PHYSICS
EVSS 656 ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE: An introduction
to the study of the Earth's atmosphere. Topics covered include
composition and distribution of the components of the atmosphere,
atmospheric thermodynamics, synoptic meteorology, atmospheric
aerosol, nucleation processes, microphysics of warm and cold clouds,
cloud morphology, violent storms, and artificial modification
of clouds and precipitation.
EVSS 657 SATELLITE METEOROLOGY:
Satellite meteorology is the measurement of weather by sensors
aboard Earth-orbiting satellites. Topics include satellite orbits
and navigation; electromagnetic radiation; instrumentation; image
interpretation; atmospheric temperature; wind, clouds, precipitation,
and radiation.
EVSS 658 CLIMATE CHANGE: An introduction to
the study of the physics of the Earth's climate. Topics include
climatic change and classification; the spectrum of radiation;
absorption; scattering; transmission; radiation; the tropospheric
balance; the energy balance at the Earth's surface; time variations
in the energy balance; apparent forces in a rotating coordinate
system; the horizontal and vertical equations of motion; the continuity
equation; the primitive equations; thermally driven circulation;
the atmospheric transport of energy; the atmosphere as a heat
engine; the ozone problem.
SPECIAL TOPICS
Recent Special Topics (EVSS 695) courses are listed below.
New Special Topics Courses are also offered on a regular basis.
EVSS 695 ADVANCED GIS: Advanced study of spatial
types and quality, data input operations, database management,
data analysis, and software design concerns. We will also examine
institutional and political concerns for using GIS. Computer-based
GIS software (Unix, PC, and Mac) will be used throughout
the course.
EVSS 695 CLIMATE CHANGE MODELING: An introduction
to the study of the physics of the Earth's climate. Topics include
climatic change and classification; the spectrum of radiation;
absorption; scattering; transmission; radiation; the tropospheric
balance; the energy balance at the Earth's surface; time variations
in the energy balance; apparent forces in a rotating coordinate
system; the horizontal and vertical equations of motion; the continuity
equation; the primitive equations; thermally driven circulation;
the atmospheric transport of energy; the atmosphere as a heat
engine; the ozone problem.
EVSS 695 COASTAL MAPPING AND VISUALIZATION:
The course will meet for one hour per week to provide background
readings in order to become familiar with the techniques of data
collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation. We will
meet during the week of Spring Break to have a condensed training
program where the student will collect data in the field and process
it back in the computer lab. The final products will be produced
and presented over the remainder of the semester and will culminate
in presenting interpreted data products both orally and in poster
form.Students will be expected to develop in the areas of program
and personnel management, as well as present their interpreted
data products in the form of a manuscript suitable for submission
to a conference or journal.
EVSS 695 ECONOMIES, CULTURES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL
GOVERNANCE: This course critically examines the economic relationship
between humans and their environments, focusing on the politically
volatile nature of natural resource governance in First and Third
World contexts. We will focus on the intersection between capitalist
political economy and subsistence cultures, and how their differences
affect the politics of environmental governance. Student will
develop skills in analyzing the political economy and broaden
their understanding how social systems interact with ecological
systems.
EVSS 695 ECOPRENEURSHIP: This course approaches
environmental problems as entrepreneurial opportunities and sees
entrepreneurs as influential in creating social and economic change.
This course will help students recognize opportunities to create
new businesses that move us towards a more sustainable economy.
Industry sectors with strong representation the Lowcountry with
a high need and/or possibility for improvement in environmental
sustainability will be a particular focus. Students will learn
about these sectors through speakers, case studies and industry
research. Students will also learn about the business case for
sustainability and about creating value for all of an organization’s
stakeholders. Students will work to develop a well-defined sustainable
new business concept..
EVSS 695 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITY OUTREACH:
The course researches experiences with environmental community
outreach. Class members participant observe; interview stakeholders
such as residents, town administrators, enforcement personnel,
etc.; and perform quantiative, qualitiative, and Geographic Informations
Systems (GIS) analyses to create an outreach document. Through
the class, students will be trained in strategic planning for
community outreach, sharing science, and innovative techniques
for evaluating environmental regulation.
EVSS 695 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
This class critically examines social justice aspects of environmental
problems, and focuses on the historic and current roles that economic
systems, science, discourse, race, ethnicity, and gender play
in shaping human interactions with the environment. It explores
how these interactions impact human communities, as well as what
can be done to mitigate differential impacts through movements
of environmental justice. In particular, this course takes on
and explores in-depth contentious issues such as population growth,
resource use, the framing of environmental 'risks,' global climate
change, consumer-based social movements surrounding alternative
trade and development, food biotechnology, toxic waste disposal
and facility citing.
EVSS 695 ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY:
This course is an examination of some key issue in environmental
philosophy. These include: (1) Anthropocentrism versus intrinsic
valuing of nonhuman nature (e.g., sentientism, biocentrism, ecocentrism,
the convergence thesis); (2) Natural beauty and its implications
for environmental policy; (3) Climate ethics (e.g., international
and intergenerational environmental justice, geoengineering);
(4) Obligations to animals and natural predation; (5) Immigration
and environment; (6) Environmental virtue ethics; and (7) Individual
responsibility for environmental problems. Text include: Dale
Jamieson’s Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction (Cambridge,
2008) and Glenn Parsons’ Aesthetic and Nature (Continuum,
2008).
EVSS 695 ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT:
This course offers an interdisciplinary examination of environmental
planning and management theories, concepts, and practices. Specifically,
we will consider collaborative, land conservation, natural resource
management, ecosystem, and watershed approaches from the perspective
of the social science and planning literatures.
EVSS 695 GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: This course
will explore various human dimensions of global climate change
including the physical science, present and projected effects,
and legal, economic, and political policy solutions. The core
of the course will revolve around post-Kyoto climate negotiations,
where each student will represent a "key" country of
their choice. The course will culminate with a mock Post-Kyoto
Climate Conference where students will represent their country
in negotiating the "2009 Charleston Climate Accord."
This will be an experiential course and will be highly interactive
in that it will not only cover the substance of climate change,
but will engage in online and classroom debate and negotiation.
EVSS 695 INTERPRETING SCIENCE: CONNECTING RESEARCH
AND PEOPLE: Scientists are increasingly being asked to communicate
their findings to a variety of audiences. Grantors are placing
more emphasis on broader impacts sections of proposals and communication
plans. This course, taught by working science interpreters, will
provide techniques for relating science to informal audiences
in either an indoor or outdoor setting by utilizing the communication
resources of the South Carolina Aquarium and other partners. Topics
that will be covered include techniques for understanding an audience,
written interpretation, communicating controversial topics, making
science accessible, program and presentation structure, and current
research on best practices in science centers throughout the United
States.
EVSS 695 LIGHT POLLUTION: This course examines
the subject of light pollution in the United States. Students
will review the physics and chemistry of light emission and investigate
how that knowledge is used in lighting. The student will see how
the environment and human vision are affected by the choices made
in lighting design and use. Various remedies will be evaluated
and some case studies will be presented. Pollution across the
electromagnetic spectrum will be outlined..
EVSS 695 LOCAL AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- POLICY AND PRACTICE: This course examines the forces that drive
regional growth and change and assesses the policies and practices
that are commonly used in pursuit of economic growth, including
industrial targeting, incentives, and human capital development.
EVSS 695 POLITICAL ECOLOGY:This class
critically examines the relationship between humans and their
environments, focusing on the politically volatile nature
of human resource use, how resource distribution occurs
(evenly or unevenly), who controls the distribution, and
how the distribution impacts local and global economic, social,
and ecological systems .
EVSS 695 POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE:
One of the greatest struggles that environmental professionals
face is what is often called the “politics” of their
jobs: working with the public. In this course we examine the scientist/public
interface through a close examination of the practices of environmental
science. Using ethnographic literature from science studies and
geography, we will investigate the epistemological, ontological,
and methodological assumptions of science to understand public
challenges to scientific knowledge. We will focus our attention
upon two kinds of challenges that environmental professionals
face: in local natural resource management and in the making of
federal environmental policy, specifically examining the politics
of working with indigenous communities, and the controversies
surrounding climate change policy. Students will build skills
in communicating science to the public, as well as in the methodology
of ethnography, which can be used to analyze internship experiences
as well as used in their later professional lives. Students will
produce either a literature review or a chapter of their thesis
as their culminating project for the course.
EVSS 695 POLLUTION IN THE ENVIRONMENT: The
main goal of this course is to help understand fundamental physical,
chemical, and biological processes that affect transport and fate
of both human-induced and natural pollutants in the environment.
This course is designed for students that have strong interests
in environmental sciences and have had basic preparation in sciences
such as chemistry, geology, and/or biology. This course will provide
the scientific basis that will allow making prudent decisions
in managing and mitigating pollution of the natural world. In
general, pollution is defined as excessive accumulation or release
of various physical, chemical, and biological substances within
or into the environment with, sometimes, catastrophic consequences.
Pollution is ubiquitous and can occur on or within land, oceans,
and in the atmosphere. Given its complex nature, this course will
take a multidisciplinary approach to address environmental pollution
issues. Also, for the same reason, this will serve as a broad
survey and will mostly focus on the geological environment. You
will, however, have the opportunity to pursue any of the topics
from this course in detail on your own as a research project
EVSS 695 PRINCIPLE OF URBAN FORMS: This course
explores the city as the predominant form of human settlement
patterns, and engages both the universal experience of making
cities and the local culture of dwelling within them. It examines
not just the history of “formal” urban design, however,
but the archive of human endeavors undertaken to endow urban form
with order and meaning. It also investigates the intimate relationship
between physical form and cultural context, and the manner in
which the shaping of cities has both expressed and influenced
human values and behavior throughout our history. In so doing,
the course exposes the student to many examples of notable urban
form and city design; particular case studies will draw extra
attention as they represent a unique synthesis of historic circumstance
and cultural aspiration.
EVSS 695 SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE: We live
within ecological and social systems that are intertwined in complicated
ways-complicated not only by their linkages, but because these
systems change through time. Whether the issue is environmental
degradation or climate change, human societies are challenged
to make prudent political choices that will allow us to adapt
to these changes. In this course students will develop interdisciplinary
skills through examining case studies that articulate complex
"social-ecological systems" and how human communities
might adapt to the environmental changes to come. Students will
explore this theoretical approach to understanding the complexities
of a changing environment, and will gain skills in communicating
these complexities to the public.
EVSS 695 URBAN POLICY: This course will introduce
students to the field of urban policy and will train students
to critically analyze policy debates that directly impact city
life. The course traces the major ideological shifts in urban
policy over the past century, analyzes their historical and philosophical
foundations and explores the relationship between urban change
and policy formulation.
EVSS 695 URBAN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: This
course provides students with a rigorous introduction to theories
of urban and regional development. The goal of this course
is to give students the basic toolkit required to think critically
and coherently about urban and regional economic development.
The major themes of this course are why industries locate
where they do; why there are tendencies toward the geographic
concentration and dispersion of economic activity; why economic
activity tends to concentrate in cities; how globalization affects
these processes; and whether regions tend to become more similar
or remain distinct in the process of economic development. Students
will learn the basic models for explaining these processes, though
there will be no formal modeling in this class. An understanding
of microeconomic theory is recommended, but not required.
EVSS 695 URBAN TRANSPORTATION:
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS: Transportation planning is a policy tool,
and while it is generally carried out with the goal of facilitating
movement in the city, that is rarely the only goal. Other
goals include encouraging overall economic development, fostering
specific kinds of development in specific places, reducing energy
consumption and environmental pollution, promoting growth in the
construction and transport machinery industries, creating a more
equitable society, isolating “undesirable” neighborhoods,
creating a sense of community, and building impressive engineering
monuments. These other goals, some of which are contradictory
as you can see, frequently co-exist with the primary goal of facilitating
movement and often impose conflicting demands on proposed solutions.
This course will focus primarily, though not exclusively, on transportation
and land use issues in the U.S. context.
EVSS 695 SUSTAINABILITY: This course
will examine the interrelated environmental, economic and social
problems facing humans at local, regional and global scales around
the theme of sustainability. Specifically, we will explore sustainability
both as a ‘constructed’ concept as well as a practice
and ask how can we govern the process from the “idea of
sustainability” to generating good policy on sustainability
and sustainable development? In addressing this question, the
class will use an applied experience from their own sustainability
project to examine ways to generate values of sustainability,
create policy to encourage sustainability, and ultimately govern
it.
EVSS 695 WILDLIFE LAW: The course goes beyond
the Endangered Species Act to look at other U.S. statutes dealing
with wildlife, as well as international treaties and conventions.
Topics include public and private interests in wildlife, protection
for biodiversity and ecosystems, federal land issues, perhaps
some state fish and game law administration, fisheries, and definitely,
international wildlife law. This course is of particular interest
to students interested in fisheries, turtles, dolphins and endangered
species conservation. There are no prerequisites. Although a standard
law school casebook will be used, suitable for a graduate level
course, it is not necessary to have had a prior law class.
EVSS 695 WATER RESOURCES: Water – not
oil or minerals – is the most important resource on Earth.
Water controls development of agricultural, industrial, municipal,
and rural and urban land use. This class will present background
information on water resources in context of historical, present-day,
and potential future condition. The fundamentals of hydrology
(both surface water and groundwater) will be presented in the
first half of the course, and the second half will address resource
assessment, human impacts, and legal and political conflicts involving
water resources. Topics will be presented in a case-study format,
involving a substantial amount of classroom discussion.The goals
of this course are to (1) illuminate the science of hydrology
and water resources and (2) prepare students for a future of societal
conflicts around limited water resources.
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