DES Curriculum

DES Curriculum

ESP 303 - Wetlands Ecology: This lecture course examines wetlands from the perspectives of science and policy. Topics will include wetland definitions, classification, and regional and national trends in habitat destruction and management. Prerequisites: BIO 105K, BIO 107, CHY 113 and CHY 114. Cr 3.

ESP 305 - Community Planning Workshop: This course provides a practical approach to local community planning problems. Students will conduct fieldwork to explore community decision making processes regarding the use of natural, social, and economic resources. Basic planning concepts are refined and applied to real-world problems in a collaborative manner. Prerequisites: ESP 101 and GEO 209 or permission. Cr 4.

ESP 307 - Land Use and Environmental Law: Introduction to land use and environmental law at the local, state, and federal levels of government. This course examines zoning and comprehensive planning, pollution control and prevention, and health regulation. The focus will be on understanding how common law and constitutional provisions shape the development of regulations. Prerequisites: ESP 101 and GEO 209 or permission. Cr 3.

ESP 308 - Global Environmental Change: An examination of global environmental changes including climate change, ozone depletion, hydrologic changes, deforestation, and desertification. The course will investigate the causes and potential impacts of these changes, human and otherwise. The range of possible human policy responses is also covered. Prerequisites: ESP 101K and ESP 102K or permission of instructor. Cr 3.

ESP 309 - Hydrology: An introduction to the physical basis of major hydrologic processes. The major processes covered include earth surface energy balance, precipitation, evapotranspiration, unsaturated zone hydrology, and runoff generation. Selected applied topics will also be introduced. Prerequisites: MAT 152D and PHY 111K/114K or permission of instructor. Cr 3.

ESP 341 - Limnology: The field of Limnology, or the study of inland waters, integrates aspects of biology, chemistry, physics, hydrology, and ecology. This course will combine selected information from all these fields to create a holistic view of lakes, streams and rivers. Emphasis will be on the synthesis of ideas. We'll survey a multitude of aquatic habitats and the plants and animals that live in them. In the process, I'll introduce some basic limnological techniques, emphasizing the need to quantify observations of both abiotic and biotic aspects of aquatic systems. Prerequisites: BIO 107 and CHY 115. Cr. 5

ESP 375 - Environmental Risk Assessment and Management: The focus of this course is to provide students with an understanding of human health risk assessment as an organized, multidisciplinary approach to evaluating scientific data by studying basic toxicology and fate and transport of contaminants using generally accepted principles and terminology used in the field. Students will examine the limitations of current risk assessment methods and be introduced to the basics of ecological risk assessment. Finally, students will study the scientific, political, social, ethical, and economic dimensions of managing risks. Prerequisite: ESP 101/102K or permission of instructor. Cr. 3

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