List of graduate Env courses
ENV 300: Natural Environment and Humans (1 credit)
The course is designed for graduate students from disparate disciplines to gain an overview of environmental principals and current environmental issues. The course will cover four broad areas. First it will discuss what ecosystems are, how they function, and the main processes keeping them stable. Second, it will review key environmental issues including climate change, loss of biodiversity, nitrogen and phosphorous cycle disruptions, eutrophication, chemical pollution (including persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, particulate, etc.), degradation of natural habitats (deforestation, grasslands change and wetlands drainage), and so on. Third, basic environmental concepts, frameworks, and tools will be presented including sustainability, planetary boundary, ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and TRACI. Finally, the course will present broad review of regulatory and market-based policy directions employed to address environmental change. Topics will be supplemented by Armenia and Caucasus-specific cases.
ENV 320: Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Analysis (2 credits)
The course aims to introduce and develop introductory and intermediate skills in application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize, analyze, and interpret relationships, patterns and trends in the fields of environmental management, public health, sustainable agriculture and transportation. GIS as a tool, however, is applicable to a wide variety of fields and industries, including marketing, logistics, urban development, and so on. Students will also learn to use Global Positioning System (GPS) units to collect spatial data.
ENV 321: Remote Sensing and Environmental Analysis (1 credit)
The course aims to provide a basic understanding of land-use mapping with remote-sensing techniques.The focus will be on multispectral remote sensing and pixel based image classification. For land use mapping, freely available satellite data from the Landsat mission will be used. Processing will be done with ArcMap10 or similar software.
ENV 325: Urban Environmental Mapping – Field Application of Sensing and Visualization Tools (3 credits)
The course is on spatio-temporal mapping of urban environments, with particular emphasis on field application of sensor and visualization technologies. The course will introduce the theoretical and technical framework of urban environmental data acquisition and visualization using readily available sensing kits and the state-of- the-art mapping platforms. The course promotes active student participation. Students will become familiar and apply the following software tools: ArcGIS or QGIS (open-source), Rhino3D, Grasshopper3D, Arduino Program, and Grasshopper plug-in for Arduino I/O. The course will culminate in composition and presentation of a 5-minute videos that will document the students’ works. These video documentations will be publicly exhibited. Instructor-led classes and fieldwork.
ENV 330 (BUS 391): Business and Environmental Sustainability (1 credit)
The course is for graduate students with interest in business, management, and economics. It offers an overview of environmental challenges facing the planet today including climate change, loss of biodiversity, natural resource depletion, chemical pollution, and more. The course discusses corporate responses, political activist and governmental pressures on corporations, regulatory and market-based policy solutions, and technological innovations that are helping address these environmental challenges. Topics are supplemented by Armenia and Caucasus-specific cases.
ENV 360: Environmental Field Study (4 credits)
This four-credit class will be held during the spring and summer quarters, and meeting times will be by arrangement with the instructor. The class will prepare students to conduct independent research in the environmental sciences. The course will teach the competencies necessary to plan and implement data collection and write a scientific paper. The course will include a lab practicum on the determination of accuracy and precision in data collection as well as reading and discussion of the fallacies of logic and perception that may bias data interpretation. The course will culminate with a research report on original data collected in a field exercise. The field exercise may be coordinated with ongoing research in Armenia, and the course may be supplemented by seminars with visiting faculty and scientists.
ENV 390: Independent Research (6 credits)
The course is a continuation of previous, which will culminate with a research report on original data collected in a field exercise. The field exercise may be coordinated with ongoing research in Armenia, and the course may be supplemented by seminars with visiting faculty and scientists.
ENV 399: Special Topics: Fate and Transport Modeling (Summer 2016) (1 credit)
Course gives an introduction to the transport of inorganic and organic contaminants through the environment. This course will provide an introduction to environmental engineering; environmental and ecological systems; physical, chemical, and biological processes; water and wastewater treatment; air pollution; solid and hazardous wastes; and environmental regulations and impact assessment. Specific topics to be covered include: Mass Transport and Reaction; Water Supply; Water Quality: Pollutant Sources and Effects; Brief overview of Water/Wastewater Treatment; Surface Water Quality; Groundwater Quality; Solid and Hazardous Waste; Risk Assessment; Radiation and Radioactive Waste; Air pollution: Sources and Effects; Indoor Air Quality, Atmospheric Dispersion; and Global Environmental Issues. Particular emphasis will be placed on the human and environmental risk posed by the transport of inorganic and organic contaminants through the environment.
TEFL 330: Endangered Languages and Biodiversity (1 credit)
“About 70 percent of all languages currently spoken on Earth occur in approximately one-fourth of the planet’s land area (excluding Antarctica) that is designated as a Biodiversity Hotspot or High Biodiversity Wilderness Area. As is the case with species occurring in the biodiversity regions, many of the languages spoken in the Hotspots and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas are unique to individual regions, thereby marking the sole opportunities to maintain them. Moreover, many of the languages occurring in these regions are spoken by small numbers of people indicating that much of the linguistic diversity (and, by implication, cultural diversity) currently present in biodiversity regions is in danger of disappearing in the foreseeable future due to the high vulnerability of small groups to changes in their cultural systems and environments amid rapid globalization.” From: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~romaine/lingbiodiversity.html. Through readings, class materials and lectures, this course introduces students to Earth’s Biodiversity Hotspots and the linguistic and cultural groups that live in these hotspots. The course is co-taught by ACE and TEFL and sensitizes students to current linguistic and biodiversity issues.
Courses in the Catalog but Not Currently Offered
ENV 301: Environmental Policy (2 credits)
Environmental policy is a powerful tool, which puts into motion national and international strategies targeting environmental protection, bio-diversity conservation, and sustainable development. It establishes links between the theoretical knowledge on the environmental issues and practical efforts to address them; prepares the groundwork for the stakeholder dialogue and participation in environmental decision-making processes. The aim of this course is to make the students familiar with the basics of environmental policies. It will also introduce the tools and approaches that influence political decision-making processes in the field of environmental conservation and natural resource management.
ENV 302: Environmental Economics (2 credits)
The purpose of this course is to develop understanding of economic effects of environmental policies, including the costs and benefits of alternatives. The course will make students familiar with historic and modern economic paradigms and their environmental implications. During this course students will learn about economics of pollution, principles of sustainable management of resources and protection of biodiversity. The attention also will be paid to the issues of pollution control and environmental protection, where costs and benefits are difficult to estimate, and much of subject matter failing outside the competitive market system. It is an area where common property resources need to be allocated sensibly to the public goods. The ways of achieving sensible allocations such as emission and effluent charges, “user charges” or disposal of waste, environmental taxes and tradable pollution rights will be discussed. One of the major topics of the course are an assessment of the economic value of the environment, including direct and indirect use values, lost of recreational trips and hedonic methods. The attention also will be paid to environmental compliance issue and cost-benefit analysis of environmental impacts and environmental policies. Students will learn about relations of environmental economics and other fields, including ecological economics. The course will be concluded by future trends of the subject, including trends of environmental policies from global and country level perspectives.
ENV 303: Sustainable Development (2 credits)
The purpose of this course is to develop general understanding about the paradigm of sustainable development and how this concept is translated into policy-making. Three elements of the concept are presented step by step: economic development, social change and conservation of environment. The course begins with reviewing the last 60 years of world development, exploring the inception of the SD concept, and international efforts undertaken in the mainstream of this concept since early 70s. Then the focus shifts to economic policy and discusses economic growth vs. economic development. The course next moves to the issues of social change, addressing poverty, hunger, entitlement and public participation in decision-making. The course further dwells upon issues of democracy, governance, and human freedoms as factors of development. Next the instructor turns to the issues of overpopulation, scarcity of natural resources and impact on sustainable development. The attention then turns to sustainable management of natural resources and sound environmental practices. The course concludes with the overview of national development strategies and international development efforts to achieve broad-based sustainable development. All the issues presented in the course are studied in strong relationship with the local setup in Armenia in order to deepen students’ understanding of the current stage of development in Armenia and country’s prospects for sustainable future.
ENV 304 (IE 399): Built Environment and Biodiversity (3 credits)
AUA ACE has also partnered in organizing special courses for groups and professionals that do not traditionally see their work related to the environment. In 2012, AUA ACE participated in offering a course, which included intensive field research, called the Built Environment and Biodiversity. The course was offered in cooperation with the United Nations University and the AUA College of Science and Engineering. The course introduced the topic of biodiversity preservation to architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture students.
ENV 310: Ecology, Biodiversity, and the Future (2 credits)
This course will focus on the principles of ecology and the maintenance of biodiversity. Threats to biodiversity such as deforestation and invasive species will be discussed as well as efforts to maintain biodiversity such as natural reserves, reserve design, and ecological restoration. The course will include lectures and discussions on these topics and include one day-long field trip. 20 hours of classroom meetings and one field trip outside of class will be required.
ENV 311: Environmental Science and Conservation (2 credits)
The health of Armenia’s environment is critical to the sustainable development of the Republic. Environmental Science and Conservation introduces the fundamental concepts of environmental science and conservation in an Armenian context. Topics covered include human population growth, ecosystem theory, water resources, water pollution, air pollution, ozone depletion, global warming and local climate change, soil degradation, energy resources, solid waste management, and biodiversity. 20 hours of classroom meetings and one field trip outside of class will be required.
ENV 312: Environmental Ornithology (2 credits)
The course consists of 10 lessons (20 hours). Each lesson will be dedicated to a group of birds (such as Raptors, Woodpeckers, Waterbirds, etc). The birds are taken as means of explanation of current environmental threats. During each class you will learn some peculiarities of ecology with the help of each bird group and also will learn how to recognize birds and how to identify them in nature.