Environmental Assessment

Units: 3

Introduces students to how organisms are affected by and respond to changes or stressors - both natural and human-induced - in the environment. With a focus on the concepts most significant to the field of environmental assessment, the course emphasizes the fundamental processes and effects of pollutants and naturally-occurring substances in the environment, including emerging issues and historically significant cases.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This course provides students with an appreciation and understanding of the principles of environmental risk assessment including: Hazard Identification, Toxicity Assessment, Exposure Assessment, and Risk Characterization. Emphasis is placed on contemporary problems in human health and the environment, and it will be based on the most current methodologies described in the "Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund." Enrollment in the course requires graduate standing or consent of the instructor. Two semester sequence of college biology & college chemistry.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Provides students with an appreciation and understanding of the principles of environmental exposure assessment including the sources, transport and fate of chemicals in the environment. Emphasis is on contemporary problems in human health and the environment, covering topics such as: transformation and degradation processes, classes of contaminants a well as predicting environmental fate and exposure. Enrollment in the course requires graduate standing or consent of the instructor. Two semester sequence of college biology & college chemistry.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Monitoring and analysis of chemical and biological impacts to the environment. Theory of chemical, physical, biological, and ecological monitoring. Planning and conducting environmental sampling and monitoring programs. Management, analysis, and quality assurance and control. Enrollment in the course requires graduate standing or consent of the instructor.

Offered in Summer

Units: 3

This course provides students with an appreciation for and understanding of the principles of environmental law and policy. Emphasis is on the US legal system and litigation process relevant to environmental law, covering topics such as: the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA], the Pollution Prevention Act [PPA], the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. Throughout the course, a case study is integrated into the conceptual lecture material with the intent of providing practical examples to conceptual material.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

International organizations, laws and policies addressing global environmental problems including: population growth, atmospheric pollution, climate change, use of oceans, forests and biodiversity. Relationship between environment and Third World economic development.

Offered in Summer

Units: 3

This course provides students with an appreciation and broad understanding of environmental data, their analysis, and use in exposure and risk assessments. Topic areas include sources and types of environmental data and exposure/risk models; environmental data processing, cleansing, and visualization techniques; and a refresher to basic environmental data analyses useful for comparisons and evaluation. Numerous case-study activities are used to demonstrate learned concepts using publicly available data from environmental research publications and databases. Emphasis is placed on practical applications commonly used in environmental and health analyses and will be focused on data tools available in spreadsheet programs [e.g., Microsoft Excel[TM], Google sheets].

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

This course provides an advanced overview of how geographic information systems [GIS] facilitate data analysis and communication to address common geographic problems. Students improve spatial reasoning and problem definition expertise while emphasizing geographic data models and structures, data manipulation and storage, customization through programming, and the integration of geospatial analysis and modeling into project-based problem solving applicable to a variety of disciplines. Skilled application of both desktop and cloud-based GIS software supports these areas. Extensive independent learning and computer experiences include virtual laboratory sessions, alongside optional online or in-person weekly help sessions to facilitate student learning.

Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 3

Introduces students to topics fundamental to the understanding of aquatic systems and the processes that influence water quality. Covered topics include the hydrologic cycle, water chemistry, aquatic ecology, aquatic toxicology, water quality laws and standards, water quality assessment and techniques, and water pollution control and treatment. Emphasis is on contemporary water quality issues such as nutrient enrichment, introduced species, contaminants, and climate change.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Procedures and requirements for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA] when projects involve a federal nexus, including permitting and consultation among agencies in the planning process. Illustrating the five NEPA mandates and examining implications for data generation and monitoring that result from responsibilities vested in the Council of Environmental Quality.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Students will learn about assessment of air quality and will examine specific air pollutant problems induced by wildfire. The course will begin with a review of the criteria air pollutants, including sources, chemistry, transport, and dispersion. The majority of the course will focus on environmental assessment of the criteria pollutants. Units will include requirements of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards [NAAQS], monitoring methods and their biases, air pollution monitoring networks, compliance, permitting, and air pollution effects on health, ecology, climate, and equity. Throughout the semester, we will examine these topics through cases pertaining to wildfires.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This distance course introduces students to concepts of the hydrologic cycle, water quality, precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration, watershed delineation, surface runoff and open channel flow. Students will apply these concepts to an engineering design problem. This course is designed for non-engineering distance graduate students and lifelong education students and students from engineering disciplines outside of BAE. It will not substitute for BAE 471. The course is only open to students with senior standing or higher.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This course covers laws, regulations and agencies involved in the registration of conventional, biotechnology and biological crops, crop protectants and growth regulators. US and International laws and regulations will be discussed from technical proof of concept through commercial release.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This course goes into additional depth and provides hands-on exercises concerning agriculture regulatory topics covered in CS 418/518. The course will introduce laws, regulations and agencies involved in the fertilizer, animal and waste management as well as the role of public policy in the regulatory process. CS 418/518 is a prerequisite for this class.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Focus on spatial problem solving from a geographic information perspective. Students learn to solve spatial problems through advanced analysis using geospatial technologies, learn to integrate and analyze spatial data in various formats, and explore methods for displaying geographic data analysis results to guide decision making. All course materials are delivered through the Internet, with optional weekly on-campus and synchronous online help sessions.

Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 3

The course provides foundations in methods for GIS-based surface analysis and modeling. The topics include proximity analysis with cost surfaces and least cost paths, multivariate spatial interpolation and 3D surface visualization. Special focus is on terrain modeling, geomorphometry, solar irradiation, visibility, and watershed analysis. Students are also introduced to the basic concepts of landscape process modeling with GIS and to the principles of open source GIS. Introductory level knowledge of GIS or surveying/ geomatics principles is required.

Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 3

This course will present the basic science of climate change, including chemical and physical systems and processes. The students will be introduced to how the climate system works and the role of greenhouse gases in the climate system. Students will learn about climatological data, climate models and how predictions/projections are made. Emphasis will be placed upon relating predicted/projected changes to manifestations such as sea level rise and changes in the distribution and character of precipitation. Topics include the primary climate components, ocean-atmospheric teleconnections, decadal and multi-decadal climate indices, natural and anthropogenic climate variability, and climate model projections.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Identification and evaluation of basic factors influencing movement of potential pollutants through soil and their underlying strata. Development of understanding of processes of soil and site evaluation for waste disposal and transport of pollutants through soils.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Wetland definitions, concepts, functions and regulations; chemical, physical and morphological characteristics of wetland soils. Wetland soil identification using field indicators and monitoring equipment; principles of wetland creation, restoration and mitigation. Special project required for SSC 570. Two mandatory field trips. Field trips for distance education students are not required but optional. Credit will not be given for both SSC 470 and SSC 570.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer

Units: 3

Basic concepts of statistical models and use of samples; variation, statistical measures, distributions, tests of significance, analysis of variance and elementary experimental design, regression and correlation, chi-square.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer