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 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: 1 - 6

Environmental assessment project conducted under the mentorship of a member of the graduate faculty.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer

Units: 1 - 6

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

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: 1 - 6

Units: 3

This course will cover global frameworks, as well as local, utility, state and federal policy and incentives that foster renewable energy implementation. It will also cover fundamental concepts of finance and economics to build a renewable energy project model that show how these policies affect the economics of a renewable energy project.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This course will cover solar site assessment, wind assessment, and bioenergy with required exercises using current industry tools to assess the viability of the resource. Overview of the historical and current role of wind, solar, and bioenergy power technologies globally and the direction of each sector's evolution for the future, particularly in the USA. The course emphasizes the technology behind power generation for wind, solar, and bioenergy sectors. Students will evaluate policy and permitting issues and, consequently, determine if a site is appropriate for implementation of either or all of these technologies.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

This course covers fundamental principles of the application, design, installation, and operation & maintenance of Photovoltaic [PV] systems in order to properly assess the best system options for a specific project or application. The course will begin with some background on electric energy and its use and delivery. In addition, the course will cover economic implications of the site and PV system considerations. Building on this foundation we will then take an in-depth look at solar photovoltaic function and design to aide students in assessing the environmental, and financial, sustainability of the project. This interdisciplinary approach allows the student to gain a comprehensive understanding of photovoltaics beyond the technical, and caters to individuals across a range of experience and expertise.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Energy Storage and operations and maintenance have become two areas in clean energy, particularly in the PV industry that have been rapidly evolving. This course will offer the basics of battery technology, as well as current market trends and incentives, to provide students timeless tools to assess the best possible option for a specific renewable energy + storage project. Meanwhile, the operations and maintenance portion will go through industry best practices that not only deal with technical management of a solar asset, but also understanding financial implications of the project. This interdisciplinary approach allows students of diverse STEM and non-STEM professional experience and expertise to gain a comprehensive understanding of this aspect of the solar industry.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Principles and hands-on techniques for processing and analyzing remotely sensed data for natural resource applications. Topics include review of the electromagnetic spectrum, pre-processing [georectification, enhancements and transformations], processing [visual interpretation, indices, supervised and unsupervised classification] and post-processing [masking, change analysis and accuracy assessment] of digital image data. This course will provide students with fundamental concepts and skills needed to pursue further studies in digital processing of remotely sensed data.

Offered in Fall and Spring

TERM: Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 2

Principles of cartographic design and how to apply them to produce high-quality geographic information system [GIS] based maps. Successful students will acquire an understanding of map design and experience applying it with GIS software. Students produce project maps in both print and web media.

Offered in Fall and Spring

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 application of geographic information systems [GIS] to surface water modeling including stream and watershed delineations, regulatory wetlands jurisdiction determinations, and flood mapping. In addition students will develop spatial computation methods to support hydrological analysis in land use planning, landscape management, and engineering assessments.

Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 3

This course focuses on geospatial information systems from a mathematical and information science perspective. We discuss theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing geographic data, including levels of measurement, data control, and the vector data and raster data paradigms. Then we discuss the geometric underpinnings of geospatial systems: representing data with geographic elements, spatial referencing systems, and projection. Next, we explore map-related topology and computational geometry concepts. Finally, we survey the algorithms for core spatial manipulations, such as interpolation and polygon operations.

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

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

Units: 3

Covariance, multiple regression, curvilinear regression, concepts of experimental design, factorial experiments, confounded factorials, individual degrees of freedom and split-plot experiments. Computing laboratory addressing computational issues and use of statistical software.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer

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

Current methods for assessment and management of exploited fish populations, including sampling methods, data analysis and modeling. A required research paper or project.

Offered in Fall Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Even Years

Units: 4

Soil as a medium for microbial growth, the relation of microbes to important mineral transformations in soil, the importance of biological equilibrium and significance of soil microbes to environmental quality.

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

Water measurement and structure sizing. Identification of water quality problems and water quality variable selection. Monitoring design, water quality sampling equipment, and sample collection and analysis. Statistical analysis and presentation of water quality data.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 1 - 6

Individual students or groups of students, under direction of a faculty member, may explore topics of special interest not covered by existing courses. Format may consist of readings and independent study, problems or research not related to thesis.Also used to develop and test new 500-level courses.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer

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