Course Search Results

Overview of transportation markets—intercity, rural, urban; transportation modes—rail, highway, air, water, pipeline, transit; issues in finance, policy, planning, management, physical distribution, and environmental, economic, and safety regulation.

Basic geomorphic and environmental processes that shape the earth's surface; emphasis on erosion, transport, deposition by land mass movement (creep, landslides, earth flow), fluid agents (wind, water, ice); methods used to study these processes. Students examine the basic geomorphic, environmental processes that shape the earth's surface. Emphasis is on weathering--mass movement (creep, landslides, earth flow), erosion, transport, deposition by fluid agents (wind, water, ice); and methods used to study these processes.

Introduction to soil genesis, soil geomorphology, and classification including the basics of soil profile description and soil-landscape, soil-vegetation, and soil-climate relationships; emphasis on study of soils as the interface between living and non-living Earth systems and the role of soils in sustaining ecosystems and human societies; short field excursions and a weekend field trip.

This course provides an introduction to soil genesis, soil geomorphology and classification including the basics of soil profile description and soil-landscape, soil-vegetation, and soil-climate relationships.  Emphasis is placed on study of soils as the interface between living and non-living Earth systems and the role of soils in sustaining ecosystems and human societies.  The course includes a three hour laboratory period that often involves short field excursions.  There is also a required weekend field trip.  Grades are based on exams, laboratory exercises, and an annotated bibliography. Lectures and lab are taught by a faculty member.

Development of livable cities in the United States; economic, physical, environmental, and political forces that shape their growth; impact of planning, how it shapes the future of cities.

This course explores the development of livable cities within the U.S.  It is divided into four main parts that address the following questions:  (1) What is a livable city?  Differing possible perceptions of livable urban areas are considered, and common elements of livable cities are identified, considering both US and relevant foreign examples.  Sources of potential disagreement concerning livability goals and objectives are recognized.  (2) What makes cities work?  Students examine the historical development patterns of US cities from pre-colonial times, through the industrial revolution, and up to the post-industrial present.  Students explore urban economic structures, transportation modes, physical characteristics, and environmental and political forces and movements that have shaped our cities.  (3) What maintains our cities?  The class examines the legal and social underpinnings of planning, zoning, and subdivision controls and their impact on the physical layout and functioning of US cities.  Students learn through examining actual city code documents and by witnessing developers, planners, the public, and City Council or Zoning Board members interacting at a public hearing. (4) What is shaping our future urban areas?  Students explore innovative land-use regulation approaches, recent demographic trends, and ongoing urban environmental concerns, such as air quality, energy use, and transportation congestion.  Course format includes lectures and class discussions that incorporate the use of maps and graphics, video material, historical and contemporary photographs of urban areas, and artistic interpretations and architectural renditions. This course meets a requirement for the Sustainability Certificate.

Societal and environmental implications of past, current, and future global food supply examined from a geographical perspective; focus on questions of who eats what, where, and why; transformative history of agriculture, modern agribusiness and alternative food supplies, geopolitical implications of food production, food scarcity and rising food costs, urban versus rural agriculture, the obesity epidemic versus malnutrition, and the future of food.

Provision of health care in selected countries, with particular reference to the Third World; focus on problems of geographical, economic, cultural accessibility to health services; disease ecology, prospective payment systems, privatization, medical pluralism.

Ecosystem services—valuable goods and services produced by ecosystems (e.g., flood control, food production, water purification)—from an interdisciplinary perspective centering on geographic techniques used to measure, map, and model ecosystem services; methods used to incorporate ecosystem services into decision and policy making; how human activities alter these services.

Green building and sustainable development trends and theories: water policy, ecosystem services, climate change, and public health; LEED certified building process and each of the associated credit categories (i.e., sustainable sites, energy and atmosphere, water efficiency); how knowledge of green building and sustainable development can help lessen the environmental impact of built environments, improve the bottom line, and better plan for great communities.

Students will learn about green building and sustainable development trends and theories, with a focus on water policy, ecosystem services, climate change, and public health.  Students will become familiar with the LEED Certified building process and each of the associated credit categories (Sustainable Sites, Energy and Atmosphere, and Water Efficiency).  Students will understand how knowledge of green building and sustainable development can help lessen the environmental impact of built environments, improve the bottom line, and better plan for great communities.

Basic concepts and principles of remote sensing; sources of data; georegistration; digital processing and classification of remotely sensed images for extraction of environmental information; linkage of remote sensing techniques with GIS analysis.

Students learn new, more advanced techniques for the representation and study of human and natural systems using geographic information systems (GIS); application of this new knowledge to environmental management and problem solving.

Opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in faculty-led research projects.

Introduction to how geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics are used in the study of patterns of health and disease in space and time.

This course will provide an introduction to how geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics are used in the study of patterns of health and disease in space and time.  The class emphasizes application-based learning, pairing class lectures and readings on theories underlying geographical modeling with hands-on usage of GIS and other spatial analysis software used by spatial epidemiologists.  Both infectious and non-infectious health outcomes will be used to demonstrate topics such as clustering of events, environmental health, neighborhoods and health, etc.

Introduction to basic building blocks of spatial database design, spatial data models, structures, relationships, queries (SQL), indexing, and geoprocessing; design and construction of various types of spatial databases, including relational and big data approaches such as ArcGIS geodatabase, PostGIS/PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.

Geographic databases support storing, manipulating and querying spatial data and are an integral part of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Building upon the basic database system concepts, this course presents the fundamental principles of design, implementation, querying and computation (geoprocessing) in geographic databases. The lecture component of the course covers the theories that underpin spatial data acquisition and handling, spatial database modeling, querying, and automation in geographic databases. The laboratory component of the course focuses on the practical skills needed to acquire spatial data; design, construct and query geodatabases; develop Python scripts to perform geoprocessing and automate repetitive tasks in a geodatabase environment. The labs are designed to teach students skills to collect, store, manipulate and query a variety of geographic datasets such as geotagged Tweets, Census units and boundaries, facilities, transportation, land use, cadastral parcel and spatial networks. As an outcome of the course, students will develop their practical skills in creating and managing geodatabases, writing Structured Query Language (SQL) statements for querying non-spatial and spatial data, develop Python Scripts for geoprocessing and automation. The course is concluded by a discussion of advanced topics and future directions in databases and GIScience; and introduce students with the concepts of Big Data, NoSQL, MongoDB and Hadoop.

Introduction to the field of environmental justice; understanding and addressing the processes that lead poor and marginalized communities to face a disproportionate degree of environmental risks and hazards.

This course introduces you to environmental justice, which seeks to understand the various processes that lead poor and marginalized communities to face a disproportionate degree of environmental risks and hazards.  Beginning with the birth of the environmental justice movement focused on the siting of waste facilities, we will trace the development of the field as it has expanded into examination of health disparities, natural hazards, climate change, the international waste trade, and access to amenities such as healthy food.

Original research.

Original research.

Supervised readings by graduate students in topics of their choice.

Theories and methods of exerting public control over passenger and freight transportation; social and environmental regulation; effects of changing finance, regulation, and pricing policies, including privatization, tolls, impact fees.

This course has been designed to provide: (1) a broad, historical survey of how government has applied two major policy instruments, regulation and finance, in the transport sector; and (2) a more detailed, analytical review of recent and proposed changes in regulatory and financial policy as those policy revisions relate to social goals and transport agencies in the U.S. The regulatory emphasis is on transport environmental, social, and safety regulation, but attention also is given to economic regulatory measures. Although the geographic emphasis is the U.S., policies and practices of other countries are discussed for comparison, and international implications of transport change is investigated. It is assumed that students are acquainted in general with institutions and economic relationships in transportation (such as presented in the planning course 102:260), including the government instruments applied to influence market activities in intercity transport. The course builds upon this knowledge to explore recent developments in government investment and promotion practices, such as federal highway cost allocation studies and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

The initial portion of the course covers air, highway, and rail transport regulation and the effects of major changes in the economic regulation of those modes. Impacts on service to small communities and to persons with disabilities, the distribution of traffic among the modes, market structure, pricing and price discrimination, and innovation and technological change are discussed. Next students cover safety and environmental regulation, including transport security, environmental impact statements, environmental justice, nonattainment areas, and mitigation measures. An important current topic for investigation is the integration of environmental impact assessment in the transport planning process. In the second portion of the course, students explore finance principles, policies, and operations. Finally, students critically review proposals for change, such as revised transport programs (including state infrastructure banks, block grants, and intermodal trust funds); different methods of infrastructure finance and pricing (including possible roles for intelligent transportation systems); and privatization (including private operation of public facilities, contracts with private firms for facility maintenance, private construction and operation of toll facilities, and public-private partnerships for the joint development of land and transportation).

Students have the opportunity and responsibility for active participation in class discussion; each person should appear at class meetings prepared to contribute to a discussion of the week's readings. During the semester students are assigned to write approximately five policy memos, short research reports, or critiques of publications. A final exam is given, either in class at the assigned time, or as a take-home exam; the form is determined following the instructor's consultation with students. Evaluation of students' level of achievement in the course is based on demonstrated performance as follows: discussion and oral presentations (35%), papers and critiques (40%), and final exam (25%).

Additional instruction relating to Freight Transportation Planning will be added for students taking the 4 s.h. option. 

There are no textbooks for this class.

Directed research in health and environment.

Directed research in spatial analysis, GIScience, simulation.

Directed research in environmental justice and policy.