Sustainability, Science and Society Interfaculty Program (B.A. & Sc.) (54 credits)
Offered by: Geography (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 54
Program Description
The B.A. & Sc. Interfaculty Program in Sustainability, Science and Society focuses on the interdisciplinary and integrative knowledge and skills required to effectively understand and address challenges in transitioning to a sustainable future. Challenges are often defined by multiple dimensions, including scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural. The program is built on three pillars:
- science and technology - to provide an in-depth understanding of the biophysical basis for current issues and challenges;
- economics, policy, and governance - to understand how we can make the sustainability transition;
- ethics, equity, and justice - to discuss why we need change, and the issues of equity and justice associated with taking action.
This program is offered in collaboration with the Bieler School of Environment.
Degree Requirements — B.A. & Sc. students
This program is offered as part of a Bachelor of Arts & Science (B.A. & Sc.) degree.
To graduate, students must satisfy both their program requirements and their degree requirements.
- The program requirements (i.e., the specific courses that make up this program) are listed under the Course Tab (above).
- The degree requirements—including the mandatory Foundation program, appropriate degree structure, and any additional components—are outlined on the Degree Requirements page.
Students are responsible for ensuring that this program fits within the overall structure of their degree and that all degree requirements are met. Consult the Degree Planning Guide on the SOUSA website for additional guidance.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (27 credits)
27 credits selected as follows:
Foundations of Sustainability
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVR 201 | Society, Environment and Sustainability. | 3 |
Society, Environment and Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course deals with how scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional and behavioural factors mediate society-environment interactions. Issues discussed include population and resources; consumption, impacts and institutions; integrating environmental values in societal decision-making; and the challenges associated with, and strategies for, promoting sustainability. Case studies in various sectors and contexts are used. | ||
| GEOG 360 | Analyzing Sustainability. | 3 |
Analyzing Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines challenges to sustainability through a series of case studies to illustrate the analytical approaches used to understand the linkages between scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural aspect of systems. Includes cases that are thematic and place-based, national and international, spanning from the local to global scales. | ||
| GEOG 401 | Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation. | 3 |
Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptual and simulation models of key case studies for developing system thinking, including system stability, threshold dynamics in regime shifts, resilience, and adaptive environmental management. | ||
| GEOG 460 | Research in Sustainability. | 3 |
Research in Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Through engaging in real-world sustainability challenges through hands-on research, learn to critically analyze problems that arise at the interface of multiple disciplines including the scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional, ethical, and human behavioural. Develop an understanding of the leverages and road blocks in achieving a sustainability transition. | ||
Biophysical, Societal, Cultural, Institutional, and Ethical
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVR 200 | The Global Environment. | 3 |
The Global Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systems approach to study the different components of the environment involved in global climate change: the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The interactions among these components. Their role in global climate change. The human dimension to global change. | ||
| ENVR 202 | The Evolving Earth. | 3 |
The Evolving Earth. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Formation of the Earth and the evolution of life. How geological and biological change are the consequence of history, chance, and necessity acting over different scales of space and time. General principles governing the formation of modern landscapes and biotas. Effects of human activities on natural systems. | ||
| ENVR 203 | Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. | 3 |
Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to cultural perspectives on the environment: the influence of culture and cognition on perceptions of the natural world; conflicts in orders of knowledge (models, taxonomies, paradigms, theories, cosmologies), ethics (moral values, frameworks, dilemmas), and law (formal and customary, rights and obligations) regarding political dimensions of critical environments, resource use, and technologies. | ||
| GEOG 203 | Environmental Systems. | 3 |
Environmental Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to system-level interactions among climate, hydrology, soils and vegetation at the scale of drainage basins, including the study of the global geographical variability in these land-surface systems. The knowledge acquired is used to study the impact on the environment of various human activities such as deforestation and urbanisation. | ||
| GEOG 408 | Geography of Development. | 3 |
Geography of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the geographical dimensions of development policy, specifically the relationships between the process of development and human-induced environmental change. Focuses on environmental sustainability, struggles over resource control, population and poverty, and levels of governance (the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and local communities). | ||
Complementary Courses (27 credits)
Statistics
3 credits of Statistics from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AEMA 310 | Statistical Methods 1. | 3 |
Statistical Methods 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Measures of central tendency and dispersion; binomial and Poisson distributions; normal, chi-square, Student's t and Fisher-Snedecor F distributions; estimation and hypothesis testing; simple linear regression and correlation; analysis of variance for simple experimental designs. | ||
| BIOL 373 | Biometry. | 3 |
Biometry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Elementary statistical methods in biology. Introduction to the analysis of biological data with emphasis on the assumptions behind statistical tests and models. Use of statistical techniques typically available on computer packages. | ||
| GEOG 202 | Statistics and Spatial Analysis. | 3 |
Statistics and Spatial Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploratory data analysis, univariate descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric statistics, correlation and simple regression. Problems associated with analysing spatial data such as the 'modifiable areal unit problem' and spatial autocorrelation. Statistics measuring spatial pattern in point, line and polygon data. | ||
| MATH 203 | Principles of Statistics 1. | 3 |
Principles of Statistics 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Examples of statistical data and the use of graphical means to summarize the data. Basic distributions arising in the natural and behavioural sciences. The logical meaning of a test of significance and a confidence interval. Tests of significance and confidence intervals in the one and two sample setting (means, variances and proportions). | ||
| PSYC 204 | Introduction to Psychological Statistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Psychological Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The statistical analysis of research data; frequency distributions; graphic representation; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary sampling theory and tests of significance. | ||
Economics
3 credits of Economics from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AGEC 200 | Principles of Microeconomics. | 3 |
Principles of Microeconomics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The field of economics as it relates to the activities of individual consumers, firms and organizations. Emphasis is on the application of economic principles and concepts to everyday decision making and to the analysis of current economic issues. | ||
| AGEC 201 | Principles of Macroeconomics. | 3 |
Principles of Macroeconomics. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The overall economic system, how it works, and the instruments used to solve social problems. Emphasis will be on decision-making involving the entire economic system and segments of it. | ||
| ECON 208 | Microeconomic Analysis and Applications. | 3 |
Microeconomic Analysis and Applications. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A university-level introduction to demand and supply, consumer behaviour, production theory, market structures and income distribution theory. | ||
| ECON 209 | Macroeconomic Analysis and Applications. | 3 |
Macroeconomic Analysis and Applications. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A university-level introduction to national income determination, money and banking, inflation, unemployment and economic policy. | ||
| ECON 225 | Economics of the Environment. | 3 |
Economics of the Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the application of economic theory to questions of environmental policy. Particular attention will be given to the measurement and regulation of pollution, congestion and waste and other environmental aspects of specific economies. | ||
| ECON 230D1 | Microeconomic Theory. | 3 |
Microeconomic Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The introductory course for Economics Major students in microeconomic theory. In depth and critical presentation of the theory of consumer behaviour, theory of production and cost curves, theory of the firm, theory of distribution, welfare economics and the theory of general equilibrium. | ||
| ECON 230D2 | Microeconomic Theory. | 3 |
Microeconomic Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See ECON 230D1 for course description. | ||
Sustainability in Business
3 credits of Management from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| INSY 455 | Technology and Innovation for Sustainability. | 3 |
Technology and Innovation for Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The role of information and other technologies in the size and nature of an organization’s environmental ‘footprint’. Achieving sustainability through strategic innovation, such as digitization, recycling, reuse of materials, sustainable design, LEED certifications, smart grids and energy metrics. Analyzing the environmental benefits and hidden costs of novel technologies. | ||
| MGCR 460 | Social Context of Business. | 3 |
Social Context of Business. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Examination of how business interacts with the larger society. Exploration of the development of modern capitalist society, and the dilemmas that organizations face in acting in a socially responsible manner. Examination of these issues with reference to sustainable development, business ethics, globalization and developing countries, and political activity. | ||
| MGPO 440 | Strategies for Sustainability. | 3 |
Strategies for Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores the relationship between economic activity, management, and the natural environment. Using readings, discussions and cases, the course will explore the challenges that the goal of sustainable development poses for our existing notions of economic goals, production and consumption practices and the management of organizations. | ||
| MGPO 475 | Strategies for Developing Countries. | 3 |
Strategies for Developing Countries. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Strategic management challenges in developing and emerging economies. Focus on strategies that foster both firm competitiveness and economic development, including: technological capabilities, new forms of organization, small and large firms, global production, social impact, global standards and governance. | ||
18 additional credits chosen from three areas listed below, of which at least 9 credits must be at the 300 level or higher, students must choose at least 6 credits from each area (1, 2, and 3)
Area 1: Methods: Observation, Analysis, Modelling, and Management
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVB 437 | Assessing Environmental Impact. | 3 |
Assessing Environmental Impact. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Principles and practice of Environmental Assessment (EA) in Canada and internationally. Exploration of issues surrounding impact assessment for sustainable development in different sectors, including their limitations. | ||
| ENVB 529 | GIS for Natural Resource Management. 1 | 3 |
GIS for Natural Resource Management. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the presentation and analysis of ecological information, including sources and capture of spatial data; characterizing, transforming, displaying spatial data; and spatial analysis to solve resource management problems. | ||
| ESYS 301 | Earth System Modelling. | 3 |
Earth System Modelling. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction o principle concepts of systems modelling related to Earth system science and environmental science, including simple numerical models, conservation laws of mass, energy, and momentum, discretization of governing differential equations, the stability of numerical schemes, and exploration of the ideas of equilibria, feedbacks, and complexity. | ||
| ESYS 500 | Collaborative Research Project. | 3 |
Collaborative Research Project. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The main steps in developing an Earth System Science research project: identifying knowledge gaps using scientific literature, designing a research strategy (observational, analytical or computational), conducting the research, analyzing and synthesizing results, and communicating results as a formal scientific report. | ||
| GEOG 201 | Introductory Geo-Information Science. 1 | 3 |
Introductory Geo-Information Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. The systematic management of spatial data. The use and construction of maps. The use of microcomputers and software for mapping and statistical work. Air photo and topographic map analyses. | ||
| GEOG 302 | Environmental Management 1. | 3 |
Environmental Management 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An ecological analysis of the physical and biotic components of natural resource systems. Emphasis on scientific, technological and institutional aspects of environmental management. Study of the use of biological resources and of the impact of individual processes. | ||
| GEOG 308 | Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. | 3 |
Remote Sensing for Earth Observation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A conceptual view of remote sensing and the underlying physical principles. Covers ground-based, aerial, satellite systems, and the electromagnetic spectrum, from visible to microwave. Emphasis on application of remotely sensed data in geography including land cover change and ecological processes. | ||
| GEOG 314 | Geospatial Analysis. | 3 |
Geospatial Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Overview of both the theoretical and applied aspects of geographic information science and systems. Topics will include spatial analysis techniques, geographic models as abstractions of the real world, spatial data manipulation and management, and conceptual issues related to geographic data and technology. Introduction to a number of leading commercial software including ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro. | ||
| GEOG 333 | Introduction to Programming for Spatial Sciences. | 3 |
Introduction to Programming for Spatial Sciences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to conceptual and practical aspects of programming for the spatial sciences, focusing on programming concepts and techniques irrespective of the specific programming language, framework, or software. Topics include spatial data structures, flow control, classes and objects, and basics of geospatial data modeling and analysis. | ||
| GEOG 351 | Quantitative Methods. | 3 |
Quantitative Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Multiple regression and correlation, logit models, discrete choice models, gravity models, facility location algorithms, survey design, population projection. | ||
| GEOG 404 | Environmental Management 2. | 3 |
Environmental Management 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical application of environmental planning, analysis and management techniques with reference to the needs and problems of developing areas. Special challenges posed by cultural differences and traditional resource systems are discussed. This course involves practical field work in a developing area (Kenya or Panama). | ||
| GEOG 414 | Advanced Geospatial Analysis. | 3 |
Advanced Geospatial Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced techniques in geospatial analysis. Geospatial methods and using geospatial information systems. Topics: geodatabases, interpolation techniques, spatial classification methods, data mining and machine learning, including working with a number of leading commercial software including ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop/Pro. | ||
| GEOG 495 | Field Studies - Physical Geography. | 3 |
Field Studies - Physical Geography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Field research projects in physical geography. Held locally in Monteregian or Eastern Township regions. The course is organised around field projects designed to formulate and test scientific hypotheses in a physical geography discipline. May Summer session. | ||
| GEOG 509 | Qualitative Methods. | 3 |
Qualitative Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Qualitative methods that geographers use and the debates surrounding their use; epistemological underpinnings of methodological choices. | ||
| GEOG 512 | Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Field Research. | 3 |
Advanced Quantitative Methods in Social Field Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. How does one collect data to quantitatively assess research questions in human geography or other social sciences, and what methods are available to analyze those data? This course introduces students to advanced statistical techniques commonly confronted in field-based social science studies. The course is divided into four major topics: research design, evaluating impacts of policies or programs, time-series data, and spatial interactions. For the techniques investigated, the course will highlight major technical assumptions, field considerations for data collection, and how each does or does not account for geographic factors that may influence outcomes of interest. | ||
| URBP 506 | Environmental Policy and Planning. | 3 |
Environmental Policy and Planning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Analytical and institutional approaches for understanding and addressing environmental issues at various scales; characteristics of environmental issues, science-policy-politics interactions relating to the environment, and implications for policy; sustainability, and the need for and challenges associated with interdisciplinary perspectives; externalities and their regulation; public goods; risk perception and implications; the political-institutional context and policy instruments; cost-benefit analysis; multiple-criteria decision-making approaches; multidimensional life-cycle analysis; policy implementation issues; conflict resolution; case studies. | ||
- 1
Students may select either GEOG 201 Introductory Geo-Information Science. or ENVB 529 GIS for Natural Resource Management., but not both.
Area 2: Society, Economics, Policy, Ethics, and Equity
2A: Society, Economics, and Policy
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AGEC 333 | Resource Economics. | 3 |
Resource Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The role of resources in the environment, use of resources, and management of economic resources within the firm or organization. Problem-solving, case studies involving private and public decision-making in organizations are utilized. | ||
| AGEC 430 | Agriculture, Food and Resource Policy. | 3 |
Agriculture, Food and Resource Policy. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Examination of North American and international agriculture, food and resource policies, policy instruments, programs and their implications. Economic analysis applied to the principles, procedures and objectives of various policy actions affecting agriculture, and the environment. | ||
| AGEC 442 | Economics of International Agricultural Development. | 3 |
Economics of International Agricultural Development. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course deals with economic aspects of international development with emphasis on the role of food, agriculture and the resource sector in the economy of developing countries. Topics will include world food analysis, development project analysis and policies for sustainable development. Development case studies will be used. | ||
| ANTH 206 | Environment and Culture. | 3 |
Environment and Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to ecological anthropology, focusing on social and cultural adaptations to different environments, human impact on the environment, cultural constructions of the environment, management of common resources, and conflict over the use of resources. | ||
| ANTH 212 | Anthropology of Development. | 3 |
Anthropology of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Processes of developmental change, as they affect small communities in the Third World and in unindustrialized parts of developed countries. Problems of technological change, political integration, population growth, industrialization, urban growth, social services, infrastructure and economic dependency. | ||
| ANTH 339 | Ecological Anthropology. | 3 |
Ecological Anthropology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Intensive study of theories and cases in ecological anthropology. Theories are examined and tested through comparative case-study analysis. Cultural constructions of "nature" and "environment" are compared and analyzed. Systems of resource management and conflicts over the use of resources are studied in depth. | ||
| ECON 313 | Economic Development 1. | 3 |
Economic Development 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Microeconomic theories of economic development and empirical evidence on population, labour, firms, poverty. Inequality and environment. | ||
| ECON 314 | Economic Development 2. | 3 |
Economic Development 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Macroeconomic development issues, including theories of growth, public finance, debt, currency crises, corruption, structural adjustment, democracy and global economic organization. | ||
| ECON 326 | Ecological Economics. | 3 |
Ecological Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Macroeconomic and structural aspects of the ecological crisis. A course in which subjects discussed include the conflict between economic growth and the laws of thermodynamics; the search for alternative economic indicators; the fossil fuels crisis; and "green'' fiscal policy. | ||
| ECON 347 | Economics of Climate Change. | 3 |
Economics of Climate Change. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course focuses on the economic implications of, and problems posed by, predictions of global warming due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. Attention is given to economic policies such as carbon taxes and tradeable emission permits and to the problems of displacing fossil fuels with new energy technologies. | ||
| ECON 405 | Natural Resource Economics. | 3 |
Natural Resource Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics include: Malthusian and Ricardian Scarcity; optimal depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources; exploration, risk and industry structure, and current resources, rent and taxation. Current public policies applied to the resource industries, particularly those of a regulatory nature. | ||
| GEOG 210 | Global Places and Peoples. | 3 |
Global Places and Peoples. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to key themes in human geography. Maps and the making, interpretation and contestation of landscapes, 'place', and territory. Investigation of globalization and the spatial organization of human geo-politics, and urban and rural environments. | ||
| GEOG 216 | Geography of the World Economy. | 3 |
Geography of the World Economy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course introduces the geography of the world economic system. It describes the spatial distribution of economic activities and examines the factors which influence their changing location. Case studies from both "developed" and "developing" countries will test the different geographical theories presented in lectures. | ||
| GEOG 303 | Health Geography. | 3 |
Health Geography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion of the research questions and methods of health geography. Particular emphasis on health inequalities at multiple geographic scales and the theoretical links between characteristics of places and the health of people. | ||
| GEOG 310 | Development and Livelihoods. | 3 |
Development and Livelihoods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Geographical dimensions of rural/urban livelihoods in the face of socioeconomic and environmental change in developing regions. Emphasis on household natural resource use, survival strategies and vulnerability, decision-making, formal and informal institutions, migration, and development experience in contrasting global environments. | ||
| GEOG 316 | Political Geography. | 3 |
Political Geography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The study of the spatial dimensions of political activities and developments at the regional, national and global levels in historical and contemporary perspective. Presentation of case studies relating to the theoretical framework of political geography. | ||
| GEOG 409 | Geographies of Developing Asia. | 3 |
Geographies of Developing Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Current development questions that are of concern to the Asian region. Emphasis on critically studying the major processes of social, economic and environmental change through regional case studies in rural, peri-urban and urban contexts. Covers important debates and considerations that lie at the heart of development geography. | ||
| HIST 292 | History and the Environment. | 3 |
History and the Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Sketch of the history of the material aspects of human interaction with the rest of nature. Included will be a historian's view of the social, technical, and ecological implications of the great variety of activities devised by our species. Though global in outlook, this course will emphasize the relevant historiography of France, England and North America. | ||
| INDG 200 | Introduction to Indigenous Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Indigenous Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The focus is on Indigenous experience in Canada, but encourages comparative approaches. Introduction to the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of Indigenous life in Canada. | ||
| POLI 350 | Global Environmental Politics. | 3 |
Global Environmental Politics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Environmental problems like climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification transcend national borders. Solving these problems will require global cooperation on an unprecedented level. This course will explore the challenges of contemporary global environmental governance and the innovative solutions being advanced at the community, municipal, provincial, national, and international levels. | ||
| URBP 530 | Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context . | 3 |
Urban Infrastructure and Services in International Context . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Issues of practical and theoretical importance in relation to urban infrastructure and services in the international context: science and technology, political economy, policy analysis, policy implementation, public finance, and institutions and governance. | ||
| URBP 553 | Urban Governance. | 3 |
Urban Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical perspectives on the governance of contemporary cities and urban regions, with a focus on North America. The relationship between planners and other important local governance actors, including municipal governments, the realestate industry, and community groups. The role of planning and planners in challenging or perpetuating urban social, political, economic, and environmental inequities. | ||
2B: Ethics and Equity
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVR 400 | Environmental Thought. | 3 |
Environmental Thought. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Students work in interdisciplinary seminar groups on challenging philosophical, ethical, scientific and practical issues. They will explore cutting-edge ideas and grapple with the reconciliation of environmental imperatives and social, political and economic pragmatics. Activities include meeting practitioners, attending guest lectures, following directed readings, and organizing, leading and participating in seminars. | ||
| MGPO 450 | Ethics in Management. | 3 |
Ethics in Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the economic, legal and ethical responsibilities of managers in both private and public organizations. Through readings, case studies, discussions and projects the class evaluates alternative ethical systems and norms of behaviour and draws conclusions as to the right, proper and just decisions and actions in the face of moral dilemmas. The focus of this course is on the decision process, values and consistency of values of the individual and on the impact of systems control and incentives on managerial morality. | ||
| PHIL 349 | Environmental Philosophy. | 3 |
Environmental Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to environmental ethics; potentially also such related fields as philosophy of ecology, environmental aesthetics, and/or other philosophical topics demonstrably relevant to environmental issues. | ||
| RELG 270 | Religious Ethics and the Environment. | 3 |
Religious Ethics and the Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Environmental potential of various religious traditions and secular perspectives, including animal rights, ecofeminism, and deep ecology. | ||
| SOCI 325 | Sociology of Science. | 3 |
Sociology of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A review of sociological research on science as an institution. Topics include the culture and practice of science, societal influences on scientific processes, the use of scientific output and technology in media and society, and the impact of cultural and institutional forces on the evolution of scientific knowledge. | ||
Area 3: Sustainability and Biophysical Processes
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ATOC 214 | Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. | 3 |
Introduction: Physics of the Atmosphere. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to key physical processes operating in the atmosphere, designed for students in science and engineering. Topics typically include: composition of the atmosphere; vertical structure; heat transfer; solar and terrestrial radiation and Earth's energy balance; seasonal and daily temperature changes; humidity and the formation of clouds and precipitation; stability of tropospheric air layers; applications of adiabatic charts. | ||
| ATOC 215 | Oceans, Weather and Climate. | 3 |
Oceans, Weather and Climate. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to key physical and dynamical processes in the oceans and atmosphere. Topics typically include air-sea-ice interactions, laws of motion, the geostrophic and thermal wind relations, general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, weather, radiative balance, climate sensitivity and variability, role of the atmosphere and oceans in climate. | ||
| BIOL 308 | Ecological Dynamics. | 3 |
Ecological Dynamics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles of population, community, and ecosystem dynamics: population growth and regulation, species interactions, dynamics of competitive interactions and of predator/prey systems; evolutionary dynamics. | ||
| BIOL 310 | Biodiversity and Ecosystems. | 3 |
Biodiversity and Ecosystems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Ecological bases of the natural causes and consequences of current global environmental changes, including how biodiversity and ecosystem processes are defined and measured, how they vary in space and time, how they are affected by physical and biological factors, and how they affect each other and human societies. | ||
| BIOL 465 | Conservation Biology. | 3 |
Conservation Biology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion of relevant theoretical and applied issues in conservation biology. Topics: biodiversity, population viability analysis, community dynamics, biology of rarity, extinction, habitat fragmentation, social issues. | ||
| BIOL 540 | Ecology of Species Invasions. 1 | 3 |
Ecology of Species Invasions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Causes and consequences of biological invasion, as well as risk assessment methods and management strategies for dealing with invasive species. | ||
| BREE 217 | Hydrology and Water Resources. 2 | 3 |
Hydrology and Water Resources. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Introduction to water resources and hydrologic cycle. Precipitation and hydrologic frequency analysis. Soil water processes, infiltration theory and modeling. Evapotranspiration estimation methods and crop water requirements. Surface runoff estimation as a function of land use modifications. Estimation of peak runoff rates. Unit hydrograph. Design of open channels and vegetated waterways. | ||
| CHEM 462 | Green Chemistry. | 3 |
Green Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. New reactions and methods which can be used for the production of chemicals from renewable feedstocks; the use of new environmentally benign solvents, catalysts and reagents; organic reactions in aqueous media and in supercritical carbon dioxide; bio-catalysis and bio-processes. | ||
| ENVB 305 | Population and Community Ecology. | 3 |
Population and Community Ecology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Interactions between organisms and their environment; historical and current perspectives in applied and theoretical population and community ecology. Principles of population dynamics, feedback loops, and population regulation. Development and structure of communities; competition, predation and food web dynamics. Biodiversity science in theory and practice. | ||
| ENVB 410 | Ecosystem Ecology. | 3 |
Ecosystem Ecology. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Biotic and abiotic processes that control the flows of energy, nutrients and water through ecosystems; emergent system properties; approaches to analyzing complex systems. Labs include collection and multivariate analysis of field data. | ||
| ENVR 540 | Ecology of Species Invasions. 1 | 3 |
Ecology of Species Invasions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Causes and consequences of biological invasion, as well as risk assessment methods and management strategies for dealing with invasive species. | ||
| ESYS 200 | Earth-System Interactions. | 3 |
Earth-System Interactions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics related to climate change, biogeochemical cycles and natural resources are evaluated from an Earth System perspective. Exploration of the scientific literature in targeted areas of Earth system science with a focus on human-Earth interactions. Emphasis is on complex global issues that cross traditional disciplines, and interpreting and communicating academic knowledge derived from Earth system research. | ||
| ESYS 300 | Earth Data Analysis. | 3 |
Earth Data Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An applied introduction to programming and statistical image processing tools used in Earth system science, typically covering linear regression, statistical significance, Fourier analysis, empirical orthogonal function analysis. Use of global remote-sensing and in-situ observations. | ||
| GEOG 221 | Environment and Health. | 3 |
Environment and Health. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduced physical and social environments as factors in human health, with emphasis on the physical properties of the atmospheric environment as they interact with diverse human populations in urban settings. | ||
| GEOG 272 | Earth's Changing Surface. | 3 |
Earth's Changing Surface. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the study of landforms as products of geomorphic and geologic systems acting at and near the Earth's surface. The process geomorphology approach will be used to demonstrate how landforms of different geomorphic settings represent a dynamic balance between forces acting in the environment and the physical properties of materials present. | ||
| GEOG 305 | Soils and Environment. | 3 |
Soils and Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion of the major properties of soils; soil formation, classification and mapping; land capability assessment; the role and response of soils in natural and disturbed environments (e.g. global change, ecosystem disturbance). | ||
| GEOG 321 | Climatic Environments. | 3 |
Climatic Environments. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The earth-atmosphere system, radiation and energy balances. Surface-atmosphere exchange of energy, mass and momentum and related atmospheric processes on a local and regional scale. Introduction to measurement theory and practice in micrometeorology. | ||
| GEOG 322 | Environmental Hydrology. 2 | 3 |
Environmental Hydrology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Quantitative, experimental study of the principles governing the movement of water at or near the Earth's surface and how the research relates to the chemistry and biology of ecosystems. | ||
| GEOG 372 | Running Water Environments. | 3 |
Running Water Environments. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course focuses on the physical habitat conditions found in streams, rivers, estuaries and deltas. Based on the laws governing flow of water and sediment transport, it emphasizes differences among these environments, in terms of channel form, flow patterns, substrate composition and mode of evolution. Flooding, damming, channelisation, forestry impacts. | ||
| GEOG 403 | Global Health and Environmental Change. | 3 |
Global Health and Environmental Change. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Major themes and contemporary case studies in global health and environmental change. Focus on understanding global trends in emerging infectious disease from social, biophysical, and geographical perspectives, and critically assessing the health implications of environmental change in different international contexts. | ||
| GEOG 470 | Wetlands. | 3 |
Wetlands. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the structure, function and utility of wetlands. Topics include the fluxes of energy and water, wetland biogeochemistry, plant ecology in freshwater and coastal wetlands and wetlands use, conservation and restoration. Field trip(s) are envisaged to illustrate issues covered in class. | ||
| GEOG 530 | Global Land and Water Resources. | 3 |
Global Land and Water Resources. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Linkage of physical processes (hydrology and ecosystems) with issues of societal and socio-economic relevance (land, food, and water use appropriation for human well-being). Application of a holistic perspective on land, food and water issues in an international setting, highlighting linkages, feedbacks and trade-offs in an Earth system context. | ||
| GEOG 555 | Ecological Restoration. | 3 |
Ecological Restoration. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A broad overview of ecological restoration. Considers causes of environmental degradation, why and what we restore, how restoration goals are set, and standards in restoration practice, as well as critiques and philosophies of ecological restoration, such as "ecocultural" restoration. | ||
| NRSC 333 | Pollution and Bioremediation. | 3 |
Pollution and Bioremediation. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The environmental contaminants which cause pollution; sources, amounts and transport of pollutants in water, air and soil; waste management. | ||