Environment and Natural Resources

Environmental and resource management problems and issues are, by definition, interdisciplinary in nature. This course is designed to both expose students to a variety of contemporary resource management and environmental challenges, from local to global scales, and to help them harness the tools and develop requisite skills to describe, characterize, and explain these challenges. Fundamentals of ethics will be presented and related to contemporary topics and issues in resource management. Thus, in addition to learning course material, students will be provided with a forum in which to critique, develop and practice both oral and written presentation skills. Analysis of policy documents, press releases, editorials, science writing, will be integrated with production of these types of communications tools of these types of communication tools by the students themselves. 

Following on Resource Management Issues I, this course will increase students ability to detect and describe breadth, depth, and complexity of contemporary resource management and environmental issues. This course, in addition to building on oral and written communication skills, will provide students with opportunities to explore the use and abuse of a variety of communication tools: visual media, the role of art in contemporary environmental discourse, writing and producing video documentaries, doing radio spots, and interacting with journalists. Focus will be on the theoretical and technical aspects of environmental communication. Ethical issues in science, social science, communications and resource management will be presented. 

An introduction to fieldwork, technical skills and issues associated with natural resource management -- forests, water, environment and wildlife. Each day will focus on a particular skill needed to assess an aspect of natural resources. Included will be demonstrations, field trips and discussion that will highlight current research or areas of current controversy. The interconnection between natural resource systems will be stressed. 

In this course students will learn how to describe and measure the structure and function of human communities; and determine how different social and ethnic groups perceive and relate to the physical environment. We will discuss major environmental movements and describe social values, how they change, what influences them and how they result in policy reform and behavioral change. We will cover basic sociological theory including topics such as institutions, the nature of capitalism, and the philosophical underpinnings of resource management (e.g. property rights, religious traditions). The course will also cover basic political theory, with a focus on democracy and democratic processes. This course draws on methods and readings from a variety of disciplines, including social ecology, environmental sociology, rural sociology, social network theory, history, and anthropology.

This course examines how resource and environmental management systems and tools are developed in cultural and institutional contexts and how these contexts shape the definitions of problems and the management systems proposed as solutions. Included will be analysis of different management regimes and decision-making processes: technocratic, community-based, co-management, network governance, etc. In each case, we will examine the scale of the management issue (local, regional, national, international) and in that context, who has authority, legitimacy, power, accountability, and why; how they obtain, maintain, and enhance them; and implications of each in terms of different management contexts (e.g. common pool resources). Traditional policy-making models will be presented, as well as analytical tools for policy evaluation. Students will develop, defend, and critique a variety of different types of natural resource management plans that involve large-scale environmental changes (including water, air, and land issues), and develop adaptive management strategies that simultaneously account for human and natural systems. 

A comparative examination of the integrated responses of vertebrates to environmental changes. This course focuses on both the acute physiological and long-term adaptations to dealing with environmental challenges. Focus is on physiological responses to extreme environments, and fish will be used as a model vertebrate. 

The theme of this course is how humans impact the environment with our developing technologies. The course examines how aquatic ecosystems are altered by the activities of agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, solid waste disposal, our demands for industry, e.g., pulp and paper, manufacturing, and mining, and our basic needs for clean drinking water, e.g., water and sewage treatment. The course appraises evolving, alternative technologies, with visits to some of these operations to learn how new technologies are reducing impacts and protecting water resources for the future.

This course provides an introduction to the principles of environmental hydro-meteorology. Topics to be covered include energy transfer, radiation laws, energy balance, wind generation, evaporation and precipitation, climatology, snow cover and snow melt processes, the hydrological cycle and water budget, surface runoff, flow routing, and atmosphere-land surface processes associated with land use. These are addressed from small, localized to regional scales. 

A course focusing on the structure of the juncture of rivers and oceans, the animals that live there, how they are adapted to the highly variable but not necessarily unpredictable conditions of water depth, direction of movement, salinity, temperature and water chemistry. Estuaries serve also as corridors for the exchange of nutrients, energy and pollutants between inland areas and the ocean. Estuaries and the coastal environment are where most of us live and work and we are the largest single impact on estuarine and coastal ecology. These impacts, how coastal environments are being changed by them, how we measure these changes and what can be done to mitigate these impacts will be examined by students through individual and team projects, debates, and presentations.

An Introduction to Integrated Water Resources Management, this is a broad examination of critical concepts and knowledge needs including essential human and institutional capacities. Topics include: impacts of anthropogenic alterations on the water cycle; changes and impacts that occur as a result of land use change and development; aquatic ecosystem health and impact assessment; water use (quality and quality issues); wastewater issues including impacts, methods of treatment and mitigation, the urban water cycle and methods to evaluate and choose appropriate technologies; governance and capacity building in communities; and building and maintaining water management infrastructure. 

This course focuses on hydrological theories and tools needed for urban watershed management, involving water supply, conservation and treatment. Topics include storm-water retention on and flow through porous and impervious surfaces, and subsequent run off generation. Students will learn about urban water management systems and best -management engineering approaches dealing with flood control and point to non-point residential, industrial and traffic-induced pollution issues.

An expansion of the introduction to hydrological principles and processes offered in first year. Students develop their comprehension of the hydrological cycle, and dynamics and prediction of flow of water in rivers, lakes, and as groundwater. Hydrological processes at the landscape level are emphasized to demonstrate the connections among hydrology, biology, and the exploitation of water resources by humans.

Credit for an individual project can be granted. The student arranges each project with a client and a Faculty advisor. Your Programme Director must approve each project prior to beginning. A signed agreement including assessment criteria amongst the student, client, Faculty Advisor and Programme Director is required. 

The course provides students with an opportunity to pool their resources and demonstrate their expertise. Working in multidisciplinary teams, students will develop and integrated solutions to a real world environmental or natural resource management problem. In addition, students will learn how to manage work plans, projects and planning process. 

Students will gain knowledge in techniques used commonly in fisheries and aquatic science, getting practical experience in various sampling and analysis techniques, including: water quality assessment, macroinvertebrate collections, fish collections (e.g., seining, trapping, electrofishing), and laboratory methods for sample preparation and analysis. All field collections will be followed by appropriate data evaluation learning database management techniques, descriptive and analytical statistics, and summary report writing. 

Credit for an individual project can be granted. The student arranges each project with a client and a Faculty advisor. Your Programme Director must approve each project prior to beginning. A signed agreement including assessment criteria amongst the student, client, Faculty Advisor and Program Director is required. Number of credit hours will be determined by the Faculty and based on the nature, duration, and complexity of the project. Credit hours assigned to the course must be determined prior to the student initiating the project. 

An intensive 6-day series of field exercises, site visits, and on-site discussions before the start of Fall term courses. This course involves low student/faculty ratios and is designed to improve integrative, observational, and interpretive skills with respect to environmental conditions, including water, wildlife, and forest resources, and the social context in which they are valued and used. Evening sessions provide opportunity for debate and discussion of challenging contemporary environmental issues. Students are charged for food, lodging and part of travel costs.

ENR honours students must complete a thesis project that is approved by the Faculty and supervised by a Faculty member. This course involves submitting a detailed project report and an oral defense in a seminar-style presentation. Students should consult with a faculty advisor prior to the end of third year to discuss project requirements and potential topics. Note: Minimum CGPA for acceptance is 3.0