Industrial Ecology is the multidisciplinary study of industrial systems and economic activities and their links to natural systems. The word "industrial" represents how humans use natural resources in the production of goods and services. "Ecology" refers to the concept that our industrial systems need to operate within sustainable natural ecosystems. The application of industrial ecology requires a movement of industrial processes from open loop business processes, where resource and capital investments move through the system to create products and waste, to a closed loop system where wastes (aka by-products) become inputs for new processes. This approach will allow to move to a circular economy. The implementation of industrial ecology, which aligns business operations with the natural cycle, creates the opportunity for a circular economy and has the potential for significant benefit for industry as well as for the long term viability of the human population and the natural ecosystem.

The aim of this course is to provide an incentive to use geochemical and mineralogical principles to address and solve major environmental problems. The students identify the problems that are associated with different types of waste. This course covers a wide range of problems associated with the waste arising from the generation of electricity. The main topics will be the uranium cycle, characterization of nuclear waste, and the containment and disposal of nuclear waste. Based on insights from the nuclear fuel cycle, solutions are presented that diminish the environmental impacts of coal and biomass combustion products, incineration of municipal solid waste, toxic waste due to refuse incineration, and landfills and landfill gases.

This course is intended to give students an overview of the genesis of the so-called "Brownfield" problem and of the various efforts our society is taking to solve or, at least, ameliorate it. The course will place the "Brownfield" problem in the broader context of the growth and decline of the industrial base of cities like Philadelphia. Students will study the general constitutional and statutory framework within which we approach the problems of orphan, polluted sites and the disposal of contemporary solid wastes. They will also analyze the principal actions that have been taken by Federal and state government to address remediation and redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites. The course will also explore environmental equity issues.


The students will collaborate with high school students at the West Philadelphia High School to identify sites in their neighborhoods and to learn how to determine the sites ownership and land use history. The students will study ways of determining environmental risk and the various options that are available for remediation in light of community ideas about re-use. Students will be expected to participate actively in the seminar and the sessions with high school students. Students in the course are required to prepare and present a term paper on a topic in the general area of "Brownfield" analysis and remediation.

This course covers the fundamentals of atmosphere and ocean dynamics, and aims to put these in the context of climate change in the 21st century. large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation, the global energy balance, and the global energy balance, and the global hydrological cycle. We will introduce concepts of fluid dynamics and we will apply these to the vertical and horizontal motions in the atmosphere and ocean. Concepts covered include: hydrostatic law, buoyancy and convection, basic equations of fluid motions, Hadley and Ferrel cells in the atmosphere, thermohaline circulation, Sverdrup ocean flow, modes of climate variability (El-Nino, North Atlantic Oscillation, Southern Annular Mode). The course will incorporate student led discussions based on readings of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and recent literature on climate change. Aimed at undergraduate or graduate students who have no prior knowledge of meteorology or oceanography or training in fluid mechanics. Previous background in calculus and/or introductory physics is helpful. This is a general course which spans many subdisciplines (fluid mechanics, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology).

This course covers the fundamentals of atmosphere and ocean dynamics, and aims to put these in the context of climate change in the 21st century. large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation, the global energy balance, and the global energy balance, and the global hydrological cycle. We will introduce concepts of fluid dynamics and we will apply these to the vertical and horizontal motions in the atmosphere and ocean. Concepts covered include: hydrostatic law, buoyancy and convection, basic equations of fluid motions, Hadley and Ferrel cells in the atmosphere, thermohaline circulation, Sverdrup ocean flow, modes of climate variability (El-Nino, North Atlantic Oscillation, Southern Annular Mode). The course will incorporate student led discussions based on readings of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and recent literature on climate change. Aimed at undergraduate or graduate students who have no prior knowledge of meteorology or oceanography or training in fluid mechanics. Previous background in calculus and/or introductory physics is helpful. This is a general course which spans many subdisciplines (fluid mechanics, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology).

The course will explore all 4 sectors of the water business in the United States: The Drinking Water Industry, The Stormwater Utility, Water Resources (rivers, streams, reservoirs) Management and the Water Pollution Control Industry. The course will have 2 primary foci: 1. The influences on the industry from new technologies and infrastructure, acceptable levels of risk, public and private sector competition, climate change, the bottled water industry, resource recovery, rates and affordability and other influences will be investigated. 2. The management of a 21st century utility will be explored, including topics of organization and leadership, the role of environmentalism, infrastructure financing, water / wastewater treatment facility operations, public affairs and media, and designing a capital improvement program are examples of topic areas.

Despite decades of scientific research and policy action aimed at managing water resources equitably and sustainably, it remains that the world's water resources continue to be severely polluted, pose grave hazards to lives and infrastructure, and be obstinately unevenly distributed in space and time. Moreover, a growing number of people (currently estimated at over 700 million) lack sufficient quantities of clean water. Although such challenges have long been approached with technical expertise (e.g. hydro-engineering, economic models), this course examines the social and political dynamics that underpin these problems. Organized as a survey of problems and responses, this seminar examines key concepts, major approaches, and current debates regarding water governance in various regions of the world. Course topics include the privatization of water, water as a human right, and human vulnerability to water hazards. In viewing water provision and management as not solely a technical concern but as inherently political, the course seeks to provide a set of analytical tools that is both critical and constructive.

In order to guide organizations and companies in an aligned fashion on environmental and sustainability issues, we need to understand the specific approaches that governments take in regulating environmental issues and the underpinning philosophies that drive these regulatory frameworks. This course will therefore require an evaluation of the different tools that governments have to influence, guide and command environmental outcomes from different segments of society. We will specifically examine the environmental regulatory approaches in a number of countries such as the United States, the European Union, China, India and Brazil.

How do government policy-makers make decisions about potential threats to human health and the environment in the face of scientific uncertainty? The course develops the concept of Risk Assessment from the publication of the 1983 National Research Council (NRC) report commonly known as the "Red Book" which was used to rank the initial hazardous waste sites under the Superfund program. Using a variety of teaching tools, including lectures, panel discussions, and case studies, the course examines how public policy decisions regarding environmental risk are made and how effective those decisions are at reducing risks to affected populations. The course focuses on the complex interaction of science, economics, politics, laws, and regulations in dealing with environmental and public health risks. The course will begin with a review of the policy process and methods used in evaluating human health and environmental risks, including the traditional steps in the risk assessment process, including quantitative and qualitative aspects of hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.


The course will then focus on how scientific uncertainty, risk perceptions, socio-economic disparities, risk communication, and politics influence environmental risk-based decision-making. Issues such as special populations (e.g., children, elderly, immune-compromised, woman of pregnancy age, etc.) must be considered when developing risk reduction strategies. The use of the "precautionary principle" will be discussed in the context of different types of environmental stressors (e.g., pesticides, chemicals, climate change, air pollution, water quality, and land use) and how this important controversial principle is applied differently in contrasting national and European risk management policies.