Natural disasters play a fundamental role in shaping landscapes and structuring ecosystems. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to both the natural and social science of disasters. This course will explore the geologic processes that cause natural disasters, the ecological and social consequences of disasters, and the role of human behavior in disaster management and mitigation. Through exploring these concepts, this class will provide you with a broad background in the geosciences and the basic tools needed to understand: how earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and hurricanes occur; the myriad of ways that we can mitigate against their impacts; and the way in which we can "calculate the cost" of these disasters.

This course is designed to help students successfully complete their MES Capstone. A set of milestones will be set and regular meetings will be held in groups and individually to aid the student as they complete the research portion of their degree.We will be working together to complete a series of steps towards the final project. These steps fall into five major areas 1) Reviewing the literature; 2) Finding a model; 3) Framing your research; 4) managing data; and 5) Writing your results. Throughout the semester, we will also discuss career goals and the job search. Prerequisite: Project proposal and Online Application equired for course regisration. See MES Office and "Guide to the Capatone" for more information.

Sustainability presents both a challenge and an opportunity for society. Issues like climate change, pollution, resource depletion, and population imbalance are stressing the planet's capacity in ways that threaten our ability to sustain thriving and just societies. At the same time, these systemic problems are unfolding too slowly to prompt most of us to take serious and significant action, or to trigger meaningful responses from our political and business leaders. People equate sustainability with efficiency, waste minimization, and pollution prevention - all worthy goals - but at the current rate of consumption and growth these approaches alone will not create the future of abundance and equity that we desire. To quote author and MIT professor John Ehrenfeld, "Reducing unsustainability - although critical - will not create sustainability." What will it take to extricate us from the current predicament and forge a new path? In this class, we will examine underlying psychological and cultural barriers to sustainability and discuss strategies for surmounting them. Students will learn leadership competencies and practices to help them more effectively lead change efforts for sustainability. Readings and discussions will explore the application of positive psychology to leverage the human technologies of creativity and collaboration in the pursuit of a more balanced and sustainable relationship with others and our ecosystems, and to shift the sustainability dialogue from the current problem-oriented approach to a vision of human wellbeing and planetary flourishing.

This course explores the nature and use of raster-based geographic information systems (GIS) for the analysis and synthesis of spatial patterns and processes through 'cartographic modeling'. Cartographic modeling is a general but well defined methodology that can be used to address a wide variety of analytical mapping applications in a clear and consistent manner. It does so by decomposing both data and data-processing tasks into elemental components that can then be recomposed with relative ease and with great flexibility.

In order to make sensible decisions on products or projects, people need to understand the environmental impacts of these actions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a process to assess environmental impacts throughout the different stages of a product or project's life. This seminar is intended to be comprehensive and covers material extraction, processing, manufacture, distribution, use and end of life reuse, recovery or disposal. The objective of conducting an LCA is to compare the full range of environmental impacts that emanate from the provision of these products or services and then use that information to improve the situation to minimize or eliminate harm. The focus of this class will be to understand the phases of an LCA as well as conduct LCAs that compare the impacts of two related options. This course will enable the student to conduct LCAs and examine the use of software that could be used in this regard.The classic examples are cloth vs. disposable diapers, paper vs. ceramic cups, and so on. This course will enable the student to conduct LCAs and examine the use of software that could be used in this regard. Prerequisite: If course requirement not met, permissionof instructor required.

Food is central to our daily lives, yet we seldom think about the political or social implications of what we eat. In this course, students will study how societies produce, distribute, market and consume food, with an emphasis on American politics and food systems to develop an understanding of how policies policies are shaped by power relations, institutions, and ideas. Topics include food systems, food and agriculture industries, farming practices, sustainable agriculture, food security, genetically modified foods, hunger, obesity, nutrition policy, food labeling and marketing, fast food, junk food, and more.

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 one-week course will be held as part of the World Water Forum 6 on March 12-17, 2012 in Marseille, France (see www.worldwaterforum6.org for details). This tri-annual Forum is the world's largest gathering of those interested in global water issues and over 25,000 are expected to attend. Attendees at the Forum will include world leaders in water, sanitation, and health issues and will represent governments, NGOs, academia, the private sector, and the general public. Students will be involved in some combination of the following: : (1) planning, organizing and/or conducting an event at the Forum; (2) delivering a presentation/poster; (3) researching specific topics related to the Forum; (4) interviewing world experts at the Forum.

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.

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.