2023-2024 Academic Year

Fall 2023

ENST 305 Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure reduces and treats stormwater at its source while delivering environmental, social, and economic benefits. This interdisciplinary course will examine different types of green infrastructure systems and how the components of each system work together to provide intended benefits. Topics may include rainwater harvesting, permeable pavements, bioswales/bioretention, green streets and parking, and green roofs. There will be an added focus on components of the water cycle within these systems including precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration. Students will learn how to acquire, organize and analyze green infrastructure information and data using qualitative and quantitative methods. Three hours of laboratory per week.

ENST 406 Urban Sustainability SR Sem
The United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Some critics argue that urban sustainability is a contradiction within itself. With the current climate crisis, it is becoming increasingly critical for cities to rethink urban planning, development, and management to ensure sustainable use of natural resources. In this senior seminar we will explore the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable urbanism. We will discuss a range of student led topics throughout the semester, which may include components of urban form, transportation, green space, buildings and energy, or flows of water, food, and waste. Recent journal articles and student led topics will be the focus of class discussions. As a class we will analyze these topics collaboratively and we will use this class as a space to learn from one another and to engage in civil discourse.

Spring 2024

ENST 162 Integrative Environmental Sci
This course is an introduction to interdisciplinary environmental science. Students will learn to draw upon a variety of natural sciences to identify and address environmental challenges. Students will examine environmental issues analytically, learn to evaluate existing data, and begin to develop skills for acquiring new knowledge via the scientific method. They will be exposed to basic techniques for assessing environmental problems in lectures, laboratory exercises, and fieldwork. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisite: 161