400 Level

GE 400 Environment and Development: A Political Ecology Approach

Prereq: Senior standing. Theory and practice of development with an explicit focus on environmental issues. Introduces history of development and the environment; explores select themes in development and environmental studies (e.g. rural livelihoods, conservation, urbanization, and climate change); and considers alternative development paradigms.

GE 401, 402 Senior Independent Work

Prereq: Approval of Honors Committee.

ES 401, 402 Senior Independent Work (4 credits, Fall and Spring)

Prerequisites: Approval of the Honors Committee.
Instructor: Staff

GE 420 Methods of Environmental Policy Analysis

Prereq: CAS EC 101 and CAS MA 121 or 123. Introduction to the analysis of environmental policy, the implications of environmental problems for public decision-making, the tools available to decision-makers, and their effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages.

ES 423 Marine Biogeochemistry (4 credits, Spring, offered alternate years)

Prereq: CH 101 and 102, BUMP semester or ES 144, or consent of instructor. Oceanic nutrient and biogeochemical cycling in the context of the marine response to global change. Links between local and global scales are emphasized. Topics include oceanic productivity, iron limitation, and oceanic glacial-interglacial biogeochemistry. Three hours lecture, one hour discussion.
Instructor: Fulweiler or Murray

ES 424 Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (4 credits, Spring, offered alternate years)

Prereq: ES 222. Recognition and interpretation of common igneous and metamorphic rocks, both in hand sample and in thin section; the relationships between rocks and the tectonic environments in which they formed. Three hours lecture, three hours lab, and occasional field trips.
Instructor: Staff

GE 425 United States Environmental Policy

Prereq: CAS GE 309. Survey and historical overview of key environmental policies and regulations in the United States. Emphasis on policy development, including formulation and implementation of federal pollution control regulations since the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. Considers possible future policy needs.

GE 440 Digital Image Processing – Remote Sensing

Prereq: CAS GE 302 or equivalent. At least introductory statistics (and preferably multivariate statistics) recommended. This course pursues both the algorithms involved in processing remote sensing images and their application. Topics include preprocessing, image transformations, image classification and segmentation, spectral mixture analysis, and change detection. Examples cover a wide range of environmental applications of remote sensing. Students do a project.

ES 440 Marine Geology (4 credits, Spring, offered alternate years)

Prereq: Any 100-level course or consent of instructor. Examines the evolution of ocean basins and marginal seas, changes in structure and composition of ocean basins throughout the last billion years, and the contribution of oceanic geological processes to the chemistry and biochemistry of Earth.
Instructor: Murray

GE 442 Radar Remote Sensing

Prereq: CAS GE 502. An introduction to radar imaging concepts, systems, and basic applications, including technical fundamentals, interpretation techniques, and aids. Applications include topographic mapping, land use, and earth science. Laboratory exercises included.

ES 443 Terrestrial Biogeochemistry (4 credits, Fall, meets with BI 443/643)

Prereq: BI 107 or ES 101 or ES 105 and CH 101/102, or consent of instructor. The patterns and processes controlling carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Links between local and global scales are emphasized. Topics include net primary production, nutrient use efficiency, and biogeochemical transformation.
Instructor: Staff

GE 445 Physical Models in Remote Sensing

Prereq: CAS GE 302 or equivalent. Devoted to understanding the physical processes involved in remote sensing. Emphasis based on topics of radiative transfer in the atmosphere, at the surface, and in sensors. Reflectance modeling, advanced sensor systems, and geometric effects.

GE 448 Remote Sensing of Vegetation

Prereq: CAS GE 302 or equivalent. Examines the use of remote sensing to study vegetation. Topics include resource inventory and evaluation for forests and agriculture; ecosystem processes like primary productivity and biogeochemical cycles; and spectral reflectance measurements and models.

GE 460 Resource Economics and Policy

Prereq: CAS GE 309 and CAS MA 121; CAS EC 201, EC 371, MA 122 recommended. Economic analysis of environmental resources and policies for their management. Introduces dynamic optimization as a tool for understanding and analyzing both resource scarcity and the management of energy, fishery, and forestry resources for sustainability.

GE 483 Geodynamics II: Fluids and Fluid Transport

Prereq: CAS MA 124, MA 127, or MA 129, and CAS PY 211 and CAS ES 360 or consent of instructor. Large- and small-scale phenomena in oceanic, atmospheric, and landsurface fluids. Properties of gases and liquids; surface and body forces; statics; flow analysis; continuity and momentum conservation. Darcy’s Law; potential, open channel, and geostrophic flow; dimensional analysis; diffusion, turbulence.

GE 491, 492 Directed Study

Prereq: Approval of CAS Room 105. Variable cr, 1st & 2nd sem.

ES 491, 492 Directed Study in Earth Sciences (Variable credit, Fall and Spring)

Prereq: junior or senior standing, consent of instructor, and approval of CAS Room 105. Individual instruction and directed research of a selected topic.
Instructor: Staff