Courses

• CAS GE 309: Intermediate Environmental Analysis and Policy
  Introduction to economic and environmental theory critical to the formulation and evaluation of environmental and resource policy. This theory is applied to real world analysis of climate change, population growth, oil supplies, energy use, and globalization.
• CAS GE 310: Climate and the Environment
  Physical principles governing the climate system and its impact on the environment. Emphasis on understanding the physical processes governing energy, mass, and momentum transfer in the ocean and atmosphere. The interaction and feedback of these processes and their impact on the climate system and its variability.
• CAS GE 365: An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  Practical hands-on computing experience using GIS for analyzing data from maps and other sources. Analytical functions unique to GIS are emphasized, as are applications in archaeology, land use planning, environmental monitoring, and other fields.
• CAS GE 375: Introduction to Quantitative Environmental Modeling
  Introduces students to quantitative models of environmental systems. Emphasizes application of quantitative models to environmental problem solving. Includes computer exercises with examples from current environmental issues such as population growth, pollution transport, and biodiversity.
• CAS GE 382: Understanding the Middle East
  Introduces the contemporary Middle East, including the Arab world, Iran, Israel, and Turkey; examines the systems of government; the roles of external powers; the origins of the state system; the sources and objectives of opposition forces; the prospects for political reform including democratization; and the prospects for future cooperation or conflict. Also offered as CAS IR 382.
• CAS GE 394: Environmental History of Africa
  Focus on the African environment and ecological systems over the past 150 years. Topics include climatic change, hydrography, agriculture, deforestation, soil erosion, disease, conservation, famine, and the role of colonialism and government policy in environmental change. Also offered as CAS HI 394.
• CAS GE 400: Environment and Development: A Political Ecology Approach
  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.
• CAS GE 401: Senior Independent Work
  Senior Independent Work
• CAS GE 402: Senior Independent Work
  Senior Independent Work
• CAS GE 420: Methods of Environmental Policy Analysis
  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.
• CAS GE 425: United States Environmental Policy
  (CASGE309 may be taken as a co-requisite.) 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.
• CAS GE 440: Digital Image Processing - Remote Sensing
  Pursues both the algorithms involved in processing remotely sensed images and their application. Topics include spectral and spatial enhancement, image classification and clustering, spatial analysis, and linear transforms.
• CAS GE 445: Physical Models in Remote Sensing
  Devoted to understanding the physical processes involved in remote sensing. Emphasis on topics of radiative transfer in the atmosphere, at the surface, and in sensors. Reflectance modeling, advanced sensor systems, and geometric effects.
• CAS GE 456: Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Carbon Cycle
  Explores the past, present, and possible future dynamics of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Key topics include the physical climate system, variability, ecosystem processes, land use issues, and impacts of global change on society.
• CAS GE 460: Food, Energy, and Water Policy
  Economic and policy analysis of how to manage ecosystems for the provision of food, energy, and water. Introduces cost-benefit analysis, dynamic optimization, and ecosystem service valuation as tools for understanding the optimal management of ecosystems and tradeoffs.
• CAS GE 475: Urban Ecology
  The biophysical environments and ecology of urban settlements. Key topics include the physical environment, patterns in human population growth and development, ecosystem structure and function, global change, urban environment pollution and management, and sustainable urban development. Also offered as CAS BI 475.
• CAS GE 483: Geodynamics II: Fluids and Fluid Transport
  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.
• CAS GE 491: Directed Study
  Directed Study
• CAS GE 492: Directed Study
  Directed Study.
• CAS GE 501: Advanced Topics in Remote Sensing
  Examines advanced concepts in radiative transfer and information extraction relevant to remote sensing. Emphasis on applications of digital image processing to remote sensing problems.

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