Courses

• 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 446: Remote Sensing of the Lower Atmosphere
  Remote sensing has transformed the study of Earth's atmosphere. Learn the principles of retrieving meteorological parameters (humidity, temperature, precipitation) and key atmospheric constituents (clouds, greenhouse gases, aerosol) from satellite observations. Explore applications to climate change, disaster monitoring, and public health.
• 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. Also offered as CAS ES 483.
• 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.
• CAS GE 503: Micrometeorology: Energy and Mass Transfer at the Earth's Surface
  Modern theories and techniques for measurement and analysis of physical processes occuring at the Earth's surface: radiation regimes; energy and mass exchange; agricultural and forest micrometeorology: remote sensing and modeling of land surface properties and processes.
• CAS GE 504: Physical Climatology
  Physical principles governing the climate system and the spatial and temporal patterns of weather elements on regional and global scales. Physics of energy, mass, and momentum transfer; the observed state of the atmosphere; climate feedback processes; and climate change.
• CAS GE 505: Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  Provides a theoretical and practical introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Introduces the essentials in GIS, methods of data capture and sources of data, nature and characteristics of spatial data and objects, data structures, modeling surfaces, volumes and time, and data uncertainty. Emphasis is on applications. Laboratory exercises included.
• CAS GE 506: Global Resource Geopolitics
  Students explore in-depth the relationship between conflict, natural resources, development, and security, and practice developing solutions to complex problems. Analyzes the most contentious themes in the political economy of resources: violence, population, energy, and agro-food production. Also offered as CAS IR 512.
• CAS GE 507: Dynamical Oceanography
  Introduction to the physical ocean system. Physical properties of seawater; essential ocean dynamics; mixing and stirring in the ocean; simple waves; observed current systems and water masses; and coupled atmosphere-ocean variability. Also offered as CAS ES 507.
• CAS GE 508: Data Science for Conservation Decisions
  Application of quantitative methods to support conservation decisions. Ecosystem value mapping, systematic conservation planning, policy instrument design, rigorous impact evaluation, decision theory, data visualization. Implementations in state-of-the-art open-source software. Real-life case studies from the U.S. and abroad. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS GE 509: Applied Environmental Statistics
  Survey of modern probability-based statistical methods in environmental science. Core concepts in likelihood and Bayesian approaches are used to address spatial, time-series, and latent variable models and non-Gaussian, non-linear, heterogenous, and missing data. Project-based course focused on applications to data.
• CAS GE 510: Physical Principles of the Environment
  Principles and concepts underlying the physical and ecological forces that cause environmental change. Topics include soil erosion, acid rain, thermal pollution, greenhouse effect, stratospheric ozone depletion, and loss of biodiversity.
• CAS GE 514: Dynamic Land Surface Hydrology
  Land surface hydrology with emphasis on the unsaturated zone. Development and applications of physics governing transport of water, vapor, and heat in soils and the near surface atmosphere. Effects of vegetation, topography, and water table runoff, evapotranspiration, and recharge.
• CAS GE 516: Multivariate Analysis for Geographers
  Applications of multivariate techniques to problems in spatial context, emphasizing interpretation. Review of regression and analysis of variance. Introduction to topics including canonical correlation, factor analysis, discriminant and clustering analyses.
• CAS GE 519: Energy, Society, and the Environment
  Focus on applied political economy and the intersection of policy, energy systems, and environmental systems. Project based learning, with an emphasis on energy technology and obstacles to deployment.

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