Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• MET UA 509: Public Finance and Urban Infrastructure
  Economic, social, and political aspects of state and local government finances. Theory of public finance; revenues, expenditures, and survey of budgetary processes. Planning techniques in capital budgeting and other finance activities. Selected issues: debt, user fees, property taxes, and incentives.
• MET UA 510: Selected Topics in Urban Affairs
  UA510 is the designation for "Special Topics in Planning". The subject matter for UA510 courses changes from semester to semester, and more than one UA510 can be offered in a given semester. The Spring 2020 offerings are listed below.
  
  UA510 A1 (Hassol, Tuesday)- "New Trends in Transportation": Transportation is changing faster than ever before. New vehicle technologies, including electric vehicles and automated vehicles, have the potential to transform longstanding paradigms of vehicle ownership and use. New transportation services such as ride-hailing, bikeshare, and electric scooters, enabled by information and communication technologies, offer new travel choices and also new business models. This course will apply principles of micro-economics (e.g., marginal utility, price elasticity, demand functions) along with information on macro-level factors such as changing demographics, to develop a framework for understanding transportation trends. We will use the framework to explore likely trends in electric vehicles, automated vehicles, "micro-mobility" modes, and mobility-as-a-service, and their impacts on travel behavior. In addition, we will explore the likely future of traditional public transportation within the emerging transportation ecosystem. Guest speakers from private industry and government will share their perspectives on emerging transportation business models, public policy challenges, and analytical techniques. Assignments will emphasize employing the principles learned in class to assess real-world transportation questions.
  
  UA510 A2 (Edizel, Wednesday)- "Climate Change Policy and Water Conflict Management": This course examines climate politics and multiple water-related risks (flood, drought, pollution and degradation of aquatic ecosystems) because of climate change both nationally and globally. These risks are embedded in social, cultural, political and economic contexts that relate to control of and access to water. Hence, the first part of the course will discuss climate change policies and impacts at national and international level. The second part will focus on the challenges of water management and governance. Conflicts over the allocation of water resources and ways of resolving them will be discussed. Case studies on impacts of climate change and water conflicts will be addressed during the third part of the course. Students will do oral presentations of selected case studies. Finally, the course will stress factors of sustainability including economic growth, environmental conservation, and social equity that impact climate policy. Students will produce a report on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation and recommend ways of making policy more sustainable. They will be using international environmental conventions, press releases, academic and grey literature. Students are required to actively participate in class discussions, presentations and exercises. Students will gain analytical skills to better understand making and improving policies and the ability to apply theory to climate policy research practice.
  
  UA510 A3 (Kyei- Aboagye, Monday)- "Developing Sustainable Communities": This course is designed to explore the many challenges of achieving sustainable development through a coherent and thought-provoking overview of moves towards developing sustainable communities. The course will focus on improving the quality of people's lives, on disinvested communities and on the inequitable distribution of income, wealth, and environmental hazards. It will investigate the theory of sustainable development and ask about the principles, tools, and techniques, of moving towards the ecological integrity, economic security, empowerment, responsibility and social well- being characteristics of sustainable communities. Case studies will be drawn from around the world.
  
  UA510 A4 (O'Connell, Thursday)- "Global Cities": The course provides a framework for understanding the global network of cities and how particular cities occupy niches within that network. The course uses Boston and Massachusetts "Gateway Cities" to explore the long-term forces shaping global economic activity and urban development, including transportation, telecommunications, international trade, immigration, innovation, higher education, and cultural exchange. The course uses the United Nations Habitat III Conference and other international urban organizations to examine strategies for sustainable urban development in cities around the world.
  
  
• MET UA 515: History, Theory and Planning Practice
  History, concepts, and methods of contemporary urban and regional planning practice. Governmental, nonprofit, and private settings of professional planning; plans, research, and policy development; uses and implementation of planning. Political analysis of planning issues, such as comprehensiveness, public interest, advocacy, negotiation, and future orientation. Case materials drawn from redevelopment, growth management, land use conflicts, and service delivery.
• MET UA 521: Environmental Law, Policy, and Justice
  Principles and status of environmental law for pollution control and environmental improvement. Impact statements, resource conservation and protection, growth management. Emphasis on air, water, land, and hazardous waste issues. Environmental, economic, and other policy relationships. Case materials and court decisions.
• MET UA 523: Skills and Techniques in Planning
  Students introduced to specific skills and techniques to help them achieve community and urban planning goals. The course covers a range of communications skills, including oral, written, visual, and using social media in planning to help planners develop concise, understandable plans and documents. Grant research, writing, and administration will be discussed. Segments on community outreach and engagement and how to build equity and cultural competency will be explored. Students will be introduced to skills in designing and implementing community meetings, including facilitation skills and managing group dynamics.
• MET UA 527: Feeding the City: Urban Food
  This course examines historical and contemporary issues involved in providing food to cities and metropolitan areas. Tracing the routes that food takes into the city and the major sources of food, the course looks closely at the accessibility of food, especially in poorer urban neighborhoods. Among topics covered are obesogenic neighborhoods, food deserts, gentrification and foodie culture, public school food and nutrition, attempts to minimize food waste, and immigrants and ethnic foods in the city. The course also considers recent attempts at food production in cities, including urban agriculture, vertical farming, and craft production of food products. After closely looking at the history and current status of food programs, the course concludes with a consideration of urban food policies.
• MET UA 580: Boston Experience: The Role of Architecture in Creating the Sense of Place
  The Boston Experience is a graduate and advanced undergraduate course designed in the seminar format. The course will provide an introduction to the study of architecture as an important foundation for students of urban affairs and city planning and as an important foundation for students in other disciplines such as civil engineering, historic preservation, and the applied social sciences (such as sociology). The course will also serve as a foundation of the basic concepts and a general overview of the field of architecture. This foundation will also provide a prerequisite for the two advanced studio planning courses currently offered at MET in the Department of Urban Affairs and City Planning (UA 613 and UA 510).
• MET UA 590: International Comparative Development and Urbanization
  Examination of a selected country, region, or city in relation to issues of urbanization and development planning. Emphasis on comparative analysis of policy, techniques, conditions, issues, and effectiveness. Topics and international subjects vary. Consult the department for details.
• MET UA 610: Urban Environmental Issues
  This course is designed to present a comprehensive approach to urban environmental issues by integrating environmental planning and policy. It is intended for both students with and without planning background. This course provides a broader view and discussion of natural resources planning relating to issues affecting urban watershed management. This approach includes water policy, sustainability of water resources, freshwater planning (Lakes and Rivers), coastal waters, open space protection, stormwater management, clean water act, wetland protection, low impact development, and stakeholder involvement with a focus on the means and techniques available to local governments to plan and protect watersheds. Case studies will be used to demonstrate the potential to address full range of urban watershed issues, including water supply planning, water quality restoration and protection, open space planning, habitat protection and ecological conservation, and enhancement and regulatory activities.
• MET UA 613: Urban Design and Development
  The role of urban design in the community development process. Examines human behavior, aesthetic foundations of design methods, citizen/client participation, and public policy issues. Analysis of actual community spaces. Student design exercises.
• MET UA 617: Actionable Sustainability
  Sustainability generally refers to the ability of "systems" to be maintained such that they remain viable over long periods of time. As much as achieving the perfect sustainable equilibrium may be the ideal, it is important to recognize that there will be competing and conflicting interests, especially within complex hierarchical social, economic and ecological systems, particularly in light of ongoing climatic change. This field intensive course draws on the practices and theories of sustainability and climate change to understand what sustainability can mean in different contexts, and, more important, how nuanced, sustainable solutions can be achieved under varying conditions and in different systems. With an emphasis on the urban environment, the course will consist of projects in which students will identify, analyze, and develop practical proposals to real world issues. This course is intended for a wider audience from a range of disciplines.
• MET UA 619: Urban Transportation Policy and Planning
  This course will provide students with a broad introduction to important concepts and policy issues in transportation, principally at an urban and metropolitan level. In addition, the course will explore methods planning practitioners can use to analyze transportation problems and propose solutions. The course will use specific examples of planning initiatives (both operations and capital) from transportation agencies within the Boston Metropolitan region. Guest speakers from local, regional, and state transportation agencies within the Greater Boston Metropolitan area will supplement the instructor's lectures and assigned readings.
• MET UA 627: Sustainable Cities
  Examines the theoretical elements of "sustainability" and their applicability in guiding development, particularly at the city level. Through a comparative study of a wide range of sustainable practices in important subfields of planning, such as transportation, landuse, and housing, students will learn about the constraints and opportunities different cities face, and how to effectively address them. Special attention will be given to the preparation of environmental impact statements and assessment of urban environmental quality. This is a project based course and includes lectures, discussions, workshops, case studies, selected guest speakers, and a final project.
• MET UA 629: Urbanization and the Environment
  Interrelationships between physical environment and processes of urbanization. Case studies develop historical perspective on social, economic, and physical aspects of the quality of urban life. Special attention to the preparation of environmental impact statements and assessment of urban environmental quality.
• MET UA 654: GIS and Spatial Analysis
  Geographic Information Systems for Planners provides an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specifically with a focus on applications in urban planning. The role of spatial analysis in local, state and regional planning has steadily increased over the last decade with the infusion of windows-based GIS software such as ESRI ArcGIS. The class focus is to prepare students to feel comfortable communicating with other GIS users, research spatial data, and produce high quality digital maps in an applied learning environment.
• MET UA 664: Planning and the Development Process
  This course specifically explores the area where the private and public sectors meet so that the student can develop an awareness of the complexity of dealing with these often competing interests. The objective of the course is to give the student an understanding of the motivations of the private sector in the way they go about creating their products and projects and to leave the student with the tools and knowledge to successfully negotiate the Public Interest with the Private Needs.
• MET UA 668: Post Disaster Planning
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• MET UA 672: Regionalism
  Based on the premise that the old city-versus-suburb view is outdated and does not serve well the planning and public policy objective of creating sustainable living environments, this seminar examines the region as an organic economic and social entity as well as a legitimate planning and administrative unit. Students undertake an in-depth analysis of the issues, challenges and opportunities faced by institutionally fragmented U.S. metropolitan regions while exploring the emerging metropolitanist policy movement which embodies the belief that cities and their suburbs are related, rather than antithetical, and make up a single place.
• MET UA 675: Urban Sustainability
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• MET UA 701: Urban Problems and Policy Responses
  Major problems confronting urban areas and the process of policy formulation and implementation. Emphasis on problem interdependence and systems characteristics. Analysis of problem definitions (housing, crime, poverty, etc.), goals, public/private responsibilities, existing programs, and policy options. Analysis of selected, comparative international experience.

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