Rutgers University - New Brunswick Graduate Courses Related to Climate and Environmental Change
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16:107:501 FUNDAMENTALS OF GEOPHYSICAL FLUID DYNAMICS (3)
Prerequisites: 01:640:251; 11:670:324; 11:628:451 or equivalent
The theoretical basis for atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics: derivation of the equations of motion on the sphere; conservation of angular momentum, vorticity and energy; linear wave dynamics; hydrodynamic instability.
16:107:532 ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS (3)
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
The atmospheric physics of gravitation, clouds and aerosols, precipitation, energy and momentum transfer, solar and terrestrial radiation, optics, acoustics.
16:107:544 MODELING OF CLIMATE CHANGE (3)
Prerequisites: At least one graduate course in meteorology, oceanography, or physical geography. Knowledge of a high-level programming language, such as FORTRAN or C.
Climate models, including energy-balance, radiative-convective, and general circulation models. Actual practice running climate models and analyzing output.
16:107:545 PHYSICAL CLIMATOLOGY (3)
Prerequisites: Basic course in meteorology or climatology.
The climate system, surface-energy balance, past climate variations, climate-feedback mechanisms, climate modeling, causes of climate change, detection and attribution of anthropogenic climate change.
16:107:553 MECHANISMS OF PAST CLIMATE CHANGE (3)
Prerequisite: Graduate-level coursework in meteorology, oceanography, geology, or physical geography.
Mechanisms responsible for changes in climate during Earth's distant past, including orbital forcing of climate change, millennial-scale climate variability, and past changes in tropical atmosphere-ocean interaction.
16:107:571 CLIMATE CHANGE RISK ANALYSIS (3)
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Science, economics and policy of climate change risks. Extreme events, sea-level rise, agriculture, energy, health, labor, conflict, ecosystem services, tipping points. Decision-making under uncertainty and with long time horizons.
Professional Science Masters/Master of Business and Science
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16:137:554 - FUNDAMENTALS OF SUSTAINABILITY: THE PRACTITIONER PERSPECTIVE - FROM CONCEPTS TO TRANSACTIONS
This course explores the evolving nature of sustainability as it relates to the public and private sectors as well as the rate at which businesses are adopting and employing sustainability practices. Concepts are examined via four interrelated blocks of instruction that feature guest presenters and experts from the private sector.
116:137:576 CONCEPTS IN GLOBAL AGRICULTURE
The course is designed to take a critical look at the global food situation and the challenges faced by modern agriculture. Included are the globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture is fundamental to the future of developing countries and has major implications for the fight against poverty and sustainability of the environment. Agriculture has become an important global issue as food price volatility has led countries to reexamine their development strategies.
16:137:602 SPECIAL TOPICS: SUSTAINABILITY: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT GREEN PURCHASING (3)
This is a project based online class focusing on green supply chain for sustainability. Corporations can both improve environmental performance, while addressing ethics, social regeneration and economic concerns ( the "triple bottom-line").
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
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16:460:503 STUDIES IN PALEONTOLOGY (3)
Topics include methods and case studies in systematics, evolution and extinction, paleogeography, paleoclimate, and other topics of current interest. Emphasis on the relationship between geological and biological processes.
16:460:505 SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY(3)
Topics of current interdisciplinary research in sedimentary geology. Sequence stratigraphy, facies models, sea-level change, unconformities/hiatuses, tectonics, climate change, evolution, mass extinctions.
16:460:526 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY (3)
Paleoecology, paleoclimatology, and paleogeography of marine microfossils; study of major paleoceanographic events and their relationships to stratigraphy and sedimentary facies.
16:460:571 CLIMATE CHANGE RISK ANALYSIS (3)
This course will cover the science, economics and public policy of climate change risks.
16:460:613 F 17 SEMINAR IN EARTH MAGNETISM (2)
This will be primarily a reading seminar of relevant papers from the literature. Some of the meetings will be introduced by lectures on some of the basics and theory of experimental paleomagnetism, its conceptual context in terms of the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis, true and apparent polar wander, and geomagnetic polarity reversals, and their applications to rates of ocean crust production and the paleogeographic distribution of continents and ocean basins, including large igneous provinces, all against the backdrop of variations in proxies of climate and greenhouse gases over at least the past 250 Ma. Some of the issues to be considered are the evidence for variable rates of outgassing tied to sea-floor spreading as the underlying basis of the GEOCARB family of climate models, temporal changes in silicate weathering as the ultimate major carbon sink, and the contribution of latitudinal variations in land-sea areas on planetary surface albedo. Changes in seawater chemistry and sea level may also be topics of discussion depending on seminar attendee interest. The aim of the seminar is to highlight outstanding problems and to identify research avenues to improve our understanding of tectonic factors that control the evolution of long-term global climate.
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources
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16:215:520. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY (3) - Meixler
Studies how environments and cultures have interacted throughout human history.
Landscape ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology, focusing on spatial relationships and the interactions between organisms and habitat. This hybrid course is an applied, project-focused, comprehensive introduction to the field. Emphasis is on hands-on practical experience through labs and case studies.
Offered even years only
16:215:585. INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING (3) - Xu
Prerequisites: College-level calculus and basic statistics.
Review of the background mathematical and statistical tools necessary in pursuing ecological and environmental modeling. General model formulation, validation, hypothesis testing, non-linear phenomena, and forecasting.
16:215:587 URBAN ECOLOGY (3) - Aronson
This course provides an overview of ecology in and of cities, including responses of organisms to urbanization, socio-ecological linkages, and urban planning and design as it relates to biodiversity.
Offered in even years only
16:215:590:01 Population Ecology (4) - Morin
A basic understanding of the biology of single species populations is an essential part of ecological literacy. This course will use a “hands on” approach combining real world examples and data together with explorations of model populations using R to provide insights about basic population processes and quantitative approaches. Topics will include continuous-time and discrete-time population growth models, estimation of population growth rates, survivorship analysis, life tables, age- and stage-specific population projection matrices, complex population dynamics in simple and stage-structured populations, alternate population models, population viability analysis, metapopulation dynamics, SIR models, and simple models of interspecific interactions.
Offered on varying schedule usually in the fall semester of even years.
16:215:600 MODELING OF WATERSHED HYDROLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE (3)
Professor Subhasis Giri of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences is teaching a new course: "Modeling of Watershed Hydrology and Climate Change", which teaches students in the modeling of watershed hydrology and climate change.
This course will introduce students to a physically based spatially distributed watershed scale model known as Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Additionally, students will learn SWAT Calibration and Uncertainty Programs (SWAT-CUP) for SWAT model calibration and uncertainty analysis for different water fluxes and water quality parameters. After taking this course, students will understand the movement of water, sediment, and nutrients both in the terrestrial and aquatic systems under current as well as future climate conditions. There will be guest lectures from industry to provide a different perspective of watershed modeling. Additionally, this course will consist of both lectures and labs. This course will culminate in a public presentation of term projects of individual groups to audiences including students, staff, and faculties. This course is designed in such a way that it will facilitate students to get jobs in industry, academia, and research institutes after graduation.
Department of Environmental Science
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16:375:501 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ANALYSIS (3) - Rodenburg
16:375:509 GROUNDWATER POLLUTION (3) - Uchrin
16:375:519 WETLAND ECOLOGY (3) - Meixler
16:375:523 ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND TRANSPORT (3) - Uchrin
16:375:524 SOURCE CONTROL OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION (3) - Miskewitz
16:375:527 PROCESS DYNAMICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS (3) - Huang
16:375:530 HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT (3) - Strom
16:375:534 ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY (3) - Krogmann
16:375:535 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY (3) - Joint with 34:970:523:66637 (Bloustein) - Andy Davis
16:375:536 AIR SAMPLING AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES (3) - Mainelis
16:375:540 ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY (3) - Whelan
16:375:541 ENVIRONMENTAL MODELS (3) - Uchrin
16:375:555 SOIL PHYSICS (3) - Gimenez
16:375:573 SOIL ECOLOGY (3) - Schaefer
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01:450:413 / 16:450:523 EXPLORING CLIMATE CHANGE INDICATORS (3)
Exploring Climate Change Indicators, taught by Professor David Robinson, is available to take in Spring 2022. This seminar will explore Earth’s changing climate by examining indicators that are used to express the rate and magnitude at which key aspects of the climate system are varying. The seminar is available to undergraduates by permission only, and to any interested graduate student. For further information and for receiving undergrad permission, see here or contact Prof. Robinson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
16:450:508 ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (3)
This course is designed as a critical introduction to key debates around the relation between social inequality and nature, broadly construed. The urgent matters located at this intersection cut across political scales and geographic borders, threatening local livelihoods as well as global economic systems. Attending to both historical legacies and contemporary challenges, we will explore the political philosophies, economic processes, and techno-scientific practices that make socio-environmental justice such an elusive goal today. While grounded in political ecology, our approach in this course will be irreverent. By tracing political ecological themes through classic texts as well as recent permutations, we will incorporate knowledge derived from critical race and gender studies, environmental history, environmental anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies, all while remaining connected to political economic principles. Our aim is to renovate the key concepts of political ecology so that they travel better to our respective field sites. In particular, we will attend to the relationships between representation and production, discourse and materiality, in order to consider the multiple facets of socio-natural ‘development.’ Taught by Dr. Andrea Marston
16:450:511 LAND CHANGE SCIENCE
Changes in land-use (human use) and land-cover (biophysical condition) are persistent, and when aggregated at a global scale affect key aspects of the earth system functioning. Such changes also affect economies and human welfare and the vulnerability of places and people to climatic, economic and socio-political perturbations. Land Change Science is an interdisciplinary field of study that seeks to observe and monitor land-cover and land-use change and explain this change as a coupled human-environment (or socio-ecological) system. Through a broad range of readings, this seminar examines the development of land change science and the theoretical and methodological challenges to linking biophysical, socio-economic, and remote sensing/GIS analysis. Taught by Dr. Laura Schneider
16:450:514 POLITICS OF NATURE
The aim of this course is to imagine the contents and limits of a politically engaged “technoscientific geography.” Broadly speaking, critical human geographers and science studies scholars have not been in substantive conversation with one another, despite sharing many of the same empirical interests. Most notably, both disciplinary traditions share a set of concerns with the politics of nature and questions of environmental justice. Taught by Dr. Andrea Marston
16:450:516 URBAN GEOGRAPHY (3)
Urban natures are variously described as decaying or fecund, moribund or overflowing, restricted or boundless, terminal or networked. As palimpsests and temporal assemblages of built form, communicative media, and ecological flow, cities are variously hailed as the solution to the global climate crisis or its deepest cause, the sites of concentrated ecological death or the wastelands from which new, even mutant, life can emerge. In the Anthropocene—the name given to our present era defined by a “great acceleration” of the production of waste combined with intensified human and non-human vulnerability to environmental change precipitated by that waste—cities evoke contrasting sentiments and political affinities. They also sit most exposed to the deepening uncertainties of environmental change, concentrating not just symbolic and economic functions—as “the urban” has been framed historically—but also vulnerabilities and violences. Cities place bodies in relations of collective dependence, but also expose them to heightened environmental and social risk, from extreme weather events to leaded water intake and industrial accidents. Taught by Dr. Asher Ghertner
16:450:605:01 CLIMATE AND SOCIETY (3)
This graduate seminar will explore current theory and research on societal impacts and responses to climate change. Major topic areas will include framing the issue of climate change, climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and resilience, adaptation planning and policy options, and transformation. While course readings will draw from a broad set of social science literatures, the course will emphasize socio-spatial dimensions of these issues, focusing on how processes of climate change and efforts to address these processes play out at local and regional levels. The course will be of interest to students who are new to this area of study and to those who are already engaged in research on the human dimensions of climate change. The course will follow a seminar format with emphasis on readings and discussion of assigned materials. Students will also complete a term paper on a topic related to climate change and society. Taught by Dr. Robin Leichenko
16:450:605:03 GLACIERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (3)
Taught by Dr. Asa Rennermalm
16:450:605:04 HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: NATURE/SOCIETY (Cross-listed 16:378:501:01; 16:920:575:01) (3)
Theory This course is the key seminar for the Human Dimensions of Environmental Change graduate certificate program. The seminar is designed to provide students with a survey of theories and concepts in human-environment studies. We will examine how perspectives and arguments of oft-cited social theorists (e.g. Marx, Foucault, Latour, etc.) have been taken up in nature-society scholarship in geography, anthropology, development studies, environmental studies, and other disciplines. To do so, we will read selected writings from social theorists as well as empirical applications together, making sense of writing and concepts through collective discussion and debate. Taught by Dr. Pamela McElwee
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16:700:505 Current Issues in Contemporary Composition (3)
Instructor: Professor Prof. Ordway, a composer and multimedia artist whose critically acclaimed works explore the relationships between landscape, memory, and emotion in the context of our changing planet.
Climate, Landscape, and Musical Expression:
The natural world has always been a source of inspiration for musicians. In recent years, composers have continued this tradition by creating powerful works in response to a wide range of environmental issues. In this interdisciplinary graduate seminar, we will explore contemporary large-scale performances related to climate, ecology, and landscape. The course will focus on recent compositions as well as other kinds of performer-driven creative projects. We will furthermore investigate how video, sound recording, and digital tools of analysis and fabrication can change both the perception and the representation of our environment. Students will gain insight into how to use these tools for their own research, compositions, and designs. The course is open to composers, performers, and scholars. Accordingly, midterm and final projects can take the form of compositions, performances, or papers.
Graduate Program in Oceanography
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11:628:320 DYNAMICS OF MARINE ECOSYSTEMS 2010 (3)
An overview of the fundamental processes in the marine environment with emphasis on interdisciplinary linkages in the functioning of marine ecosystems. Understanding the dynamics in the physics, chemistry, and biology of the oceans will be emphasized.
11:670:451 / 16:712:552 REMOTE SENSING OF THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE
Prerequisite: One year of physics.
Introduction to physical principles of remote sensing; past, present, and future instruments on satellites, aircraft, the surface, and under the ocean; applications in oceanography and atmospheric sciences. Miller, Wilkin.
16:712:502 LARGE SCALE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS (3)
The theoretical basis for the observed large-scale, atmospheric and ocean circulation is presented. Topics include: derivation of the three-dimensional equations of motion; vorticity and energy; the planetary boundary layer; synoptic-scale motions; linear waves; hydrodynamic instability; the general circulation on the sphere; the effects of boundaries on large-scale horizontal flow; and vertical structure and motion.
16:712:560 HISTORY OF THE EARTH SYSTEM (3)
Prerequisites: Introductory Chemistry, Biology, and Physics (or by consultation with the
Instructor).
Introduction to major processes that have shaped Earth’s environment, including climatic processes on geological time scales, the evolution of organisms, the cycling of elements, and the feedback between these processes. Falkowski.
16:712:603 NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN(3)
Prerequisites: 16:375:547, 16:712:502 or equivalent; proficiency in a high-level programming language.
Governing equations of atmospheric/oceanic motion; simplification and scaling; parameterization issues; numerical solution of the equations; Fourier and spectral methods; and evaluation of atmospheric and oceanic models. Haidvogel. Offered in alternate years.
School of Planning and Public Policy
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34:970:511:03 SUSTAINABLE CITIES STUDIO: UNDERSTANDING AND EVALUATING INTEGRATED PROGRAMS IN 26 CITIES IN 11 COUNTRIES
Instructor: Professor Hal Salzman. Monday 1:10 PM - 4:10 PM (online).
This studio provides students the opportunity to conduct in-depth research and an assessment of a global program promoting sustainable urban development as it is being implemented in 26 major cities in 11 developing countries. Participating in, and contributing to a formative evaluation currently underway at the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) will provide direct, practical understanding of global state-of-the-art sustainable urban development programs. Students will gain experience working with an innovative global organization that functions as a global partnership, serving as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions.
This model program has potential to be a new approach for cross-national collaboration that addresses common global issues.
This is a graduate student seminar/practicum. For more information on the Sustainable Cities program and GEF, visit: https://www.thegef.org/news/our-global-commons-sustainable-cities.
34:970:523 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY (3)
Legal principles involved in protecting the environment, including air, water, and noise pollution; control of population growth and distribution; and ecological aspects of land-use control.
34:970:552 TRANSPORTATION AND ENVIRONMENT (3)
Focus on the interrelationship between transportation and the environment, including environmental impacts caused by various types of transportation, technology, and policy solutions.
34:970:571 INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY (3)
Explores the metaphor of industrial ecology and tests whether it is a framework for implementing sustainable development and environmental decisions. Evaluates research and practice in industrial ecology across scales.
34:970:572 GREEN BUILDING (3)
This graduate seminar focuses on the green building phenomenon. It provides a multidisciplinary, rigorous, and practical introduction to green building.
34:970:619 ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICY (3)
The role of economics in environmental issues and, especially, in the formation of environmental policy including environmental problems in air, water, land use, and natural environments.
34:970:620 ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY AND POLICY (3)
This course examines energy policy and planning through a timely, critical, and practical approach designed to give students an insight into the factors that shape energy policy.
16:218:502 CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE COAST (3)
This course explores issues related to coastal risk and resilience by integrating perspectives from climate science, geography, sociology, economics, urban planning, ecology, and civil & environmental engineering. Each class session centers on a discussion led by a member of the faculty or by an outside guest and focuses on transdisciplinary learning, new perspectives, and current issues within the context of more than one disciplines. The goal of the course is for students to connect new knowledge among the different disciplines and create a deeper understanding related to human experience with coastal adaptation and resilience.