School of Environmental Science and Management
Physical Sciences North 4670;
Telephone (805) 893-7363
Dean: Jeff Dozier
Open a new browser window to view the divisional web page for the School of Environmental Science and Management.
UC Santa Barbara's new School of Environmental Science and Management, the first of its type in the western United States, focuses on the diagnosis and assessment of the environmental problems of today and the future. The School currently offers the Masters of Environmental Science and Management (M.E.S.M.), a professional degree. The School plans to offer a research-oriented Ph.D. program and a mid-career professional certificate program in the near future. The School's guiding principle is that the analysis of environmental problems requires quantitative training in more than one traditional discipline along with an awareness of the physical, biological, social, political, and economic consequences that arise from scientific or technological decisions. The interdisciplinary approach of the programs will go beyond mere course-taking to form a coherent, integrated program blending teaching, research, and real-world problems.
Today's environmental problems call for people who are educated in more than one discipline, highly trained in technical skills, and aware of the political, economic, and social dimensions of environmental decisions. Advances in observational methods, theories, and models in such fields as meteorology, oceanography, ecology, geochemistry, hydrology, economics, sociology, political science, and history have developed independently and remained unique. Present needs require that traditional disciplines be integrated in teaching and research to recognize the planet as a single, complex, integrated system. The School of Environmental Science and Management will offer such integrated training and research. Built into the program is resource-sharing with expertise in the College of Letters and Science and the College of Engineering; the proposed curriculum includes many courses outside the School of Environmental Science and Management.
The School draws upon the skills and expertise of many UC Santa Barbara faculty of national and international stature who are on the forefront of this integrated approach to the study of the environment. In addition to current faculty, five new faculty members will join the School by fall 1997. The School will grow to seventeen faculty by academic year 2000-2001.
A. Scott Denning, Ph.D., Colorado State University, Assistant Professor (earth system science, global climate modeling and carbon cycling)
Jeff Dozier, Ph.D., University of Michigan, Professor (snow science, remote sensing, information systems, environmental optics, earth system science)
Tom Dunne, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Professor (geomorphology and hydrology: field and theoretical studies of drainage basin and hillslope evolution; sediment transportation and floodplain sedimentation; sediment budgets of drainage basins)
Arturo Keller, Ph.D., Stanford University, Assistant Professor (environmental biogeochemistry, climate modeling, ground water contamination)
John Melack, Ph.D., Duke University, Professor (limnology of tropical, saline, and alpine lakes, phytoplankton and zooplankton ecology, biogeochemistry, wetland ecology, remote sensing)
It is expected that most applicants will have undergraduate degrees in engineering, natural science, or economics. Students with other undergraduate degrees will be considered if they have met a significant portion of the minimum undergraduate preparation. This includes one year of calculus, one course in statistics, computer programming in one high-level language, one course each in college-level chemistry, biology, and physics, one course in physical geography or equivalent, and one course in microeconomics.
Students choose to specialize in one of four emphases: Applied Ecology, Environmental Biogeochemistry, Earth System Science, and Environmental Policy Management, described below.
Applied Ecology Emphasis. This emphasis trains students to analyze and solve environmental problems within the appropriate ecological framework by studying ecological systems, especially the dynamics of biological populations, communities, and ecosystems. Graduates of this emphasis will be prepared to propose, design, evaluate, oversee, analyze, and interpret the results of environmental programs and activities using the techniques and methods of both applied ecology and quantitative analysis. Responsibilities of graduate students in this emphasis will include the following: (1) environmental impact assessment-the detection and measurement of the impacts of human activities on living resources of interest to society, (2) quantitative prediction of short- and long-term ecological effects arising from human activities; (3) development of ecologically sound methods for preventing or mitigating environmental impacts; and (4) management of populations and ecosystems.
The curriculum will allow the student to develop a specialized area of expertise in addition to the broadly applicable skills acquired in the core courses. This specialized area might focus on a particular type of environment (e.g., the ocean) or a particular type of ecological problem (e.g., assessment techniques or management of populations).
Environmental Biogeochemistry Emphasis. Many environmental problems involve alteration of our air, water, or soil by introduced chemicals, through anthropogenic and fluxes of naturally occurring substances. Chemical perturbations, introduced by human activities and error, cause serious problems, such as eutrophication, acidic deposition, stratospheric ozone depletion, greenhouse warming, smog, toxic wastes, oil spills, and nuclear accidents. This emphasis will prepare its graduates to deal with these problems using innovative, creative techniques and policies.
The curriculum includes specialized courses in inorganic and organic chemistry, chemical engineering, isotope geochemistry, biogeochemistry, analytical techniques, hydrology, fluid mechanics, modeling, statistics, limnology, oceanography, atmospheric chemistry, soil science, and terrestrial ecology. This emphasis will also introduce students to risk assessment, statistics, and policy formulation. Graduates will leave the School as competent professionals in the science of chemical processes in the environment.
Earth System Science Emphasis. Earth system science is a new, integrative discipline appropriate for the analysis of environmental problems. The primary focus is on studies that contribute to a multifaceted understanding of terrestrial and aquatic environments through study and understanding of linkage and interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Because of UCSB's special strengths in aquatic biology, hydrology, geomorphology, and oceanography, the School will emphasize aquatic ecosystems.
The curriculum for this emphasis includes specialized courses in the analysis of global scale systems-scientific computing and simulation, numerical methods, applied mathematics, statistics, fluid dynamics, optics, remote sensing, and geographic information systems-and electives dealing with environments and processes in the atmosphere, oceans, land, and inland waters.
Environmental Policy and Management Emphasis. Issues related to the environment and to the management of natural resources involve a complex array of institutional, legal, and policy factors at the local, state, national, and international levels.
Students in this emphasis will strengthen their understanding of natural science aspects of environmental systems and gain an in-depth understanding of human systems and how they interact with the environment. Such understanding is crucial to activities as the writing of laws and regulations, creation of new domestic or international institutions, supervision of multidisciplinary environmental groups, or operation of an environmental protection program or resource management effort.
This emphasis will require courses in microeconomics, economic decisions, natural resource economics, risk management, data management and statistics, public policy, and environmental regulation and law.
201. Ecological Principles
(4) Staff
Prerequisites: MCDB 4A, and MCDB 4B or EEMB 4B, or equivalent.
Graduate standing in ESM or consent of instructor.
Principles of population ecology, community ecology,
ecosystem ecology, and ecological theory.
202. Biogeochemical Principles
(4) Keller, Melack
Prerequisites: Chemistry 1A-B-C or equivalent. Graduate
standing in ESM or consent of instructor.
Biogeochemical processes, kinetics and chemical thermodynamics
as applied to the Earth's atmosphere, ecosystems, oceans, and watersheds.
203. Earth System Science
(4) Dunne, Dozier
Prerequisites: Geography 3 or equivalent. Graduate standing
in ESM or consent of instructor.
Energy and mass transport as applied to the atmosphere,
oceans, and land and models of the Earth's climate and hydrology.
204. Economics of Environmental Management
(4) Staff
Prerequisites: Economics 1 or equivalent. Graduate standing
in ESM or consent of instructor.
Basic principles of economic analysis, decision making,
policy formation, and environmental regulation under uncertainty in static
and dynamic contexts. Introduction to regulatory assessment.
205. Computing and Simulation in Environmental Science
and Management
(4) Denning
Prerequisite: Geography 210 or equivalent. Knowledge
of one high-level programming language. Graduate standing in ESM or consent
of instructor.
Numerical modeling of the physical and human environment.
Structured programming, software design and documentation. Use of packages.
simulation, statistical methods, and operations research.
215. Landscape Ecology
(4) Davis
Prerequisites: ESM 201. Graduate standing in ESM or consent
of instructor.
Relationships between spatial patterns in landscape structure
(physical, biological, and cultural) and ecological processes. Role of
ecosystem pattern in mass and energy transfers, disturbance regimes, and
species' persistence, and applications of remote sensing and GIS for landscape
characterization and modeling.
221. Atmospheric Pollution
(4) Keller
Prerequisite: ESM 222 recommended. Graduate standing
in ESM or consent of instructor.
Major pollutants in the atmosphere. Their generation,
travel through the atmosphere, and removal. Analysis and suitability of
available technology.
222. Fate and Transport of Contaminants in the Environment
(4) Keller
Prerequisite: Geography 116 recommended. Graduate standing
in ESM or consent of instructor.
Origin, composition, transport, and fate of contaminants
in water, air, and soil. Focus on organic contaminants.
223. Hazardous Waste Management
(4) Keller
Prerequisite: ESM 222. Geography 116 recommended. Graduate
standing in ESM or consent of instructor.
Characterization of the contaminated zone and analysis
of various treatment options available.
231. Global Climate and Climate Change: Science and Simulation
(4) Denning
Prerequisite: graduate standing in ESM or consent of
instructor.
Physics of the Earth's climate including radiation, atmospheric
and ocean dynamics, and the hydrologic cycle. Interaction between subsystems.
Climate simulation. Recent results from GCMs. Strengths and weaknesses
of GCMs as a policy tool.
232. Transport Processes
(4) Denning
Prerequisites: ESM 205; graduate standing in ESM or consent
of instructor.
Transport of pollutants and other substances in air and
water, with emphasis on mathematical description and prediction using numerical
models. Advection, diffusion, and turbulence in fluid media. Parameterization
of transport in large-scale models.
234. River Systems
(4) Dunne
Prerequisites: one year of calculus and one quarter of
mechanics. Geography 112, Geology 117, or equivalent recommended. Graduate
standing in ESM or consent of instructor. Not open for credit to students
who have completed ESM 233A-B.
Hydrologic and geomorphic basis of environmental management
problems concerning large river systems. Analysis of the processes of flooding,
sedimentation, and morphological change in channels, floodplains, deltas,
and alluvial fans. Effects of climate, land use, and engineering.
235. Watershed Analysis
(4) Dunne
Prerequisites: one year of calculus, one quarter of mechanics.
Geology 117, or equivalent recommended. Graduate standing in ESM or consent
of instructor.
Hydrologic and geomorphic basis of environmental management
problems concerning land surfaces and channels in small drainage basins,
including the effects of land use and engineering. Emphasis placed on the
use of theory and field methods.
242. Natural Resource Economics and Policy
(4) Staff
Prerequisites: ESM 204 or Economics 1 or equivalent.
Graduate standing in ESM or consent of instructor.
Economic principles and policy issues of the use of exhaustible
and renewable resources including fossil fuels, water, minerals, fisheries.
Management of resource markets on a regional and international scale.
245. Cost-Benefit Analysis
(4) Staff
Prerequisites: ESM 204 or Economics 1 or equivalent.
Graduate standing in ESM or consent of instructor.
Assumptions and methods. Benefits assessment. Valuation
of environmental damage. Arguments against and limitations.
401A-B-C. Group Project in Environmental Science and Management
(3-3-3) Staff
Prerequisite: graduate standing in ESM.
Group study of a sample environmental problem.
595AA-ZZ. Group Studies
(3) Staff
Prerequisite: graduate standing in environmental science
or consent of instructor; may be repeated for credit provided letter designations
are different. A critical review of research in selected fields of environmental
science and management.