Environmental Sciences

专业详情

The goal of the Environmental Sciences Program is to provide students with a broad-based, inter- and multidisciplinary understanding of Environmental Systems and Global Sciences. This is achieved by exploiting the expertise of many world experts from a large number of different disciplines, in a coherent teaching program based on six key areas. These key areas focus on both the scientific and social science aspects and details of each of them are provided below.

Environmental Principles highlights the philosophical and ethical aspects of environmental issues. The courses offered are intended to provide students with opportunities to contemplate underlying issues of environmental studies and their interactions with science, technology, and society. Foundations for the concept of sustainable development are also explored.

Management and Policy treats social science approaches to environmental issues. The courses offered are designed for students to examine the foundations of social science disciplines including economics, law, political science, sociology, psychology, etc., as well as to explore their applications to real world problems with regard to environmental management and policy making.

Our environment is composed of many complex physical, chemical and biological systems with which we interact and which interact with one another; the oceans and the atmosphere are two very clear examples. Measurement and Evaluation examines the theoretical principles and models, experimental methods and technologies and the analytical processes necessary to evaluate these systems and their interactions.

Materials, Systems and Dynamics is rooted in the physical and biological sciences. It focuses on the ways individual materials are composed and interact to produce complex systems, which include man-made processes, the earth, its atmosphere and the universe. Understanding the structure and dynamics of these systems allows us not only to predict their behavior, but also to influence and ultimately control them.

Energy and Resources is one of the most important underlying subjects in environmental science. The courses offered are designed for students to review energy technologies and resources that include fossil fuels (e.g. oil, coal, and natural gas), renewables (e.g. photovoltaic, wind power, etc.), and advanced generation technologies (e.g. nuclear power), as well as to explore the engineering details of these methods.

From a human perspective, the most important aspect of the environment is its ability to keep us alive, healthy, safe and in a state of well-being. This area deals with the many facets of this perspective, including risk analysis, food safety and the dynamics of populations. It discusses the ways in which the beneficial aspects of our environment can be nurtured and enhanced, and the ways in which ecologicaland and social sustainability can be applied in the design of future urban environments.