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Environment and Urban Sustainability
Environment and Urban Sustainability
- EUS 102 - Environment and SustainabilityCourse DescriptionThis course provides an introduction to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability in cities, particularly establishing the theoretical bases and understanding of the broad range of environmental problems that result when consumptive economies exploit their physical resources.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 180 - Global Water IssuesCourse DescriptionThe objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of critical issues in freshwater resource management at a global scale and to examine both the historical and future strategies to address these challenges, particularly through the lens of economic and social development. Included are issues of the historical importance of water, water distribution and supply, water security, pollution, public health, conservation, and policy.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00Liberal Studies:LL
- EUS 202 - Sustaining the City's EnvironmentsCourse DescriptionThis course provides insights into the promotion of geographically-balanced settlement structures, sustainable waste and water management systems, the efficient management of urban pollution, and effective and environmentally-sound transportation systems. These have been identified as being essential to sustaining the city's environment. Students will develop an environmental report card as their major project and will have the opportunity to see firsthand working urban systems of sustainability.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 301 - Reading Neighbourhood EnvironmentsCourse DescriptionThis course acquaints students with the complex set of historical and contemporary factors that continue to influence Toronto's development as a city of neighbourhoods. The significance of Toronto's local environments will be examined within the context of Toronto as a healthy and culturally diverse city and students will have the opportunity to develop their own appreciation for the importance of these factors by analyzing or reading the environments of selected Toronto locales in fieldwork projects.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 401 - Patterns of Demography and EnvironmentCourse DescriptionThis course outlines the theoretical basis of demography and explores the demographic variables that reflect the past, present, and future of our society. Lectures and labs expand on the complexities of the seemingly simple expressions of birth, death and migration in Canada. Spreadsheet analysis is the basis for exploration of population comparisons, change and prediction within plant, animal, and human populations. The possible impacts of these predicted population changes on Canadian society will be covered in the concluding lectures.Weekly Contact:Lecture 2 hrs. Lab 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 402 - Research and StatisticsCourse DescriptionThis course is an introduction to statistical methods for student in Environment and Urban Sustainability. It complements the student's knowledge of basic analytical approaches used in research learned in SSH 301 (Research Design and Qualitative Methods). Descriptive statistics, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, and statistical tests give the student the practical methods needed to statistically describe and analyze environmental phenomena and to present those results.Weekly Contact:Lecture 2 hrs. Lab 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00Prerequisites:EUS 102
- EUS 450 - Responses to Climate ChangeCourse DescriptionThis course explores the concepts of climate change, environmental sustainability, and sustainable development from an interdisciplinary perspective. It places emphasis on mitigation and adaptation strategies and deals explicitly with their interactions in response to climate change. The focus is on urban areas and their potential for mitigation of impacts through strategies that reduce greenhouse emissions and as locus for adaptation to global change.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 501 - Ecological Processes in the Cdn LandscapeCourse DescriptionThe goal of this program course is to give students a firm grasp of the concepts of ecosystem processes and patterns occurring at a landscape scale, and of how these concepts can be applied to enhance the effectiveness of environmental policy, assessment and management. The course will explore the principles that are foundational to the understanding of landscape ecology using examples from Canadian ecosystems. Students will develop an understanding and appreciation for: characteristic spatial and temporal scales of ecological events; physical and biological agents of pattern; the concept of disturbance and landscape equilibrium; the applications of landscape ecology to monitoring and conservation; and, an appreciation for how individual organisms and human activity influence ecological processes.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 550 - Sustainable Cities: Politics and EquityCourse DescriptionThis course introduces divergent definitions of the concept of sustainability and examines who gets to decide what is sustainable. It investigates how cities are achieving various components of urban sustainability. Emphasis is placed on politics and decision-making, and how risks, benefits and "rights" are distributed across society. Using environmental justice and social equity lenses, the course examines how demographic change, poverty and wealth influence the types of strategies cities adopt and who benefits.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 601 - Nature in FragmentsCourse DescriptionThis course will be devoted to hands-on discussion and demonstration of major topics related to understanding sprawl and its impacts on the natural environment. It will begin by exploring the political, economic, social, and demographic forces impacting development patterns in metropolitan areas across North America, with specific examples drawn from southern Ontario. With this as background, the course will transition to an investigation of the impact of sprawl on ecological functions and attempt to better understand how science and policy may interface to guide development patterns in a more ecologically sustainable way.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 650 - Waste and Waste ManagementCourse DescriptionThis course introduces the student to the world of waste management by developing a solid background in the categories of waste, and the political and economic, as well as environmental, rationales behind the adoption and promotion of international and Canadian waste management systems. The students will have an opportunity to develop waste audits as well as experience firsthand waste management systems in action.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 701 - Field Studies in Urban EcologyCourse DescriptionThis is a senior level program course designed specifically for Environment and Urban Sustainability students. It seeks to unite theory and application acquired in foundational years by providing students the opportunity to conceive of and study a relevant scientific question within the field of urban ecology. Specifically, the goal of this course is to provide fourth year students with a real world opportunity to design and conduct their own urban ecology research project.Weekly Contact:Lecture 2 hrs. Lab 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00Prerequisites:EUS 501
- EUS 750 - Sustainable Transportation and Energy StrategiesCourse DescriptionThis course looks at issues associated with transportation and energy planning through the lens of sustainable development with a focus on urban areas. The main objectives of the course are to recognize the importance of transportation- and energy-related environmental problems, particularly in the local context, and to explore how transportation and energy use may be made more sustainable.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 760 - Cities at RiskCourse DescriptionUrban places are susceptible to a wide spectrum of threats from natural and biological hazards and from a wide assortment of human activities. This course addresses the need to understand the scope of potential threats to appreciate the mechanisms that activate them, and to formulate responses that mitigate, if not eliminate, the damage they cause.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 801 - Senior Projects in EUSCourse DescriptionThe principal goal of this course is to help provide synthesis and maturity of perspective for the appropriate on-the-job application of the wide range of theory, models, methods, skills and approaches to which fourth year students have been exposed. The course places students in a consulting project which stresses the importance of organization, cooperation, teamwork, efficient research and report writing. Students will work as a group of "consultants" who jointly undertake secondary and primary environmental policy research and report preparation on behalf of a "client" in a non-academic context.Weekly Contact:Lecture 2 hrs. Lab 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 850 - Sustainability in OrganizationsCourse DescriptionThe course is an introduction to the planning and implementation of environmental and sustainability management in business firms, local governments, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. It explores how organizational culture and structure interrelate with sustainability goals and objectives, and tensions between approaches. The course discusses the unique challenges different organizations face in acquiring the resources necessary for meeting sustainability objectives. Attention is given to the skills and leadership qualities required of influential actors within organizations.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 860 - Measuring SustainabilityCourse DescriptionThe main objective of this course is to investigate the basic tools of sustainable development by understanding the possibilities, constraints and interactions of methods for measuring and monitoring sustainability. Students will gain familiarity with the application of a variety of tools and methodologies such as State of Environment Reporting, Best Practice Assessment, Urban Metabolism Analysis, and Environmental Costing.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 870 - Ecological RestorationCourse DescriptionThis program course will focus on the ecological issues associated with restoration of degraded habitats. It will concentrate on the application of ecological theory to restoration practice and the use of restoration as a test of our knowledge concerning how natural systems function. The course will include discussion of restoration in a variety of habitat types, with special attention devoted to those present in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Students will become familiar with historical and contemporary approaches to restoring diversity and function to disturbed ecosystems. Restoration concepts will be enhanced and reinforced through an opportunity critique a professional restoration plan.Weekly Contact:Lecture 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 880 - Field StudiesCourse DescriptionOptional field course held for Environment and Urban Sustainability students. Consult department for details. This course is recommended for third year and fourth year students.Weekly Contact:Lab 3 hrs.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1Count:1.00
- EUS 900 - EUS Internship Placement ICourse DescriptionAn optional placement based on a minimum of 10 weeks of full-time employment is available allowing students to experience career-related work terms that enhance their university learning experience. Enrolment is limited with admission based on the student's grade point average. The work term is normally in the summer period between a student's second and third years. Departmental consent required. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis and is a non-credit course.Weekly Contact:Lecture 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1
- EUS 901 - EUS Internship Placement IICourse DescriptionAn optional placement based on a minimum of 10 weeks of full-time employment is available allowing students to experience career-related work terms that enhance their university learning experience. Enrolment is limited with admission based on the student's grade point average. The work term is normally in the summer period between a student's third and fourth years. Departmental consent required. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis and is a non-credit course.Weekly Contact:Lecture 1 hr.GPA Weight:1.00Billing Units:1