OBSERVING AND UNDERSTANDING SEA LEVEL CH

OBS & UNDRSTNDNG SEA LEVE

This course provides an overview of the science related to observing and understanding sea-level rise, which has a profound impact on the sustainability of coastal cities and ecosystems. In modern research, sea-level rise is viewed as a complex response of the Earth “system of systems” to climate change. Measuring ongoing sea-level change is challenging due to the great natural variability of sea level on short time scales caused by tides, weather, and ocean currents.  Interpreting measurements so that one can assess (and mitigate against) potential economic and societal impacts of sea-level rise is crucial but can be complicated, since so many Earth-system processes play a role. Some of these processes are related and others are unrelated to climate change; some of the latter are natural and others are of anthropogenic origin. Students enrolled in this course will through lectures and class discussions address topics related to the underlying observational basis for sea-level rise. Given the complexity of sea level rise, it is important for those in technical positions to understand the systems level interactions that not only lead to rising waters but also the consequences that these changes inflict on other parts of our environment. What we hear most commonly is that sea level rise will affect hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas and make those populations susceptible to flooding. But in addition to this community effect, sea level rise also have dramatic effects on coastal habitats, leading to issue such as erosion, soil contamination, and wetland flooding, just to name a few. This course will introduce and prepare students to develop a more comprehensive and holistic approach to sea level rise. By training students to observe, measure, interpret, and begin to predict how sea level rise affects populations and communities differently, students will be in strong positions to address, mitigate, and adapt to the challenges more effectively using evidence-based approaches.

• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: James L Davis
  h-index: 57 Info
• 3 points

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FACE OF NATURAL DI

SUST IN FACE OF NATRL DIS

Natural hazards, naturally occurring phenomena, which can lead to great damage and loss of life, pose a great challenge for the sustainability of communities around the world. This course aims to prepare students to tackle specific hazards relevant to their life and work by providing them the scientific background and knowledge of the environmental factors that combine to produce natural disasters. The course will also train students about the methods used to study certain aspects of natural hazards and strategies for assessing risk and preparing communities and businesses for natural disasters. The course will cover a range of natural hazards, including geological, hydro-meteorological, and biological. The course will emphasize the driving physical, chemical and biological processes controlling the various hazards, and the observation and modeling methods used by scientists to assess and monitor events. Many case examples, including hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that occurred in the last five years, will be given and analyzed for the characteristics of the event, the preparation, and the response.

By providing students with a solid understanding of past natural disasters, the course prepares them to think more critically about creating more resilient communities, which can resist catastrophic events. Students will be studying the underpinning scientific principles of natural disasters but will also learn specific strategies for planning, mitigation, and response. During the course, students will master cutting-edge tools and technologies that will prepare them to work in the complex and demanding field of disaster management. After completing the course, students will be able to understand past events, communicate risk, and make critical decision related to disaster and preparedness. In increasingly unpredictable times, there is a need for more resilient and connected communities, and this particular course will train students in both the knowledge and skills needed to lead and strengthen those communities and resilience efforts at scale.

Advising Note:
Students are expected to have taken college-level Calculus, Physics, and Introductory Statistics. Students are expected to have experience with computer based data analysis (Excel, R, Matlab or Python).

• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points

GEO INFO SYSTEMS (GIS) FOR SUST SCIENCE

Many environmental and sustainability science issues have a spatial, location-based component. Increasingly available spatial data allow location-specific analysis and solutions to problems and understanding issues. As result, analyzing and identifying successful and sustainable solutions for these issues often requires the use of spatial analysis and tools. This course introduces common spatial data types and fundamental methods to organize, visualize and analyze those data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Through a combination of lectures and practical computer activities the students will learn and practice fundamental GIS and spatial analysis methods using typical sustainable science case studies and scenarios. A key objective of this course is to provide students with essential GIS skills that will aid them in their professional career and to offer an overview of current GIS applications. In the first part, the course will cover basic spatial data types and GIS concepts. The students will apply those techniques by analyzing potential impacts of storms on New York City as part of a guided case study. A mid-term report describing this case study and the results is required. In the second part, building on the basic concepts introduced in the first part, students will be asked to identify a sustainable science question of their choice that they would like to address as a final project. Together with the instructor they will be developing a strategy of analyzing and presenting related spatial data. While the students are working on their projects additional GIS method and spatial analysis concepts will be covered in class. At the end of the course Students will briefly present their final project and submit a paper describing their project. This course does not assume that students have had any previous experience with GIS.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Frank Nitsche
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 29 Info
• 3 points

STATISTICS, DATA ANALYSIS, AND CODING FO

STATS, DATA, ANLYS&CODING

Students in the Master of Science in Sustainability Science will encounter a range of scientific problems throughout their Science-specific courses that require a strong foundational level of mathematical and statistical knowledge.  In addition, course-work will involve computer coding to read, analyze, and visualize data sets.  This course provides an overview of essential mathematical concepts, an introduction to new concepts in statistics and data analysis, and provides computer coding skills that will prepare students for coursework in the Master of Science in Sustainability Science program as well as to succeed in a career having a sustainability science component.  In addition to an overview of essential mathematical concepts, the skills gained in this course include statistics, and coding applied to data analysis in the Sustainability Sciences. Many of these skills are broadly applicable to science-related professions, and will be useful to those having careers involving interaction with scientists, managing projects utilizing scientific analysis, and developing science-based policy. Students enrolled in this course will learn through lectures, class discussion, and hands-on exercises that address the following topics: Review of mathematical concepts in calculus, trigonometry, and linear algebra; Mathematical concepts related to working on a spherical coordinate system (such as that for the Earth); Probability and statistics, including use of probability density functions to calculate expectations, hypothesis testing, and the concept of experimental uncertainty; Concepts in data analysis, including linear least squares, time-series analysis, parameter uncertainties, and analysis of fit; Computer coding skills, including precision of variables, arrays and data structures, input/output, flow control, and subroutines, and coding tools to produce basic X-Y plots as well as images of data fields on a global map.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Previdi
  Info
• 3 points

MONITORING AND ANALYSIS OF MARINE & ESTU

MONIT & ANLYS OF MARINE &

From a global perspective, many of the earth’s most important environments and resources for global sustainability are located in marine and estuarine areas.  This class will explore open-ocean and estuarine processes, reviewing what is known about the temporal variability and interconnectedness of these physical and biologic systems.. A few examples include; 1.) oceanic environments were incompletely understood processes regulate the exchange of heat, water and carbon dioxide gas with the atmosphere, 2.) the relationship between nutrients and primary production and fisheries in open ocean, estuarine and coral reef environments and climatic phenomenon such as El Niño South Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). 3.) For estuaries, current sea level and urbanization stresses on the coastal environments will be discussed.  Professionals working in the environmental and engineering fields will benefit from a wide-ranging discussion of the multi-scaled processes influencing estuaries. Knowledge of the processes operating in these environments will lead to a more thorough understanding of the complex issues that may influence infrastructure and coastal development in and around estuarine environments in the near-future. Throughout the class we will explore marine and estuarine processes by studying regional and local responses to broader scale climatic forcing. Reading of textbook chapters and journal articles will supplement in-class lectures and discussion. Grading will be based on class participation, a two exams and a research paper. At the end of the course, students will have a strong scientific understanding about the impacts made on marine and estuary systems through physical, chemical, and biological processes. The course will prepare students to be well-trained in the core features of these systems and the relationship between natural and human processes, and equip them with the skills needed to explore marine and estuary systems in diverse scales and functions in the future.

• W 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Braddock Linsley
  h-index: 42 Info
• 3 points

REMOTE SENSING FOR AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS

Aquatic systems are critical for provisioning ecosystem services that have sustained human civilization as evidenced by the establishment of the earliest civilizations on banks of rivers or along a coast.  Apart from regulating climate, aquatic systems provide food and transportation services, fresh water lakes and reservoirs provide water for consumption and irrigation, and coastal systems offer recreational services.  But growing human population, especially along the coast, has endangered the quality of ecosystem services.  The primary finding of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was that 15 out 24 ecosystem services examined are being degraded or being used unsustainably (MEA 2005).  Monitoring the aquatic ecosystem and understanding how to distinguish between anthropogenic and natural variability is an essential aspect of sustainability science. This course will provide an introduction to the use of remote sensing techniques that can be used to study the aquatic environment. There are several space-based sensors that provide information relevant to sustainable management of aquatic resources.  Depending on the sensor, observations are made as frequently as every day and spatially covering the entire globe.  Understanding the spatial and temporal context around an issue can help discriminate between local and far field effects and time series of remote sensing data can be constructed to investigate causes and consequences of environmental events.  Thus knowledge of the basic science of remote sensing, understanding how to select the appropriate sensor to answer a question, where to find the data and how to analyze this data could be critical tools for anyone interested in oceanic, coastal, and freshwater resource management. The course will follow active learning techniques and will consist of a lecture to introduce concepts followed by a discussion and lab time for hands on activities to learn and use tools for analysis of remote sensing data.  After the introduction of the basic principles of remote sensing, a series of case studies will be used to explore concepts in sustainability such as water quality, nutrient loading and hypoxia, coral reefs.  Remote sensing tools that are used to investigate and address environmental questions such as the effects of shutting down a sewage treatment plant, mapping of suspended sediment concentrations will be demonstrated and used by the students.  Each case study will be briefly introduced at the end of the pre

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Ajit Subramaniam
  Info
• 3 points

Fundamentals of Economic and Financial I

Course Overview

Investors in residential and commercial real estate, those in infrastructure and supply-chain, to name a few examples, are exposed to risks of flooding, droughts and forest fires as a consequence of the reverberations of climate change on environmental factors and weather. Such risks are higher for stakeholders with properties close to the coast or in regions where drought and forest fires are increasing (e.g., the Western U.S.) as well as for financial institutions that finance their purchases and hold their securities. Risks associated with sea level rise, flooding, inundation and other extreme events have generally not been properly assessed nor quantified and it is currently hard for investors to assess the risks that they now face, and will face in the future, from climate change. Moreover, the consequences of climate change go beyond the financial and economic ones, as in the case of climate justice, in which the social cost of the climate change impacts is paid by those who are the least responsible and that are the most vulnerable from a socio-economic perspective.

The course will focus on fundamentals on economic and financial impacts of climate change. We will discuss the major impacts of climate change from a financial and climate perspective. This work will be spread throughout the semester through presentations by the teacher, guest speakers and in-class discussions from the readings. The class will also focus on specific topics for the required final project. Students will be able to use the SEPHER dataset, developed at Lamont and focusing on real estate, socio-vulnerability of people exposed to climate change impacts, with emphasis on racial issues, economic wealth and phenomena such as climate gentrification and housing. The students will be exposed to the dataset at the beginning of the course and will be taught how to visualize the data without any computer science knowledge.

Students will explore the state of the art of current literature on the topics described above and discuss in class about the most updated findings and their economic drivers or implications. Then, students will be exposed to the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to map quantities of interest using SEPHER 2.0. With this powerful and yet simple tool, students will be able to visualize variables to analyze maps to develop ideas and support hypothesis integration and growth. The students will be exposed to training when they will be doing practical hands-on exercises to create

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Marco Tedesco
  Wikipedia h-index: 47 Info
• 3 points

CAPSTONE WORKSHOP IN SUSTAINABLE SCIENCE

Students study the sustainability science behind a particular sustainability problem, collect and analyze data using scientific tools, and make recommendations for solving the problem. The capstone course is a client-based workshop that will integrate each element of the curriculum into an applied project, giving students hands-on experience.

• T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• 3 points