Summer Session Offerings
ENSP101 -- Intro to Environmental Science
- Summer I -- MTuWTh - 10-11:45
- INSTRUCTOR: Annette Spivy
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GEOG498T -- Sustainability and the City: Washington, DC’s Green Landscape
- Summer Session II -- T/Th 9:00am – 12:30pm
- Dr. Rachel Berndtson
Geographers have long studied human-environment interactions
at the urban scale. As spaces of human-environment interaction, cities are
sites of economic production, cultural maintenance, and environmental change.
Given expanding urban populations and high levels of consumption, it is
critical to evaluate the sustainability of urban life. Geographers are also
uniquely positioned across the natural and social sciences, and thus contribute
a holistic understanding of sustainability. In this class we will analyze urban
landscapes with that holistic mentality, as we constantly question whether and
how components of the urban system are sustainable. We will define what it
means to be “sustainable,” and how that definition applies to 21st century
cities, with a specific focus on the Washington, D.C. landscape. Students will
learn about processes, systems, and policies that both enable and restrain
urban sustainability, as well as several sectors of urban greening, including
water, land, and energy use, food access, and environmental justice. Applying
class content, students will critically evaluate whether “green” initiatives in
Washington, DC enhance the city’s sustainability.
Whether or not you apply your understanding of
sustainability to a traditionally geographic career, it is my goal that you leave
the course with a more thorough understanding of sustainability and urban
landscapes, and a skill set to enhance sustainability in your career paths and
personal lives.
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URSP 688L -- Planning Technologies
- Tuesday & Thursday, 6:45-9:45 pm - Summer Session I
- INSTRUCTOR: Chao Liu (cliu8@umd.edu)
This course provides an introduction to several technologies used by urban and regional planners, regardless of their substantive field (e.g. transportation, community development, urban design, etc). Given the ubiquity of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in contemporary planning, there will be a considerable focus on developing analytical and visual GIS skills using both commercial and open-source software packages. Other technologies include: Location-based social media analysis, search engine optimization, blogs, Twitter, google map mash-ups, social networking, web surveys, and photo/video sharing (web/video conferencing, Wiki).
Hands-on experience will be emphasized in this class to have students acquire practical skills, as well as knowledge, so they will be able to apply their skills in other classes and future work.