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Home > Undergraduate Program : Environmental Systems

Environmental Systems

The Environmental Systems (ES) track examines the natural environments and resources that sustain human life and activity.

Students explore the local and global patterns of climate, soils, vegetation, and surface land form; changes over time, both naturally occurring and caused by humans, in the natural environment; and ways of analyzing and predicting both human-caused and naturally occurring environmental change.

Students in this track can pursue a BA or BS degree. Courses within this track include:

• 3355 Environmental Quality
• 3361 Land Use, Landscapes, and the Law
• 3376 Political Ecology of North America
• 3379 Environmental Development in the Third World
• 3381 Population in an Interacting World
• 3401 Geography of Environmental Systems (track core course)
• 3411/5411 Geography of Health
• 3431 Plant and Animal Geography
• 3441/5441 Quaternary Landscape Evolution
• 4121 Latin America
• 5361 Geography and Real Estate
• 5423 Climate Models and Modeling
• 5426 Climatic Variations
• 5565 Geographical Analysis of Environmental Systems and Global Change
• Geo 4701 Geomorphology
• Soil 2125 Basic Soil Science

In addition, ES track students must also take:

Geog 4001--Modes of Geographic Inquiry or Geog 4002W Social Theory and the Environment

Senior project—Geog 3985 or Geog 3994—or 2 credit extra-credit registration in any course in ES or Geog 4700 plus one of its companion courses (Geog 4121 Latin America or Geog 3411 Geography of Health and Healthcare).