Graduate Courses

Perspectives on Sustainability (3) Uses case studies; faculty and students from engineering, architecture, social sciences, and natural sciences exchange ideas on the major challenges faced in forming a sustainable future at the local, national, and global levels. * Enrollment restricted to sustainability graduate students

Methodology of Sustainability Research and Problem Solving (3) Enables students to describe, position, compare, and evaluate the key features, strengths, and weaknesses of sustainability research and problem-solving methods. Introduces an integrated methodological framework for sustainability research and problem-solving that maps and structures families of methods from description/analysis to strategy building. Addresses all major families of sustainability methods, critically evaluating their specific function, structure, underlying assumptions, validity, reliability, strengths and weaknesses against this. * Enrollment restricted to sustainability graduate students

Sustainable Resource Allocation (3) Microeconomic principles of resource allocation applied to environmental goods and services; external environmental effects and environmental public goods; decision-making under uncertainty; adapting to and mitigation of environmental changes.

Science for Sustainability (3) Carbon cycle; nutrient cycles; carbon and nutrients in the oceans; climate change; oxygen and ozone; solid-waste pollution; urban-air pollution.

Human Dimensions of Sustainability (3) Concepts and definitions of the human dimensions of sustainability; the role of attitudes and values in shaping sustainability goals, practices, and programs; the diversity of values and socio-cultural contexts relating to sustainability; bottom-up and top-down sustainable policy development, social data collection methodologies.

Industrial Ecology and Design for Sustainability (3) The conceptual, ethical, and practical challenges in the design, manufacture, and lifecycle performance of products; environmental evaluation via materials flow analysis and life cycle assessment; global economic, environmental, cultural, and social aspects of competitive and functional product development and manufacture.

Science, Technology, and Public Affairs (3) Explores the political, economic, cultural, and moral foundations of science and technology policy and governance in democratic society. * Sustainability graduate students may count either SOS 516 or SOS 518 Uncertainty and Decision Making as a core course.

Sustainability and Enterprise (3) Examines the evolving interface between sustainability and human enterprise. Explores and reviews key fundamental concepts in the sustainability arena, including economic and scientific drivers and select historical and structural aspects that create the current context for the enterprise and sustainability interface found today.

Uncertainty and Decision Making (3) Explores uncertainty and its relation to decision making, with a particular focus on the ways that science is applied in order to improve decisions. A central theme will be the relation among uncertainty, scientific prediction, and decision making, especially in politically charged issues, for example as related to management of the environment. * Sustainability graduate students may count either SOS 516 or SOS 518 Uncertainty and Decision Making as a core course.

International Development and Sustainability (3) Historical roots of the idea of development; economic theories of growth and their implications for sustainability; interrelationship among population growth, food security, poverty, inequality, urbanization, technological change, international trade, and environmental change at local, regional and global scale.

Sustainable Urban Dynamics (3) Human and physical processes shaping urban ecologies and environments; human-environment interactions in the context of an urban region; effect of the institution and regulatory framework on the ability of social and urban-ecological systems to be resilient and sustainable; urban design, materials, transport, planning, and regulation.

Sustainable Water (3) Hydrological, legal, political, and ecological implications of alternative water management strategies; effect of institutional and regulatory frameworks; changes in water demand and supply due to human (population growth, economic changes) and natural (drought, climate change) factors.

Sustainable Energy and Material Use (3) Sustainable engineering; overall energy needs and impacts; thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanisms; atmospheric energy systems; field investigation; current and future urban energy systems.

Sustainable Ecosystems (3) How human activities and management practices alter biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem services; use of economic and other social-science perspectives to estimate the value of ecosystem services; evaluation of options for achieving the sustainable flow of services from ecosystems.

Food System Sustainability (3) Broad view of food systems and the sustainability of such systems. Concepts, theory, methods and empirical analyses from diverse disciplines, including agro-ecology, agronomy, political science, agricultural economics, geography, anthropology, and food and nutrition studies. Students choose a theme that is a core concern to food system sustainability and pursue that theme in diverse course activities and through engaging in the broader food system we are embedded in as residents in the Phoenix area. Culminates with a term paper/project that synthesizes experience and knowledge, providing a unique perspective on their role in food systems.

Workshop (3) Particular workshop classes will be offered each semester under the number SOS 594. Topics will change, so students should check with the graduate academic coordinator for a current list of available workshops. Past workshops include: A Game-based Pedagogy for Sustainability Ethics (3), Adaptation, Resilience, and Transformation (3), Advanced Urban Workshop (3), Climate Change Adaptation (3), Economic Justice, Job Quality and Sustainability (3), Future Scenarios for Agriculture and Water in Arizona (3), Socioecology of Residential Landscapes (3), Solar for Sustainability (3), Science-Society Research Collaborations (3), Urban Design Practice (3), Urban Dimensions of the IPCC AR5 (3), Urban Design Skills (3), and Urban Public Policy and Sustainability (3).

Statistical Modeling for Sustainability (4) equips students with sufficient knowledge of statistical theory and methods of applied data analysis to begin conducting empirical analyses in their domains of interest; bring students to a high level of competency in using a cutting-edge statistical software package (Stata) for data management and data analysis tasks; expose students to applications of statistical methods in the economics/policy/social science sustainability literatures in order to develop an understanding for how statistical tools are operationalized in the research world; and develop an appreciation for the careful synthesis of social and natural science theory, knowledge of data and its limitations and command of statistical tools that constitute quality empirical research.

Introduction to Sustainability and Organizational Strategies (3) Focuses on organizational strategies for technology companies competing in a global environment. Strategic and tactical decision implications of a life cycle value proposition; modeling and analysis for strategic decisions about product/service bundles and delivery mechanisms; innovation; technology, including the linkages to the firm strategy and empirical evidence; supply, demand, and value chain; research of laws, guidelines and international agreements.

Water Policy and Management (3) Covers water policy and management focused on Arizona. Useful to anyone looking for a general background on water issues in Arizona or considering a career in water resources and environmental engineering, planning, or public policy. Divided into three major sections: the history of water resources development and hydrology of Arizona; water management in Arizona; and an examination of current issues and controversies.

Advanced Earth Systems Engineering and Management (3) Advanced introduction to earth systems engineering and management, and the technological, economic and cultural systems underlying the terra-formed Earth.

Sustainable Technology and Management Capstone (3) Provides opportunity to demonstrate comprehension of the fundamental aspects that have been introduced in the classroom and the synthesis of these fundamental aspects into a demonstrable project that can be presented and defended. *Enrollment restricted to CSTM certificate students

Fundamentals of CAS Science (3) explores the diverse, interdisciplinary applications of a complex adaptive systems across the social, behavioral, and life sciences.

Proposal Writing (3) This practice-oriented seminar assists doctoral students in preparing requests for funding from different agencies, and preparing dissertation proposals for a doctoral committee and defense

Graduate Brown Bag Discussion Group (1) * Enrollment restricted to sustainability graduate students

SOS Reading Group (1) * Enrollment restricted to sustainability graduate students

Urban Remote Sensing Reading Group (1)

Seminar (1-12) Topics include:

Community of Graduate Research Scholars
Corporate Sustainability & Policy
Distributed Grad Seminar in Sustainability Science
Dynamic Modeling for Sustainability Science
Ecosystems Engineering
Environmental Ethics and Policy Goals
Environmental Justice and the City
Ethics of Sustainability
Global Perspectives on Water Conflicts
Human Dimensions-Environmental Systems
Human, Social & Tech. Dimensions of Sustainability
IGERT Intellectual Issues
Institutions, Environment, and Society
Intellectual Issues
Legal Issues in Sustainability
Linking Engineering with Sustainability Science
Long-Term Research in Urban Systems
Math for Life & Sustainability Science
Mathematical/Advanced Natural Resource Economics
Seminar in Urban Climate
Seminar on Stochastic Modeling: Ecology & Hydrology
Social Dimensions of Science
Social Science Climate Chang
Striving for Global Sustainability
Sustainability of Global Nutrient Cycles
Sustainability: The Long Term View
The Economics of Natural Resource Systems
Water Governance Challenges- Local to the Global
Water Resource Geography and Policy

Special Topics (1-4) Topics include:

Advanced Writing Seminar
Applied Data Analysis for Energy Scientists
Carbon Dioxide & Climate
Cultural Perspectives in Sustainability
Design for the Developing World
Earth Systems Engineering
Ecosystem Ecology
Energy Conservation and Efficiency
Environmental Sustainability & Global Climate Change
Essentials of Survey Statistics
Global Challenges of Sustainability
Global Impact Entrepreneurship
Global Resolve: Design for Social Impact
Haiti Workshop
Human & Social Dimensions of Global Climate Change
Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems & Technology
Human Dimensions of Sustainability Theory & Practice
Human Impacts on Ecosystem Functioning
Life Cycle Assessment for Civil Systems
Mathematical Concepts and Tools in Sustainability
Multicultural Perspective on Community Leadership
Nature & History in Arizona's Sky Islands
Preparing Cities for Climate Change Impacts
Project Coordination Transformative Sustainability
Proposal Preparation
Socio-Ecological Research Methods
Solar Utilization Network
Sustainability Ethics for Science & Engineering
Sustainable Futures Studio
Sustainable Transportation Systems
Sustainability Indicators & Indices
Thailand Urban Sustainability and Planning
Urban Ecological Systems
Urban Infrastructure Anatomy & Sustainable Development
Urban Sustainability and Environmental Health
Writing Basics
Writing Seminar
Writing a Grant Proposal
Writing a Paper for Publication
Writing and Critical Thinking