Environmental Reclamation
This course explores the challenges and opportunities attendant to efforts in environmental remediation and mitigation. Lectures and field experiences highlight multi-stakeholder partnerships and autogenic repair of hydrology, nutrient cycling, and energy capture. Skills are developed in risk analysis, cost/benefit analysis, and soil analysis. Case study analyses of natural and human-induced environmental disasters integrate social, economic, ethical, political and ecological issues. Special attention is given to pervasive issues in the northeastern United States such as urban/rural brownfields, surface and subsurface coal mining, clear-cutting, and degraded agricultural land. Students develop a reclamation project proposal that focuses on aspects of their particular majors.
This is a core course in the Minor Program and a Natural Science Elective in the Major Program.
