EAS 2420 - Environmental Measures of Urban and Regional Change, Spring 2005

Objective: To discern that metropolitan areas are comprised of complex and inter-dependent human, built, and natural systems; to learn to develop meaningful measures, collect and analyze data, and communicate findings that characterize these systems, their inter-relationships, and their impact on the environment; and to explore the mechanisms that may be used to effect change in these systems.

Design: Through in class discussions, assigned reading, quantitative examples and exercises, and guest lectures students will explore the components of each of the primary natural and man-made systems that service a city and seek meaningful metrics to quantify their impacts. Students will be asked to draw on familiar experiences, examples, and current events afforded by the proximity of metropolitan Atlanta. Over the semester, student teams will propose one "indicator" and be assigned one indicator for which they will collect, analyze, and summarize data to contribute to a final class report on "the State of Atlanta, 2005."

Grades: Class attendance and participation are paramount to earning a high grade. Participating also means that you read the assigned reading, and complete the assigned homework at the time it is due. The in-class discussions will focus on these assignments. Readings are assigned on the date immediately preceding the class in which they will be discussed.

Details on the "State of Atlanta, 2005" project will be explained as the semester progresses. The ultimate product however, will be to describe a set of environmental indicators that we, as residents of this city, believe are important and should be monitored, a description of why they are important, data for the indicator that demonstrates recent trends, an analysis of the trend, and a reasonable or desirable target value for the trend. During finals week, each team will premier their findings in a short summary (max of 2 pages, but with a fully documented appendix consisting of as many pages as needed) and multi-media presentation.