Featured Environmental Science Courses for Fall 2003

CRP 387C: Water Resources Planning

Instructor: Kent S. Butler
Course Number: CRP 387C Unique Number: 01275
Time and Place: MW 5:00-6:30 PM, 2.110 Sutton Hall
Contact: k.butler@mail.utexas.edu, 471-0129

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
The course will provide an opportunity to study and understand principles involved in planning for and sustainably managing water resources to meet contemporary urban needs. The course emphasizes the relation of water resources planning to urban land development and environmental quality management. Throughout the nation, as well as abroad, watershed management practices and the provision of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure are major determinants of the location and pattern of urban growth. Planners, engineers, managers, and public policy analysts must be able to evaluate these relationships in order to sustainably meet water current and future needs in the urban environment. The following will be topics of discussion and evaluation:

- Regional and national water resource policy and politics--the western Colorado River basin
- State water management and legislation--roles of Texas state and regional water planning functions
- Groundwater supply and demand management
- Urban and metropolitan fringe area growth
- water rights, municipal water systems, and other supply-side issues
- water conservation and demand-historical and recent strategies
- urban nonpoint source water pollution control
- water and wastewater utility planning and financing
- Private land development and water supply, demand, and planning considerations

Additionally, numerous current topics of water quantity and quality planning and resource allocation will be discussed as current events on a weekly basis.

Approximately mid-way through the semester, we will spend approximately two weeks addressing a real-world water planning assignment. We will develop strategic options and preferred choices that should lead to success in the water planning exercise.

EDUCATIONAL APPROACH:
The course includes a combination of lectures, seminar sessions, and research assignments, supplemented by invited speakers and one regional field trip.

REQUIRED READINGS:
- Texts, articles and reports on reserve in the Architecture Library
- Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert (1993), Penguin Books

BASIS OF EVALUATION:
- Quiz on Cadillac Desert: 25%
- Short essay on water planning in Texas 15%
- Research report on urban, metropolitan or regional water planning: 45%
- Class participation and individual presentations: 15%

 

CRP 383: Urban Environmental Analysis

INTEGRATED AND SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT
IN A SUBURBAN CONTEXT

Instructor: Kent S. Butler
Course No.: CRP 383 Unique No.: 01250
Time and Place: MW 9:30-11:00 AM Sutton Hall 3.112
Contact: k.butler@mail.utexas.edu 471-0129

EDUCATIONAL APPROACH:
The course will be conducted as a research seminar, in which students work in groups on a real-world project, addressing multiple dimensions of a complex and highly relevant concept-Sustainable Water Management for New Residential Development. The course includes a combination of lectures, seminar sessions, and research and writing assignments, supplemented by invited speakers and short field trips. The real-world project involves the development of a tract of land in western Travis County and the provision of a sustainable water supply to serve development on this tract.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
The seminar will provide an opportunity to study and understand practical principles involved in planning for and sustainably managing natural resources to meet contemporary urban needs. The course emphasizes the relation of water resources planning to urban land development and environmental quality management.

SEMINAR TOPIC:
The focus of this research seminar is the development of an ecologically integrated, low-impact land and water development plan for a large tract of land in the Hill Country of western Travis County. The seminar will develop concept plans and preliminary designs for a residential subdivision in a sensitive watershed area, in which rooftop rainwater catchment systems are used as the primary water supply. Similarly, the seminar will address water quality and urban storm runoff, and available mitigation strategies and technologies for addressing them.

REQUIRED READINGS:
- Various websites pertaining to Low-impact Development, Landscape Planning, Rainwater Catchment Systems, etc.
- Texts, articles and reports on reserve in the Architecture Library

BASIS OF EVALUATION:
- Short essay exam on sustainable water use and low-impact development 20%
- Mid-semester review of contributions to research assignment 15%
- Research report on integrated, sustainable water planning: 45%
- Class participation and individual presentations: 20%

 

GEO 302P: Living With a Planet

Instructor: Jay L. Banner
Course No.: GEO 302P Unique No.: 53080
Time and Place: MWF 11:00-12:00 AM GEO 2.324
Contact: banner@mail.utexas.edu 471-5016

COURSE INFORMATION:
This is an introductory-level course intended for non-majors. Meeting times are MWF 11-noon, GEO 2.324, plus one 1.5-hour discussion section in GEO 2.308.

COURSE CONTENTS:
Environmental change on local and global scales, due to natural and man-made causes. The history of Earth and its environment, water cycle, sediment cycle, atmosphere, and climate. Geologic records of environmental change, from billion-year to El Nino time scales. The human dimension of global change, including population growth; human impact on freshwater, the oceans, and the atmosphere; desertification, deforestation, use of resources, global warming, loss of habitat, and the role of science, policy, and the media in addressing these issues.