Site Ecology and Environment
GSD 6103, 2 units, lecture-workshop, Fall

PEDAGOGIC OBJECTIVES

1. Learn the application of selected principles that can be used to analyze sites and ecological systems.
2. Gain familiarity with varied types of New England landscapes: native, urban, remnant, designed.
3. Examine issues of human disturbance as influences on the health and maintenance of ecological systems.
4. Engage issues and practices of landscape design and management, plant ecology, ecosystem management, conservation biology, landscape ecology, and restoration ecology.

TIME COMMITMENT OF STUDENT
This is a graduate-level introductory immersion with lectures, site visits, and discussions. Many of the subjects addressed by instructors and visitors preview the focus of later, more advanced GSD courses. The course workload is minimal and is completed before the fall term formally begins. Two units of credit are awarded.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND THIS COURSE?
The course is introductory but is required. It is built on a series of linked subject areas both familiar and unfamiliar to students accomplished in the ecological sciences. Past students who have been technically waived of the requirement have participated so they encounter the field component and social aspects of this introduction.

Transportation to sites is generally provided by the GSD (occasionally public transportation—bus or subway fares—may be required). For daylong trips, you are responsible to bring a bag lunch and any additional sustenance you require. Come prepared with comfortable footwear, raingear, sunhat, and long pants and shirts or insect repellant and sunscreen. Also bring a notepad and protective plastic bags (in case of rain).

NOTE: Incoming MLA I AP students also participate in the Ecological Site Analysis and Environmental Design Workshop from Friday 5 September through Sunday 7 September.

Watershed and Waterside Development, Planning and Design
GSD 6324, 4 units, Lecture, Spring 2003, 2007, 2008; Fall 2003, 2004, 2005

This course concentrates on how different land processes (natural) and activities (anthropogenic) effect aquatic systems.

Part 1 is based on empirical cross-system comparisons to examine patterns that transcend idiosyncrasies of particular localized areas/problems. Consideration is fostered in broad terms about how design projects may potentially influence aquatic systems. Selected topics include: lakes and rivers in a landscape continuum, reliance on external (terrestrial) energy sources, the effects of urban salinization, toxic chemicals and sewage wastes, agricultural runoff, riparian forest clearcutting, GIS analysis of nonpoint source pollution, and watershed population development models.

Part 2 examines individual, site-specific development projects selected for their ability to be illustrative of land-water interactions in general. Every case study has had or will have significant design ramifications or implications. For most of the selected cases, this is explicit (the process is followed from conception to fruition). For several examples, the design component is only implicit (here, various strategies are proposed based on knowledge about land-water codependencies). Selected topics include: cottage development, industrial waterfronts, lake eutrophication, forest clearcutting, mining reclamation, and river urbanization.

Human-Environment Relations
GSD 4312, 4 units

This course investigates the historical, ethical, and ecophilosophical interrelationships between human culture and both natural and constructed landscapes. Each year, several books will be carefully read and examined in detail with students participating in both tangentially varied as well as purposefully focused discussions about issues raised. Adjudications will be based on cogent presentations of ideas during class discussions and on the acumen of written assignments designed to bring to the fore the students' own perceptions about their role in the environment.