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Geo 470 / Geo 570 / Law 777: Integrated Environmental Management - "Water management is
multidimensional. It embraces planning, design, construction, operation, and
maintenance. Its ingredients include technological capability, social
attitudes, economic realities, political viewpoints, and environmental
goals." - W. Viessman Jr., in Water management: challenge and
opportunity, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 116 (1990)
(2), pp. 155–169.
Project: Barry Boyer (boyer@buffalo.edu);
Heather Collins (heatherc@byffalo.edu) Class Time (Fall '09): Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30 - 10:50
am (144 Wilkeson) Office Hours (Fall '09): Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm (116 Wilkeson) Audience: Graduate and Undergraduate Students
in Geography, Geology, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Law, Planning,
Environmental Studies, Business Administration and Management Science, or
permission by instructor. According to the New York State Education
Department, this course can count towards continuing education
requirements to maintain your professional engineering license (please
contact the instructor for more details). Goals & Objectives: This interdisciplinary course
introduces an integrated framework for environmental management that
addresses biophysical, social, and economic issues affecting natural
resources such as water, soil, air, plant and animal communities and their
use through agriculture, forestry, fishery, mining, human settlements and
industry. The multidisciplinary approach equips the participants with the
necessary approaches and techniques to communicate effectively and develop
sound management policy and practice in the context of the watershed
scale ranging from small watersheds to large basins. The course presents
detailed case studies and outlines methods for problem definition and goal
setting to elect management strategies and procedures for monitoring and
implementation. The course includes the following topics:
Required Textbook: Heathcote, Isobel W. 1998. Integrated Watershed Management:
Principles and Practice. Wiley. 414 p. Class Project: This year
all students will focus in their individual projects on building community
resilience against floods and other extreme events related to water, such as
soil erosion, bank erosion, ice jams, landslides, waste water, pollution,
climate change, etc. The student activities are integrated in two research
and outreach projects that are located in the Cattaraugus Creek watershed:
the formerly EPA/US Corps of Engineers-sponsored Cattaraugus Creek Watershed Strategy
and the new NSF-funded Information
Products Laboratory for Emergency Response (IPLER). While the first
project is an outreach activity initiated by the UB Law School to engage
stakeholders in an integrated long-term watershed planning process, the
mission of IPLER is to create a technology, policy and business development
incubator to facilitate interaction and innovation among university
researchers, private sector service and product providers, and public sector
decision makers in particular for emergency response to extreme events (e.g.
floods and fires). Students will communicate with a project partner
or stakeholder to investigate their specific interest and specific plans in
managing water quantity and quality in the Cattaraugus Creek Watershed.
Throughout the course students will get to know through discussions and
presentations the details about all other stakeholders' interests and plans
from project partners involved in the project. As a consequence of that
interaction, the students will outline in their individual report A) the
position of their assigned project partner/stakeholder (this portion of the
report should be approved by the stakeholder contact) and B) propose possible
solutions on how that position fits into an integrated watershed management
plan that fits all stakeholders. The contributions to this project will offer
not only a real contribution of all students as consultants outlining and
designing an integrated watershed management plan that could be potentially
implemented sometime in the future, but also the experience and contacts that
will help students to potentially land internships or other future career
opportunities in integrated environmental management. Stakeholders that
participated in the past are: US Army Corps of Engineers (Tony Friona),
Natural Resources Conservation Service (John Whitney), Soil and Water Conservation
District (Brian Davis for Cattaraugus County and Mark Gaston for Erie
County), Sierra Club (Larry Beahan), Forecon (Rick Constantino), Coalition on
West Valley Nuclear Wastes (Judy Einach), WNY Chapter of the Society of
American Foresters (Matt Smith), Cattaraugus Creek Watershed Task Force &
Zoar Valley Nature Society (Julie Broyles), Cattaraugus County Dept. of
Economic Development Planning & Tourism (Chris Crawford), Cattaraugus Co.
Ag. & Farmland Protection Board & PDRs (Joan Petzen), The Nature
Conservancy (Pat McGlew), and WNY Land Conservancy (Patricia Szarpa).
Potential involvement of other stakeholders this year are: NYS Department
of Environmental Conservation, Erie County Fisheries Advisory Board, Erie
County Department of Environment & Planning, Village of Gowanda, Town of
Evans, Town of Sardinia, USDA Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Brown
Swiss Association, New York Rural Water Association, Seneca Nation of Indians
Department of Environmental Protection for Cattaraugus County, and Zoar
Valley Paddling Club. (In case you are a stakeholder we are not aware of
please contact the instructor at rensch@buffalo.edu).
Schedule: The
official course webpage is only accessible through UBlearns - enrolled
students must check on UBlearns for the latest updates in schedule and
syllabus.
Required Activities: Students are evaluated [% of total
grade] based on their performance in
The final letter grades are A
(90-100%), A- (85-89%), B+ (80-84%), B (75-79 %), B- (70-74%), C+ (65-69%), C
(60-64%), C- (56.6-60%), D+ (53.3-56.6%), D (50-53.3%), and F (0-50%).
PowerPoint presentations for seminar and project presentations need to be
submitted through UBlearns drop box and email notice to instructor at 5pm the
day prior to the scheduled presentation. Failure to submit in time will
result in a point reduction (10%; 25% if provided in class). Make-up
presentations have to be presented in the following class. Late submission of
abstract, project report, and review comments will result in a point
reduction of 10% per day. Each seminar presentation, abstract,
project presentation, and final project report are evaluated based on the
following key (you have to address all five aspects):
Students registered at the
undergraduate level (Geo 470) will not be evaluated as the advanced graduate
level (Geo570). As a consequence graduate students are required to an
additional 30% of words in their final project report and are expected to
cover additional reading material in their list of references and for their
review sessions. For incomplete work, academic
integrity, and disability services refer to the University undergraduate Incomplete Policy, Integrity Policy,
and the University's Disability
Service Office (you must register with the office to receive
accommodation for physical and learning disabilities), respectively. |
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