Environment-Society Track
Environment and Society Concentration
From its earliest development as an academic field, geography has been concerned with the manifold relations between societies and their natural and built environments. Societies adapt and transform the environments they inhabit. They depend upon the use of resources and reduction of hazards for their survival and material well-being. They also assign meanings to the environment that vary over place and time, but that help define their identity and values within the world. Geographers tend to study these phenomena under the broad headings of resource use, natural hazards, sustainable development, landscape studies, cultural ecology, and environmental conservation. The University of Colorado has special strength in land and water resource issues in the American West, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Students concentrating on environment-society relations are advised to take the introductory courses in human and physical geography and then, depending upon their academic interests and aims, to concentrate on specific topics and regions in the environment-society area.
Students must complete at least 37 and no more than 45 credit hours in Geography with grades of C- or better (23 hours must be upper division). No pass/fail grades are allowed in the major. Transfer students majoring in Geography must complete at least 12 hours of upper-division Geography courses at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ. No course may be used to fulfill more than one requirement for the major.
- GEOG 1001 Our Changing Planet: Climate and Vegetation - 4
- GEOG 1011 Our Changing Planet: Landscapes and Water - 4
- One of the following human geography courses:
- GEOG 1962 Geographies of Global Change - 3
- GEOG 1972 Sustainable Futures, Environment and Society - 3
- GEOG 1982 Global Geographies: Societies, Places, Connections - 3
- GEOG 1992 Human Geography - 3
- GEOG 2092 Advanced Introduction to Human Geography - 3
- GEOG 3023 Statistics and Geographic Data - 4
- One of the following mapping courses:
- GEOG 2053 Mapping Our World - 3
- GEOG 3053 Geographic Information Science: Mapping - 4
- One of the following methods courses:
- GEOG 4023 Advanced Quantitative Methods for Spatial Data (prereq GEOG 3023) - 4
- GEOG 4043 Advanced Geovisualization and Web Mapping (prereq GEOG 3053) - 4
- GEOG 4093 Remote Sensing of the Environment - 4
- GEOG 4103 Geographic Information Science: Spatial Analytics (prereqs: GEOG 3053; GEOG 3023 or equivalent introductory statistics course) - 4
- GEOG 4173 Research Seminar - 3
- GEOG 4722 Field Methods in Human Geography - 3
- Take one of the following:
- GEOG 3402 Natural Hazards - 3
- GEOG 3422 Political Ecology - 3
- Take ENVS 2000: Applied Ecology - 4
- Take three electives from the following list (unless noted, Department enforced prereq. for all courses is 1962, 1972, 1982, or 1992):
- GEOG 3402 Natural Hazards - 3
- GEOG 3422 Political Ecology (no prereq) - 3
- GEOG 3682 Geography of International Development (no prereq) - 3
- GEOG 3672 Who Runs the World? Sex, Power, and Gender in Geography - 3
- GEOG 3692 Introduction to Global Public Health - 4
- GEOG 3812 Geography of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean - 3
- GEOG 3822 Contemporary China: Environment, Society, Politics - 3
- GEOG 3862 Global Africa: Environment, Development, Culture - 3
- GEOG 4501 Water Issues in the American West—3
- GEOG 4742 Topics in Environment and Society—3
- GEOG 4812 Environment and Development in South America—3
- GEOG 4822 Environment and Development in China—3
- GEOG 3930 Internship (3), GEOG 4173 Research Seminar (3), and GEOG 4990 Senior Thesis (3) may be applied to the concentration on a case-by-case basis.
- Take one upper division elective in Geographic Information Science, Human Geography, or Physical Geography.
- Take upper and lower division electives within Geography if necessary to reach 37 total credits and 23 upper division credits in the major.