Please note: Students are currently not allowed to take more than 12 credits of RMES 500 courses.

Term 1 (September – December)

RMES 501 History and Philosophy of Environmental Thought

Catalogue No. 2394
Instructor: John Robinson
Course time: Tuesday and Thursday 9.00 – 11.00am
Location: AERL 107/108

This course will examine how attitudes towards human nature and non-human nature have changed over the period from Mesolithic times until the present in Western society. By reading and discussing historical arguments and contemporary documents we will attempt to uncover the underlying assumptions about the world that were characteristic of different periods in the history of Western culture. The underlying question is whether contemporary concerns about sustainability require fundamental changes in the way we conceive of ourselves, or our environment.

Download the course outline.

FRST 523: Forest and Environmental Policy – Governance for Sustainability

Catalogue No. Forestry 523
Instructor: George Hoberg
Wednesday 9 – 12 in Forest Science Centre room 1002

Download the Forest and Environmental Policy course information

RMES 550: Policy Analysis and Decision Making

Catalogue No. RMES 550
Instructor: Hadi Dowlatabadi
Course time: Tuesday 1.00 – 4.00 pm

Concepts such as sustainability, resilience, adaptation and ecosystem-based management are fundamentally about how decisions are framed, processed and implemented.  Better decision-making, by individuals, organizations and governments, is how we can make progress in the face of grim environmental trends.

We begin with academic writing on decision-making, including normative (what would be perfect) descriptive (how we typically do it) and prescriptive (how to do it better) views. These concepts serve as a starting point for learning about good practice as a professional in policy analysis. We will make use of several applied case studies in which concepts of decision research have been used as a basis for designing and conducting applied policy analysis and program evaluation. We will explore features of different policy instruments, their implementation and evaluation.

RMES 500M: Human – Technological Systems 

Catalogue No. RMES 500M
Instructor: Milind Kandlikar and Terre Satterfield
Course time: Wednesday 9 – 12

To be sure, technological progress bringing greater efficiency to how we utilize a resource is valuable. But technology can also generate dangers that are under appreciated in the light of their promise.The twentieth century is repleat with examples of marvellous technological innovations to solve a pressing problem leading to new problems born of these solutions. For example, fires in metal machine shops led to the invention of PCBs.The hazards of ammonia leaking from refrigeration systems led to the invention of CFCs. How should we balance the “needs” of society and the “promise” of new technology? This course will examine the relationship between technological innovation and human behaviour as both interact to harm, improve, or impede the benefits and costs of new technologies.

RMES 500W: Ecohydrology

Catalogue No. RMES 500W

Instructor: Mark Johnson
Course time: Monday 1 – 4pm

Students in this course will use tools and concepts from ecohydrology to consider empirical, experimental and modeling-based approaches to evaluate interactions between ecological systems and the water cycle. We will explore ecohydrology for both natural and managed systems.

RMES 500U: Topics in Sustainable-Building Science

Catalogue No. RMES 500x; MECH 550B, CIVL 592x
Instructor: Murray Hodgson
Course time:  Tuesday and Thursday 11-12:30
Location: TBD

Download the Course Syllabus.

RMES 599 Masters Thesis

Section 101 (Term 1) Section 001 (Terms 1 & 2)

RMES 699 PhD Thesis

Term 2 (January – April)

RMES 502 Interdisciplinary Case Analysis and Research Design

Catalogue No. 2395
Milind Kandlikar & Terre Satterfield
This is a course in which case studies are used to teach how sustainability questions are turned into researchable topics and what research methods (qualitative and quantitative) are used to arrive at answers.
Course time: Thursday 9.00 – 12.15 pm, AERL 107

The case studies will reflect the various foci of research at IRES.  The case studies will begin with simple questions and grow in sophistication and complexity.  Two case studies will be used to explore similarities and differences in how questions in different domains are structured and researched. The students in the class will then be encouraged to develop the research questions and proposed methods for their own thesis by work-shopping their ideas in the class setting and through one-on-one mentoring with class instructors.

The case studies will be prepared by teams of faculty and post-docs with the aim of highlighting key features of good research design, how different perspectives (theoretically, conceptually and methodologically) can lead to different kinds of research and how there is value in these different approaches, and foster the search for even better hybrid approaches.

Given the wide range of incoming academic and professional backgrounds among the students, peer mentoring will be used within the class to help bolster knowledge of and familiarity with qualitative and quantitative methods.
The goals of this course are to:

• foster literacy in research methods and bring about familiarity with good research design;
• initiate design of the research proposals for every student.

RMES 510: Social-Ecological Systems 

Dr. Leila Harris and Dr. Mark Johnson
Winter Session 2011 (Term 2), Tuesday, 12:30pm – 3:20pm, AERL 107/AERL 420

At the core of many environmental issues are intertwined social and ecological processes that drive those issues. The relationships between these processes have important consequences for human society and ecosystems. The multiple causalities of environmental issues have long troubled traditional academic approaches because social and ecological systems have generally been studied separately. Increasingly, interdisciplinary socio-ecological approaches are being developed in order to consider these processes together, providing important insights regarding the complex dynamics of diverse and interlinked processes operating across temporal and spatial scales. This course investigates both the disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that are important to understanding connections and linkages across social and ecological realms. This will include in-depth exposure to several case studies, and also to disciplines and methods that focus on coupled systems and integrating socio-ecological perspectives, as well as evaluation of perspectives that have not yet been integrated. Students will leave the course with a sense of (i) how these interlinked systems and dynamics function (or are dysfunctional), (ii) how existing policies, governance regimes, individuals and social movements affect these systems and processes and (iii) how new policies and institutions might learn from available research to better promote sustainable trajectories.

RMES 500A: Quantitative Methods II

Dr. Stephanie Chang
Winter Session 2011 (Term 2), Wednesday 9:30am – 12:30am, WMAX 240

This course provides foundational training on the application of social science research methods to policy-oriented studies in community and regional planning. It aims to provide students with basic proficiency in the use of quantitative data, methods, and computer applications. These skills are useful in all areas of planning, from environmental to transportation, housing, and social planning. Applications will also be drawn from resource management and environmental studies.

This course is designed to promote learning-by-doing. Students learn concepts through lectures and readings, then apply them in practical assignments using standard computer applications. The course will use software for spreadsheet analysis (MS Excel), statistical analysis (SPSS), database management (MS Access), and census data retrieval (Beyond 20/20).

RMES 500X: Planning for Disaster-Resilient Communities

Dr. Stephanie Chang
Winter Session 2011 (Term 2), Monday 9:30am – 12:30am, WMAX 240

This course introduces students to the study of disasters and disaster management planning. It addresses such questions as:  What causes catastrophes? Why are disaster losses increasing? How can communities become more disaster-resilient? The course focuses primarily on natural hazards in the U.S. and Canadian context. It will also touch on technological hazards, human-induced disasters, and disasters in the developing country context. Drawing primarily from social science and planning literatures, but also considering natural science and engineering perspectives, the course seeks to develop interdisciplinary insights into the challenge of developing disaster-resilient communities. There are no prerequisites for this course. Students from any disciplinary background are welcome.

RMES 599 Masters Thesis

Section 201 (Term 2) Section 001 (Terms 1 & 2)

 RMES 699 PhD Thesis

Section 201 (Term 2) Section 001 (Terms 1 & 2)