The specialisation in Environmental Studies (EVS) provides students with a comprehensive understanding of environmental issues using an interdisciplinary approach. The specialisation focuses on the study of various environmental issues, including climate change and global warming; contamination and pollution of the environment; food and energy needs; conservation science; and, the sociocultural, economic and political relationships between man and the environment.
The Environmental Studies major at FLAME draws on the disciplines of physical sciences, natural sciences, sociology, geography, economics, and public policy studies so that students are equipped to develop a critical understanding of environmental issues through a scientific, sociocultural, economic and political lens. The courses are designed to include laboratory, field and project-based experiences.
The specialisation specific courses introduce students to basic concepts in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies, which forms the basis of more advanced courses in areas including: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Remote Sensing, and Environmental Policy and Impact Assessment. Advanced courses inculcate in students a contextual understanding of significant global and regional environmental issues and refine students’ critical abilities in synthesis and critical analysis through thematic studies and training in relevant research methods.
The specialisation prepares students for graduate level courses and research in fields such as Environmental Studies, Environmental Sciences and diverse disciplines intersecting with environmental fields such as Economics, Public Policy, Sociology, Law, Media, Journalism and Design etc. After acquiring knowledge in the diverse fields of environmental studies within a liberal education milieu, graduates can also succeed in environmental business and entrepreneurial ventures.
SPECIALISATION AIMS
The Environmental Studies Major and Minor seeks to:
- Provide students with a systematic understanding of the scientific bases and socio-economic contexts of varied environmental issues ranging from aspects of climate change, global warming, and pollution, to energy needs, urban planning and resource depletion
- Provide students with conceptual understanding of physical, natural and biological processes and cycles of earth and its environment.
- Enable students to critically evaluate issues related to environmental governance, law and sustainability.
- Equip students with interdisciplinary tools and skills of analysis and evaluation through lab, field, and project based experiences in biodiversity, ecology, chemistry, remote sensing and geo-informatics systems
- Cultivate in students a scientific as well as socio-economic understanding of global and regional environmental issues
- Develop in students an understanding of the relationship between humans and nature using relevant theoretical and practical frameworks to explore fundamental issues such as conservation biology, food security, water security, agro-ecosystems, etc.
- Enable students to undertake qualitative and quantitative research studies and to prepare them to collect, synthesize and analyse varied types of data
MAJOR OUTCOMES: After successful completion of the Major, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of various concepts and theories related to the study of the Environment
- Apply interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to complex issues of climate change, resource degradation, conservation and management of biotic as well as abiotic components of the environment
- Apply their knowledge of the diversity of scientific and socio-economic concepts to understand contemporary and emerging environmental issues
- Demonstrate critical skills in reading, comprehension, writing, and rhetoric about historical and contemporary topics related to Environmental Studies
- Analyze current environmental issues using skills acquired through theoretical and practical frameworks
- Apply knowledge, reason and effective research and analytical skills to formulate arguments, generate original insights, and conduct research-based studies.
- Evaluate and analyze relevant data sources and rationalize conclusions through analytical frameworks
- Apply contemporary and emerging tools for collection and analysis of information.
- Develop research questions and apply appropriate research methodology to answer such questions
MINOR OUTCOMES: After successful completion of the Minor, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of various concepts and theories related to the study of the Environment
- Apply interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to complex issues of climate change, resource degradation, conservation and management of biotic as well as abiotic components of the environment
- Apply their knowledge of the diversity of scientific and socio-economic concepts to understand contemporary and emerging environmental issues
- Demonstrate critical skills in reading, comprehension, writing, and rhetoric about historical and contemporary topics related to Environmental Studies
- Analyze current environmental issues using skills acquired through theoretical and practical frameworks
- Apply knowledge, reason and effective research and analytical skills to formulate arguments, generate original insights, and conduct research-based studies
COURSES (CORE AND ELECTIVE) **
34 MAJOR COURSES
| Fundamentals of Ecology | Conservation Biology | Urban Studies |
| Introduction to Biology | Environmental Impact Assessment | Sustainable Food Systems |
| World Regional Geography | Principles of Biological Diversity | Carbon Accounting And Greenhouse Gas Management |
| Fundamentals of Statistical Data Analysis | Environmental Policy | Special Topics In Environmental Studies |
| Energy, Economics, and the Environment | Development and Sustainability | Advanced Geographic Information System |
| Introduction to Environmental Physics and Chemistry | Remote Sensing of the Environment | Special Topics In Environmental Studies: Research In Conservation Science |
| Geography of the Environment | Policy Formulation and Implementation | Food Energy Water Waste Nexus towards Sustainability |
| Research Methods in Environmental Studies | Conservation and Society | Advanced Remote Sensing |
| Environmental Law and Governance | Environmental Epidemiology | Special Topics In Environmental Studies |
| Climate Change | Environmental Economics | Graduation Project |
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | Special Topics in Environmental Studies | |
| Evolution and Ecology | Environmental Ethics And Justice |
Fundamentals of Ecology
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment. In this introduction to the discipline of ecology, we will consider how organisms may be influenced by, and respond to, their environment both individually and as a population. We will then examine interspecific relationships among organisms and the way in which these shape community structure and nutrient and energy dynamics within an ecosystem.
Introduction to Biology
The course is designed to expose the students to some important basic concepts of biology. It highlights the construction of basic unit of life, the cell. The life forms are either eukaryotic or prokaryotic depending on the type of cells they are made up of. The course explains the different kingdoms of life with a focus on plants and animals. Some important processes in routine life in some of the systems of human body are discussed.
World Regional Geography
This course focuses on the globalization as a dynamic process in the major geographical regions of the world. Globalization in each region is understood through five different themes- environmental issues, population and settlement patterns, cultural diversity, geopolitical framework and social and economic development. The first few lectures will provide the conceptual framework for the rest of the course. Within each region, it will identify the geographical aspects including scale, space, dynamic processes, and man-nature interactions which will be used to study regional characteristics. This broad yet holistic course will introduce the different world regions, in both human and physical settings, which will be signicant as a foundation to the other courses.
Fundamentals of Statistical Data Analysis
This course introduces the rudiments of data analysis for students of social science. It will incorporate elementary but important methods for gathering and analysing data for answering questions of social, economic, cultural, political, and policy interest. By taking a models approach to understand data mainly from a practitioner’s perspective, this course will give students skills and knowledge to readily understand and analyse quantitative data.
Energy, Economics, and the Environment
This course provides an introduction to the various forms of energy. It covers discussions on both traditional forms of energy and renewable forms of energy. A major theme of this course involves discussions of the economics of energy use and the effect of the various forms of energy on the climate of the planet.
Introduction to Environmental Physics and Chemistry
This course gives an introduction to the concepts of physics and chemistry and its importance in understanding the environment. It provides elementary knowledge of natural physical and chemical processes and their interactions, from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective with special focus on elemental cycles. Practical hands on experience through laboratory experiments will be provided. This course forms the basis for relatively advanced courses in environmental chemistry and atmospheric physics for students of environmental studies.
Geography of the Environment
Human interactions with the environment are integral part of the global physical environment. Geography of the Environment explores the world’s environment, in its both physical and human dimensions, across time, scale and over space. It will examine the physical milieu and the geographical distribution of the human impacts on the environment at the global and local scales. Human actions, attitudes and practices shape the environment in terms of social, cultural and political contexts. Humans’ relationship with their environment can either be contentious or harmonious. What are the different driving forces behind these conflicts or harmony? What are the geographical consequences of these effects on the environment? These human-environment dynamics will be emphasized through different global case-studies from global North and global South. This is a broad course that will help the students to learn about their global environment and society that we live in.
Research Methods in Environmental Studies
Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary field which systematically studies human interactions with the environment with the purpose of solving complex problems. The breadth of research questions in this field requires an understanding of both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. This course will introduce students different research methods and develop practical skills in data collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation, and report writing during individual assignments and a course-based research project.
Environmental Law and Governance
Since the middle of the twentieth century, several advances have been made in understanding the nature of environmental dangers and degradations. Nonetheless, several issues remain unsettled and many dilemmas unresolved. This course raises questions pertaining to the responsibility, accountability, extent, and reasons behind environmental issues like deforestation, malnutrition, extinction, loss of biodiversity, climate change and many others to observe and construct associations and/or causal relations between environmental phenomena that transcend “conventional wisdom” or categories. This course also explores the role of laws and policies in various environmental issues. The main focus is on the application of policy, laws, and regulations through case studies of landmark judgements in the history of environmental law in India. In addition, the course examines and critically analyses the challenge of global environmental awareness and governance within an evolving international system and the implications of a country like India within that frame of reference.
Climate Change
This course explores the issues of climate change and focuses on the various factors that determine the climate of our planet. It establishes the link between anthropogenic emissions and global climate change. Further, it will involve understanding climate variability, climate change and extreme climate conditions. Additionally, climate change related policies are studied and evaluated.
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Let it be any cognate area at FLAME University, e.g. Physical and Natural Sciences, Humanities or Social Sciences; it deals with variety of data. Most of these data would have some geospatial tag. By learning how to exploit this geospatial property of the data one can make meaningful analyses of the same and bring out interdisciplinary attributes in such studies.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a set of techniques, processes, skills, software and Data, used to view and model the world from a Spatial point of view. This course introduces students to nature of geospatial data, spatial data acquisition processes, editing, querying spatial data, spatial analysis, cartography (visualization), and GIS applications.
Evolution and Ecology
This course is a study of the origin of life and its further evolution into different forms of life. Different evolutionary processes and evidences are studied. It explores the mechanisms though which the interactions amongst varied life forms lead to the concepts of ecosystems and principles of ecology.
Conservation Biology
Conservation biology is a multi-disciplinary science that addresses the management of biodiversity to protect species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction. This course provides an overview of the discipline including the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss, and established and emerging conservation actions and measures. Students will be introduced to online resources that form part of the conservation biologist’s ‘toolbox’ and examine case studies to better understand the applications and successes of conservation strategies.
Environmental Impact Assessment
The course is designed to highlight the application value of the theory and practice of EIA as operated nationally and internationally. It helps in dealing with the development and implementation of projects modulating development. This course introduces the field of integrated environmental management focusing on procedures, tools and techniques for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with a special emphasis on impacts caused by human interventions on the multiple dimensions of environment and means of regulating and managing them.
Principles of Biological Diversity
This course is a study of varied aspects of biodiversity and its importance as a foundation of sustainable development. It focuses on understanding the reasons for its loss, significance of conserving and managing it and its potential as a new economic resource. The course includes documentation of local biodiversity.
Environmental Policy
Only the seriously disillusioned would deny that the planet and its inhabitants are in trouble. The delicate balance of the various cyclic biogeochemical processes is under threat and human economic activity has left its mark on the home planet to an extent that the current geological age is now known as the Anthropocene. Governments around the world have long recognised the gravity of environmental concerns and their effects on welfare, and the area emerged as an important sector of policymaking activity in the 1970s.
Since then, though, both environmental problems and policy responses have grown in complexity. Rising awareness of environmental challenges has gone hand in hand with increasing intractability and widening political polarisation regarding the balance of key values at stake. In that backdrop, the study of the range of policy responses at the disposal of governments assumes critical importance.
This is among the broadest policy areas, and the course attempts to cover that breadth, from pollution and conservation to energy and recycling. Also, it covers contexts across the range of policy maturity in terms of policy principles. Besides learning about the policy sector, the course also serves as a broad overview of the elements of public policy in an applied manner.
Development and Sustainability
This course introduces students to the evolution of "development" concept, its history, challenges and opportunities,followed by its growth into multidimensional sustainable development. It will explore the environmental, social and economic goals of sustainability by drawing upon global North and global South examples with a particular focus on developing economies such as India. It will introduce multiple viewpoints, theories and frameworks to make connections and propose practical solutions to sustainability issues at the local, national or global contexts.
Remote Sensing of the Environment
This course explores the principles and applications of remote sensing. It focuses on methods of satellite data collection and processing, and applications of the techniques in various fields including earth sciences, environmental studies, archaeology, and anthropology amongst others.
Policy Formulation and Implementation
This is an introductory course in public policy analysis. It begins with the basics and concisely describes government institutions, identifies principal policy actors, and examines the context in which public policies are made. In this sense, together with internal organizational factors, external factors such as the political, legal, social, and economic environments of public policy making are discussed. The course then provides students with the conceptual frameworks and the analytical models necessary for analyzing the process of public policy making. It discusses the nature of policy analysis and its practice, and illustrates how to employ evaluative criteria in substantive policy areas.
In sum, this course introduces students to the politics of policy making and equips them with the analytic tools necessary to understand how the interests and motivations of policy actors--both within and outside of government--impact an intricate, yet understandable, policy agenda. It exposes students to public policy and policy research and helps them comprehend the processes of policy analysis, program evaluation, and policy recommendation/advocacy.
Conservation and Society
Man and Nature has a dichotomous relationship in which neither one can survive without the other. This theoretical course focuses on this relationship and explores different paradigms related to the biodiversity conservation (in particular protected areas) and the human beings since the colonial time, that is, across space, scale and over time. It will examine different theories through different case studies from Global North and Global South. These paradigms will explain how this relationship has been in the past and how it continues to evolve over the ages. It will discuss different global policies and actions introduced to address various issues.
At micro-scale, this course will investigate how everyday struggles of local communities in context of social, economic and political factors affect their daily lives thus, hindering a sustainable lifestyle. Additionally, it will also examine the dynamics of institutions, gender and social relations of power that interact at different scales and impact the biodiversity loss and conservation. This course is focused towards those who are interested in learning more about the duality and interconnection of man-nature relationship from a social perspective.
Environmental Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the science that deals with epidemics and their patterns, causes, and control measures in the populations. The course helps students to know about the nature of epidemics and uses of epidemiology, the causation as; a change in the ecology of the host population, a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population and control and prevention of the disease. The course has a focus on the environmental factors and main causes as deforestation, habitat fragmentation causing spilling of non-human diseases to humans. It becomes imperative to have this knowledge in the present pandemic times where the world has come to a halt.
Environmental Economics
Economics is often defined as the study of allocation of scarce resources. Environmental Economics then might be somewhat provocatively be said to be economics par excellence – the discipline looks primarily at ‘resources’ in the literal sense. (A section of environmental thought argues for the conservation of the environment for its inherent intrinsic value, not for its economic uses for humans, which is what the word resource implies.) This is an intermediate course in environmental economics and some basic knowledge of microeconomics and mathematics in needed.
Environmental Ethics And Justice
Do humans value their environment? Should humans value their environment? How and why? There are no simple and/or single answers. Environmental Ethics examines how humans ought to value both humans and the non-human elements and their relationship within the ecosystem. By engaging and understanding the philosophical discussions, this course then proceeds to apply them in various contexts to understand the different global environment concerns.
What is environmental justice? Since 20th Century, mankind has witnessed how different communities bear different and disproportionate burden of risks and benefits in their everyday spaces where they live and work. There exists a wide disparity between social groups living a good life of prosperity, health and well-being within a specific environment. Consequently, for other social groups in or near risky environments, it becomes a source of threat and risk, when living or working proximate to hazardous environment (such as Bhopal Gas Tragedy, landfill sites). It is this unequal distribution of risks and benefits that stems from various social, political and economic contextual factors thus resulting in environmental (in)justice. Environmental justice movement emerged in US in 1980s to challenge the unfair distribution of toxic, hazardous and dangerous waste facilities that were disproportionately located within the low-income communities of colour. This course focuses on understanding and evaluating such examples in India and globally. Through this course, students will understand the intricacy of the man- nature dichotomous relationship through critical yet complex thinking. It will also help the students to engage in ethical decision-making.
Urban Studies
Cities are sites of great cultural and ethnic diversity, economic innovation, and inequality, cultural expression, resource consumption, wealth generation, and political conflict and cooperation. They are also increasingly shaped by global processes, which play a critical role in the shaping of societies. Advanced Urban Studies is a course designed to provide an integrated understanding of the social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural processes that shape urban life, with particular attention paid to how these processes operate in space and time. It focuses on the history, transformation, dissolution, restructuring and reinvention of the city. The purpose of the course is to give an in-depth insight into current research debates within the Urban Studies research field. The course is structured around three core themes that can be linked together as a whole: 1. The interface between actor and structure within Urban Studies 2. The interface between materiality and sociality within Urban Studies 3. Urban Environment Case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises will be included in the pedagogy to assist students obtain the skills needed for employment.
Sustainable Food Systems
The growing human population and increased anthropogenic activities stress the global ecological processes. The consequent alterations negatively impact the food production systems as they cause overall decreased production and increased nutrient deficit crops. The increased demand of food production for global food security further aggravates the problem. This interdisciplinary course will help understand the food systems which conserve and/or restore natural resources along with fulfilling the ever-growing global demand of food. The course will focus on various sustainable food production methods in agriculture, horticulture, olericulture, animal husbandry etc. with some novel techniques as hydroponics, aquaponics and verticulture. The challenges of food sustainability as climate change, production of nutrient rich and nutrient diverse foods to promote health along with politico-socio-economic and ethical issues of the food systems as well as faced by the food growers will be addressed. Various successful strategies and methods will be discussed. The students will be provided an opportunity of experiential learnings from meeting the local food growers and understanding the importance and challenges related to sustainable food production. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Carbon Accounting And Greenhouse Gas Management
This course provides an introduction to the skills and techniques necessary in measuring, monitoring, benchmarking, and reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of individuals and organizations. Students will gain hands on experience in the design and execution of greenhouse gas emission inventories by measuring their individual carbon footprint as well as the carbon footprint of organizations and institutions to better understand how GHG emissions management can identify and mitigate contributions to climate change. The field of GHG emissions management is fast growing with organizations recognizing that reducing their GHG emissions and their carbon footprint can result in measurable environmental, social, and economic benefits. The course will cover topics and techniques necessary in measuring and reporting carbon footprint including establishing a GHG inventory; review of GHG accounting techniques and standards; Carbon footprint measurement of individuals and campus including identification of analysis boundaries, acquisition of data, calculations of emission levels, and reporting of results, amongst others. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Advanced Geographic Information System
Environmental Studies students require analytical skills, no matter if they are studying wildlife or urban areas or energy or transportation. This advanced level undergraduate course will provide the necessary geospatial skills and enable them to dive deeper into different applications using geospatial techniques. The pedagogy will include case-studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving activities that helps in equipping the student with the skills required in the workforce.
Food Energy Water Waste Nexus towards Sustainability
Sustainable development is considered to pivot around the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. An increasing population magnifies the demand for these three resources that takes us further away from meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs).The quality of our lives as well as the achievement of SDGs depend on developing solutions for the FEW crisis. Food and energy production are invariably linked with waste generation. Yet, the FEW nexus is typically studied with insufficient focus on a key byproduct of development, namely waste. Expanding on the FEW nexus, the courseaims to take an additional step by including the dimension of waste generation (FEWW nexus) into the fold, specifically from the lens of sustainability. The course aims to critically assess the processes that govern each of these four components before studying their interdependencies and their synergistic effects ranging from a local to the global scale. To reach this goal, the course will provide a broad overview of the Food Energy Water Waste nexus in context of SDGs. Students will be provided an opportunity to analyse case studies that assess the environmental impacts of unsustainable practices -specifically in food production and energy generation systems. We will test whether production systems that are traditionally linear in nature could be reconfigured in order to achieve SDGs. Additionally, students will have an opportunity to participate in an in-class simulation involving FEWW nexus stakeholders to understand the importance and challenges of sustainable development in the context of the FEWW nexus. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Advanced Remote Sensing
Building on the GEOG 231 Remote Sensing Of the Environment, this course aims to introduce students to 1. additional remote sensing environmental datasets (including non-optical remote sensing) and how to access them, 2. advanced remote sensing analysis methods, and 3. programming as a tool to analyze and visualize remote sensing data. The course will involve hands-on practicals and will have a substantial project component. Science-wise, the course will focus on the temporal and spatial changes in several remotely sensed datasets. While the course focuses on remote sensing of environmental data, including climate, agriculture, biodiversity, etc, the skills learnt are transferable to analyzing any time series data, including climate model outputs, in-situ observations, finance, and social science datasets, as well as overlap with other modern disciplines such as data science. While having some background in statistics is useful, the course does not go in deep about the quantitative methods, it instead focuses on their application to interpret remote sensing data. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
33 MINOR COURSES
| Fundamentals of Ecology | Evolution and Ecology | Special Topics in Environmental Studies |
| Introduction to Biology | Conservation Biology | Environmental Ethics And Justice |
| World Regional Geography | Environmental Impact Assessment | Urban Studies |
| Fundamentals of Statistical Data Analysis | Principles of Biological Diversity | Sustainable Food Systems |
| Energy, Economics, and the Environment | Environmental Policy | Carbon Accounting And Greenhouse Gas Management |
| Introduction to Environmental Physics and Chemistry | Development and Sustainability | Special Topics In Environmental Studies |
| Geography of the Environment | Remote Sensing of the Environment | Advanced Geographic Information System |
| Research Methods in Environmental Studies | Policy Formulation and Implementation | Special Topics In Environmental Studies: Research In Conservation Science |
| Environmental Law and Governance | Conservation and Society | Food Energy Water Waste Nexus towards Sustainability |
| Climate Change | Environmental Epidemiology | Advanced Remote Sensing |
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | Environmental Economics | Special Topics In Environmental Studies |
Fundamentals of Ecology
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment. In this introduction to the discipline of ecology, we will consider how organisms may be influenced by, and respond to, their environment both individually and as a population. We will then examine interspecific relationships among organisms and the way in which these shape community structure and nutrient and energy dynamics within an ecosystem.
Introduction to Biology
The course is designed to expose the students to some important basic concepts of biology. It highlights the construction of basic unit of life, the cell. The life forms are either eukaryotic or prokaryotic depending on the type of cells they are made up of. The course explains the different kingdoms of life with a focus on plants and animals. Some important processes in routine life in some of the systems of human body are discussed.
World Regional Geography
This course focuses on the globalization as a dynamic process in the major geographical regions of the world. Globalization in each region is understood through five different themes- environmental issues, population and settlement patterns, cultural diversity, geopolitical framework and social and economic development. The first few lectures will provide the conceptual framework for the rest of the course. Within each region, it will identify the geographical aspects including scale, space, dynamic processes, and man-nature interactions which will be used to study regional characteristics. This broad yet holistic course will introduce the different world regions, in both human and physical settings, which will be signicant as a foundation to the other courses.
Fundamentals of Statistical Data Analysis
This course introduces the rudiments of data analysis for students of social science. It will incorporate elementary but important methods for gathering and analysing data for answering questions of social, economic, cultural, political, and policy interest. By taking a models approach to understand data mainly from a practitioner’s perspective, this course will give students skills and knowledge to readily understand and analyse quantitative data.
Energy, Economics, and the Environment
This course provides an introduction to the various forms of energy. It covers discussions on both traditional forms of energy and renewable forms of energy. A major theme of this course involves discussions of the economics of energy use and the effect of the various forms of energy on the climate of the planet.
Introduction to Environmental Physics and Chemistry
This course gives an introduction to the concepts of physics and chemistry and its importance in understanding the environment. It provides elementary knowledge of natural physical and chemical processes and their interactions, from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective with special focus on elemental cycles. Practical hands on experience through laboratory experiments will be provided. This course forms the basis for relatively advanced courses in environmental chemistry and atmospheric physics for students of environmental studies.
Geography of the Environment
Human interactions with the environment are integral part of the global physical environment. Geography of the Environment explores the world’s environment, in its both physical and human dimensions, across time, scale and over space. It will examine the physical milieu and the geographical distribution of the human impacts on the environment at the global and local scales. Human actions, attitudes and practices shape the environment in terms of social, cultural and political contexts. Humans’ relationship with their environment can either be contentious or harmonious. What are the different driving forces behind these conflicts or harmony? What are the geographical consequences of these effects on the environment? These human-environment dynamics will be emphasized through different global case-studies from global North and global South. This is a broad course that will help the students to learn about their global environment and society that we live in.
Research Methods in Environmental Studies
Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary field which systematically studies human interactions with the environment with the purpose of solving complex problems. The breadth of research questions in this field requires an understanding of both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. This course will introduce students different research methods and develop practical skills in data collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation, and report writing during individual assignments and a course-based research project.
Environmental Law and Governance
Since the middle of the twentieth century, several advances have been made in understanding the nature of environmental dangers and degradations. Nonetheless, several issues remain unsettled and many dilemmas unresolved. This course raises questions pertaining to the responsibility, accountability, extent, and reasons behind environmental issues like deforestation, malnutrition, extinction, loss of biodiversity, climate change and many others to observe and construct associations and/or causal relations between environmental phenomena that transcend “conventional wisdom” or categories. This course also explores the role of laws and policies in various environmental issues. The main focus is on the application of policy, laws, and regulations through case studies of landmark judgements in the history of environmental law in India. In addition, the course examines and critically analyses the challenge of global environmental awareness and governance within an evolving international system and the implications of a country like India within that frame of reference.
Climate Change
This course explores the issues of climate change and focuses on the various factors that determine the climate of our planet. It establishes the link between anthropogenic emissions and global climate change. Further, it will involve understanding climate variability, climate change and extreme climate conditions. Additionally, climate change related policies are studied and evaluated.
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
Let it be any cognate area at FLAME University, e.g. Physical and Natural Sciences, Humanities or Social Sciences; it deals with variety of data. Most of these data would have some geospatial tag. By learning how to exploit this geospatial property of the data one can make meaningful analyses of the same and bring out interdisciplinary attributes in such studies.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a set of techniques, processes, skills, software and Data, used to view and model the world from a Spatial point of view. This course introduces students to nature of geospatial data, spatial data acquisition processes, editing, querying spatial data, spatial analysis, cartography (visualization), and GIS applications.
Evolution and Ecology
This course is a study of the origin of life and its further evolution into different forms of life.Different evolutionary processes and evidences are studied. It explores the mechanisms though which the interactions amongst varied life forms lead to the concepts of ecosystems and principles of ecology.
Conservation Biology
Conservation biology is a multi-disciplinary science that addresses the management of biodiversity to protect species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction. This course provides an overview of the discipline including the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss, and established and emerging conservation actions and measures. Students will be introduced to online resources that form part of the conservation biologist’s ‘toolbox’ and examine case studies to better understand the applications and successes of conservation strategies.
Environmental Impact Assessment
The course is designed to highlight the application value of the theory and practice of EIA as operated nationally and internationally. It helps in dealing with the development and implementation of projects modulating development. This course introduces the field of integrated environmental management focusing on procedures, tools and techniques for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with a special emphasis on impacts caused by human interventions on the multiple dimensions of environment and means of regulating and managing them.
Principles of Biological Diversity
This course is a study of varied aspects of biodiversity and its importance as a foundation of sustainable development. It focuses on understanding the reasons for its loss, significance of conserving and managing it and its potential as a new economic resource. The course includes documentation of local biodiversity.
Environmental Policy
Only the seriously disillusioned would deny that the planet and its inhabitants are in trouble. The delicate balance of the various cyclic biogeochemical processes is under threat and human economic activity has left its mark on the home planet to an extent that the current geological age is now known as the Anthropocene. Governments around the world have long recognised the gravity of environmental concerns and their effects on welfare, and the area emerged as an important sector of policymaking activity in the 1970s.
Since then, though, both environmental problems and policy responses have grown in complexity. Rising awareness of environmental challenges has gone hand in hand with increasing intractability and widening political polarisation regarding the balance of key values at stake. In that backdrop, the study of the range of policy responses at the disposal of governments assumes critical importance.
This is among the broadest policy areas, and the course attempts to cover that breadth, from pollution and conservation to energy and recycling. Also, it covers contexts across the range of policy maturity in terms of policy principles. Besides learning about the policy sector, the course also serves as a broad overview of the elements of public policy in an applied manner.
Development and Sustainability
This course introduces students to the evolution of "development" concept, its history, challenges and opportunities,followed by its growth into multidimensional sustainable development. It will explore the environmental, social and economic goals of sustainability by drawing upon global North and global South examples with a particular focus on developing economies such as India. It will introduce multiple viewpoints, theories and frameworks to make connections and propose practical solutions to sustainability issues at the local, national or global contexts.
Remote Sensing of the Environment
This course explores the principles and applications of remote sensing. It focuses on methods of satellite data collection and processing, and applications of the techniques in various fields including earth sciences, environmental studies, archaeology, and anthropology amongst others.
Policy Formulation and Implementation
This is an introductory course in public policy analysis. It begins with the basics and concisely describes government institutions, identifies principal policy actors, and examines the context in which public policies are made. In this sense, together with internal organizational factors, external factors such as the political, legal, social, and economic environments of public policy making are discussed. The course then provides students with the conceptual frameworks and the analytical models necessary for analyzing the process of public policy making. It discusses the nature of policy analysis and its practice, and illustrates how to employ evaluative criteria in substantive policy areas.
In sum, this course introduces students to the politics of policy making and equips them with the analytic tools necessary to understand how the interests and motivations of policy actors--both within and outside of government--impact an intricate, yet understandable, policy agenda. It exposes students to public policy and policy research and helps them comprehend the processes of policy analysis, program evaluation, and policy recommendation/advocacy.
Conservation and Society
Man and Nature has a dichotomous relationship in which neither one can survive without the other. This theoretical course focuses on this relationship and explores different paradigms related to the biodiversity conservation (in particular protected areas) and the human beings since the colonial time, that is, across space, scale and over time. It will examine different theories through different case studies from Global North and Global South. These paradigms will explain how this relationship has been in the past and how it continues to evolve over the ages. It will discuss different global policies and actions introduced to address various issues.
At micro-scale, this course will investigate how everyday struggles of local communities in context of social, economic and political factors affect their daily lives thus, hindering a sustainable lifestyle. Additionally, it will also examine the dynamics of institutions, gender and social relations of power that interact at different scales and impact the biodiversity loss and conservation. This course is focused towards those who are interested in learning more about the duality and interconnection of man-nature relationship from a social perspective.
Environmental Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the science that deals with epidemics and their patterns, causes, and control measures in the populations. The course helps students to know about the nature of epidemics and uses of epidemiology, the causation as; a change in the ecology of the host population, a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population and control and prevention of the disease. The course has a focus on the environmental factors and main causes as deforestation, habitat fragmentation causing spilling of non-human diseases to humans. It becomes imperative to have this knowledge in the present pandemic times where the world has come to a halt.
Environmental Economics
Economics is often defined as the study of allocation of scarce resources. Environmental Economics then might be somewhat provocatively be said to be economics par excellence – the discipline looks primarily at ‘resources’ in the literal sense. (A section of environmental thought argues for the conservation of the environment for its inherent intrinsic value, not for its economic uses for humans, which is what the word resource implies.) This is an intermediate course in environmental economics and some basic knowledge of microeconomics and mathematics in needed.
Environmental Ethics And Justice
Do humans value their environment? Should humans value their environment? How and why? There are no simple and/or single answers. Environmental Ethics examines how humans ought to value both humans and the non-human elements and their relationship within the ecosystem. By engaging and understanding the philosophical discussions, this course then proceeds to apply them in various contexts to understand the different global environment concerns.
What is environmental justice? Since 20th Century, mankind has witnessed how different communities bear different and disproportionate burden of risks and benefits in their everyday spaces where they live and work. There exists a wide disparity between social groups living a good life of prosperity, health and well-being within a specific environment. Consequently, for other social groups in or near risky environments, it becomes a source of threat and risk, when living or working proximate to hazardous environment (such as Bhopal Gas Tragedy, landfill sites). It is this unequal distribution of risks and benefits that stems from various social, political and economic contextual factors thus resulting in environmental (in)justice. Environmental justice movement emerged in US in 1980s to challenge the unfair distribution of toxic, hazardous and dangerous waste facilities that were disproportionately located within the low-income communities of colour. This course focuses on understanding and evaluating such examples in India and globally. Through this course, students will understand the intricacy of the man- nature dichotomous relationship through critical yet complex thinking. It will also help the students to engage in ethical decision-making.
Urban Studies
Cities are sites of great cultural and ethnic diversity, economic innovation, and inequality, cultural expression, resource consumption, wealth generation, and political conflict and cooperation. They are also increasingly shaped by global processes, which play a critical role in the shaping of societies. Advanced Urban Studies is a course designed to provide an integrated understanding of the social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural processes that shape urban life, with particular attention paid to how these processes operate in space and time. It focuses on the history, transformation, dissolution, restructuring and reinvention of the city. The purpose of the course is to give an in-depth insight into current research debates within the Urban Studies research field. The course is structured around three core themes that can be linked together as a whole: 1. The interface between actor and structure within Urban Studies 2. The interface between materiality and sociality within Urban Studies 3. Urban Environment Case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises will be included in the pedagogy to assist students obtain the skills needed for employment.
Sustainable Food Systems
The growing human population and increased anthropogenic activities stress the global ecological processes. The consequent alterations negatively impact the food production systems as they cause overall decreased production and increased nutrient deficit crops. The increased demand of food production for global food security further aggravates the problem. This interdisciplinary course will help understand the food systems which conserve and/or restore natural resources along with fulfilling the ever-growing global demand of food. The course will focus on various sustainable food production methods in agriculture, horticulture, olericulture, animal husbandry etc. with some novel techniques as hydroponics, aquaponics and verticulture. The challenges of food sustainability as climate change, production of nutrient rich and nutrient diverse foods to promote health along with politico-socio-economic and ethical issues of the food systems as well as faced by the food growers will be addressed. Various successful strategies and methods will be discussed. The students will be provided an opportunity of experiential learnings from meeting the local food growers and understanding the importance and challenges related to sustainable food production. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Carbon Accounting And Greenhouse Gas Management
This course provides an introduction to the skills and techniques necessary in measuring, monitoring, benchmarking, and reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of individuals and organizations. Students will gain hands on experience in the design and execution of greenhouse gas emission inventories by measuring their individual carbon footprint as well as the carbon footprint of organizations and institutions to better understand how GHG emissions management can identify and mitigate contributions to climate change. The field of GHG emissions management is fast growing with organizations recognizing that reducing their GHG emissions and their carbon footprint can result in measurable environmental, social, and economic benefits. The course will cover topics and techniques necessary in measuring and reporting carbon footprint including establishing a GHG inventory; review of GHG accounting techniques and standards; Carbon footprint measurement of individuals and campus including identification of analysis boundaries, acquisition of data, calculations of emission levels, and reporting of results, amongst others. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Advanced Geographic Information System
Environmental Studies students require analytical skills, no matter if they are studying wildlife or urban areas or energy or transportation. This advanced level undergraduate course will provide the necessary geospatial skills and enable them to dive deeper into different applications using geospatial techniques. The pedagogy will include case-studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving activities that helps in equipping the student with the skills required in the workforce.
Food Energy Water Waste Nexus towards Sustainability
Sustainable development is considered to pivot around the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. An increasing population magnifies the demand for these three resources that takes us further away from meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs).The quality of our lives as well as the achievement of SDGs depend on developing solutions for the FEW crisis. Food and energy production are invariably linked with waste generation. Yet, the FEW nexus is typically studied with insufficient focus on a key byproduct of development, namely waste. Expanding on the FEW nexus, the courseaims to take an additional step by including the dimension of waste generation (FEWW nexus) into the fold, specifically from the lens of sustainability. The course aims to critically assess the processes that govern each of these four components before studying their interdependencies and their synergistic effects ranging from a local to the global scale. To reach this goal, the course will provide a broad overview of the Food Energy Water Waste nexus in context of SDGs. Students will be provided an opportunity to analyse case studies that assess the environmental impacts of unsustainable practices -specifically in food production and energy generation systems. We will test whether production systems that are traditionally linear in nature could be reconfigured in order to achieve SDGs. Additionally, students will have an opportunity to participate in an in-class simulation involving FEWW nexus stakeholders to understand the importance and challenges of sustainable development in the context of the FEWW nexus. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.
Advanced Remote Sensing
Building on the GEOG 231 Remote Sensing Of the Environment, this course aims to introduce students to 1. additional remote sensing environmental datasets (including non-optical remote sensing) and how to access them, 2. advanced remote sensing analysis methods, and 3. programming as a tool to analyze and visualize remote sensing data. The course will involve hands-on practicals and will have a substantial project component. Science-wise, the course will focus on the temporal and spatial changes in several remotely sensed datasets. While the course focuses on remote sensing of environmental data, including climate, agriculture, biodiversity, etc, the skills learnt are transferable to analyzing any time series data, including climate model outputs, in-situ observations, finance, and social science datasets, as well as overlap with other modern disciplines such as data science. While having some background in statistics is useful, the course does not go in deep about the quantitative methods, it instead focuses on their application to interpret remote sensing data. The approach will involve case studies, hands-on learning, and real-world problem-solving exercises to assist students acquire the skills necessary for the profession.