Water Resources Management
MS Applied Geography

Rationale

Many parts of the world are facing significant water shortage and pollution problems. These problems will likely escalate as populations grow throughout the 21st century. This track under the Masters of Science in Applied Geography (MSAG) enables students to structure their degree plans around scientific, technical, and political aspects of water resources management. The track meets all existing requirements of the MSAG (including courses in research design, quantitative techniques, and a cognate field). Students completing this track may find employment with government research and regulatory agencies, municipalities, planning organizations, water supply districts, or environmental consulting firms.

To satisfy the requirement for a minor, two courses selected from the list below must have a single prefix other than GEOG/GEOL. Additionally, all students must take at least one hour of the graduate seminar, which may be repeated and applied toward one of the areas of this track (in consultation with your faculty advisor).

1. Required Courses

  • GEOG 5110 - Research Design and Geographic Applications (3)

  • GEOG 5190 - Advanced Quantitative Techniques (3)

2. Techniques (choose 1 course from this group)

  • GEOG 5170 - Map-Air Photo Analysis (3)

  • GEOG 5400 - Environmental Modeling (3)

  • GEOG 5960 - Intro. Geographic Information Systems (3)

  • GEOG 5960 - Intro. Remote Sensing (3)

3. Geographical/Geological Topics (choose 1 course from Group A and 2 courses from Group B)

Group A:

  • GEOG 5960 - Meteorology (3)

  • GEOG 5960 - Climatology (3)

 

Group B:

  • GEOG 5150 - Water Resources Seminar (3)

  • GEOL 5650  - Environmental Geology (3)

  • GEOG 5850 - Intro. Groundwater Hydrology (3)

  • GEOG 5960 - Fluvial Geomorphology1 (3)

4. Biological/Chemical Topics (choose 2 courses from this group, also fulfills "cognate field")

  • BIOL 5270 - Limnology (4)

  • BIOL 5360 - Chemistry of Water and Water Pollution (4)

  • BIOL 5380 - Fundamentals of Aquatic Toxicology (3)

  • BIOL 5400 - Wetland Ecology and Management (4)

  • BIOL 5900 - Ecological Risk Assessment (3)

  • BIOL 5980 - Stream Ecology (3)

  • BIOL 6340 - Env.  Impact Assessment (4)

  • BIOL 6360 - Environmental Engineering (4)

  • BIOL 6370 - Aquatic Chemistry (3)

5. Policy Topics (choose 2 courses from this group)

  • GEOG 5960 - Conservation of Resources (3)

  • GEOG 5600 - Environmental Policy (3)

  • ECON 5440 - Economics of Natural Resources and Environment (3)

Non Thesis Students

  • GEOG 5900 - Special Problems (3)

  • GEOG 5900 - Internship (3)

Thesis Students

  • GEOG 5950 - Master's Thesis (6)

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1Undergoing revision to emphasize applied surface water hydrology.