This course has two main objectives. The first is to provide sound knowledge on the concept of resource use as a key environmental sustainability challenge at various scales that is fundamental to the environmental governance questions. The second is to present the resource efficiency as a technological and systemic solution through various options that help to decouple the resource use from the environmental sustainability. This course approaches these questions more from angle of sustainable consumption, use and demand side rather than the management of ecosystem and natural resources.
The students, on completion of this course, will be able to:
- comprehend the state of key resource use and patterns at multiple scales;
- interpret the resource use vis-vis its implications to environmental sustainability; and
- examine the options and opportunities for enhancing the resource efficiency at multiple contexts.
- Teacher: Prof. Shobhakar Dhakal
This course aims to provide fundamental concepts
of environmental systems modeling and apply the assumptions and approximations
for understanding environmental systems. Students will build the system dynamic
models of climatic, hydrologic, geochemical, and human systems, using STELLA
and VENSIM modeling software on PCs. The model results will provide information
to support the decision-making process.
- Teacher: Ekbordin Winijkul
The objective of this course is to let the students to understand the natural terrestrial ecosystems and their functioning, human dependency on the natural environment, and the impacts on natural environment due to actions under various circumstances, and to design appropriate interventions for a sustainable natural environment. On completion of this course, the students will be able to:
- Elaborate types, and functions of natural systems
- Assess the importance of the natural environment
- Explain the drivers causing negative impact on natural environment including the link between development and environmental change
- Explain human-environment relationships, and analyze the linkages between human impacts and the development
- Analyze and design the appropriate sustainable practices to reduce the negative impacts
- Teacher: Professor Rajendra Shrestha