This course introduces students to the history, theories, and contemporary practice of city and regional planning. Readings, lectures, class discussion, and walking tours focus on: - The evolution of planning ideas, strategies, institutions, and powers, and of planning’s influence on cities and regions around the world; - The structure and dynamics of urban change; - The ways planners and social and environmental scientists have understood, theorized, and responded to social, economic, political, and environmental conditions and change over time; and - The development of the planning profession and its relationships with allied fields, examining various types of planning, urban development, and design.

Disaster management reflects society’s organized attempt to protect its members from natural, technological, and terrorist threats. Often, this involves coordinating with local, state, federal, and non-governmental organizations; alerting the public to impending hazards; and developing plans for the sheltering and mass care of those left homeless in the wake of major catastrophe. The field operates through a complex network of specialists, whose activities often assist the day-to-day and long-term operations of disaster management. As a result, planning for a disaster—be it in the realm of mitigation, preparedness, response, or recovery—calls for a thorough understanding of both the natural and social elements of disaster. This course covers an overview of theory, principles, and the operations of disaster management. Topics include a history and evolution of the profession; an exploration of the concepts of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery; state, local, federal, and non-governmental organizations’ roles in disasters; and an investigation of the social, political and economic consequences of disasters.

This course provides an advanced introduction to the design and delivery of energy policy at various levels of government in the U.S. and beyond. Energy presents theoretical and practical challenges across many disciplines and professions, especially in the context of economic development and environmental sustainability at scales ranging from local to global. This course is intended to provide a broad overview of the institutions, legal frameworks, technologies, and markets involved in energy policy by exploring theories and case studies across these topics, with an emphasis on the energy transition necessitated by climate change. That said, a full introduction to energy policy requires multiple courses and Penn offers many salient ones across several schools including Law, Wharton, Weitzman, SAS, and SEAS. The primary goal of this course is to teach students how to think—rather than what to know—about energy policy. As such, this course provides both (a) a foundation for students who want to take additional courses on energy law, markets, technology, or policy and (b) a synthesis for students who have taken such courses and want to connect ideas and issues across disciplines and professions. Our seminar sessions will be largely discussion and exercise based to allow students to develop skills as energy policy analysts and to collectively theorize connections between laws, institutions, policy design, and outcomes.

This course will explore the physical science of the Earth's environment and human interactions with it. Coverage will include the Earth's various environmental systems, various environmental problems, and the direct and indirect causes of these environmental problems. Fresman seminar will mirror the ENVS100 recitation, and have additional discussions and social media projects.

Exploration of the methods and tools for managing land use and shaping the built environment. Presents how to create a successful Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Regulations, Capital Improvements Progam, and design guidelines. Also, presents functional area, regional, and state-level plans.

The course is an introduction to the most important concepts in materials science and engineering. You will learn how the control of chemical bonding, synthesis, processing, structure and defects can be used to tailor the properties and performance of materials for applications that range from sustainable sources of energy, to construction, to consumer electronics. Case studies are also included to highlight environmental issues associated with materials degradation. This course includes lab demonstrations of key materials properties and a final project where students research an area of materials technology of their own interest.

The course introduces students to the participants and components to the development process, as well as specific development strategies and design tools for engaging them. Design in this sense is not simply a vision, or a concept utilized for obtaining approvals, it is understood as an encompassing set of procedures that both allow for and ensure that goals are being met at all stages of a project, from early conception through the approval process and building construction. Students will learn how to engage municipal land-use laws and regulations, produce strategies for geometric development based on land-use and environmental constraints, and use simulation to perform value-adding operations to a development proposal. Through lectures and exercises, students will have the opportunity to analyze a building and the redevelopment procedures surrounding it, and develop a geometric response and then parse data from that model to drive a series of documents relating to project cost, funding, and schedule. These documents will be analyzed against a variety of construction means and funding models so time- and cost-effective basis that meets design intentions can be developed. This course is primarily intended for Architecture Students who wish to enroll in the Real Estate Design and Development Certificate.

This course reviews the infrastructure, databases, deployment, and development of emerging digital technologies in cities. We review existing initiatives, discuss challenges and opportunities, and critically evaluate what technology has and has not been able to offer cities. We contrast utopian visions of teaching with the possible realities. Finally, we ask; what makes a city smart?

The study of sustainability-the long term viability of humans in harmony with the environment-has been identified as a critical issue for society and industry and is evolving to examine how society should conduct itself in order to survive.There are a number of aspects to how society organizes its activities that will be reviewed. Issues such as sustainable products, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, sustainable fisheries, and sustainable communities, to name just a few, are areas that are the focus of the need for change.

This course provides an overview and introduction to urban transportation planning and policy. Although the focus is on US transportation, the course also puts an emphasis on transportation issues in the fast-growing cities of the developing world. The course is organized around: (1) histories and theories of transportation and travel behavior; (2) transportation policy and project evaluation; (3) transportation demand modeling; and (4) multimodal transportation planning and policy. Particular attention is given to interactions between transportation and land use systems.

Recent technological changes have raised awareness of the magnitude and devastating long-term effects of poverty, food insecurity, limited and unequal access to education, and other social issues. Coupled with growing awareness of these issues is the emerging sense that traditional government programs and charities may be unable to solve these problems - at least, not alone. What may be needed are new strategies - strategies borne of (a) a deep understanding of the issues; (b) interdisciplinary collaboration; and (c) access to business knowledge, frameworks, and resources. This course is designed to provide the information, strategies, examples, and analytical mindset to make students more rigorous, insightful, and effective in analyzing social ills and crafting potential solutions. Together, a cross-disciplinary group of undergraduate students, including students in Wharton, the College, and other Penn Schools, will examine the nature and extent of two pressing social problems - food insecurity and barriers to post-secondary education - and current approaches to solving these problems.

Most previous attempts at "landscape archaeology" tended to focus on the relationship of sites and the natural environment. This course will highlight the cultural, "anthropogenic," or "built environment"--in this case human modification and transformation of the natural landscape in the form of pathways, roads, causeways, monuments, walls, agricultural fields and their boundaries, gardens, astronomical and calendrical alignments, and water distribution networks. Features will be examined in terms of the "social logic" or formal patterning of cultural space. These can provide insights into indigenous structures such as measurement systems, land tenure, social organization, engineering, cosmology, calendars, astronomy, cognition, and ritual practices. Landscapes are also the medium for understanding everyday life, experience, movement, memory, identity, time, and historical ecology. Ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological case studies will be investigated from both the Old and New Worlds.

Landslides are important geomorphic agents in mountainous terrain, mobilizing sediment and playing a key role in controlling relief and elevation. The work of landslides is often characterized by their magnitude-frequency, which also has direct implications for people, property, and infrastructure in mountainous terrain, and for the approaches taken to minimize the risk from landslides. This course will introduce students to a conceptual understanding of landslides at a range of spatial scales, including the mechanics of the processes governing landslides from trigger to deposition. Methods of slope monitoring and the varied approaches to landslide risk mitigation and management will be explored, with a range of geotechnical and environmental applications. This course includes lab-based sessions to demonstrate simple techniques to understand fundamental landslide processes, and applications of GIS technology to explore slope monitoring and failure prediction.

This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement since the 1960s. It addresses theories and concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice, underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. In this course, students will explore national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States. The course will analyze these case studies through the lens of Latinx artistic and literary texts (essays, paintings, short stories, documentaries, and short films) as they provide a unique historic and multicultural perspective of the Latinx experience with environmental injustice and of how Latinxs imagine alternative transitions and responses to environmental marginalization. In addition, the works of Latinx artists and writers will serve as case studies to deconstruct racial stereotypes of Latinxs as unconcerned about environmental issues, shedding light on how they share a broad engagement with environmental ideas. The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farmworkers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farmworkers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. We will also review current and past programs that have been organized to address the aforementioned problems. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia on preventing exposure to hazardous substances, thus bridging the information gap on environmental justice issues in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Information dissemination and education efforts will be conducted by collaborating with Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia to implement lessons on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding.

This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement since the 1960s. It addresses theories and concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice, underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. In this course, students will explore national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States. The course will analyze these case studies through the lens of Latinx artistic and literary texts (essays, paintings, short stories, documentaries, and short films) as they provide a unique historic and multicultural perspective of the Latinx experience with environmental injustice and of how Latinxs imagine alternative transitions and responses to environmental marginalization. In addition, the works of Latinx artists and writers will serve as case studies to deconstruct racial stereotypes of Latinxs as unconcerned about environmental issues, shedding light on how they share a broad engagement with environmental ideas. The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farmworkers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farmworkers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. We will also review current and past programs that have been organized to address the aforementioned problems. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia on preventing exposure to hazardous substances, thus bridging the information gap on environmental justice issues in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Information dissemination and education efforts will be conducted by collaborating with Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia to implement lessons on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding.

This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement since the 1960s. It addresses theories and concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice, underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. In this course, students will explore national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States. The course will analyze these case studies through the lens of Latinx artistic and literary texts (essays, paintings, short stories, documentaries, and short films) as they provide a unique historic and multicultural perspective of the Latinx experience with environmental injustice and of how Latinxs imagine alternative transitions and responses to environmental marginalization. In addition, the works of Latinx artists and writers will serve as case studies to deconstruct racial stereotypes of Latinxs as unconcerned about environmental issues, shedding light on how they share a broad engagement with environmental ideas. The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farmworkers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farmworkers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. We will also review current and past programs that have been organized to address the aforementioned problems. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia on preventing exposure to hazardous substances, thus bridging the information gap on environmental justice issues in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Information dissemination and education efforts will be conducted by collaborating with Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia to implement lessons on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding.

Sustainability presents both a challenge and an opportunity for society. Issues like climate change, pollution, resource depletion, and population imbalance are stressing the planet's capacity in ways that threaten our ability to sustain thriving and just societies. At the same time, these systemic problems are unfolding too slowly to prompt most of us to take serious and significant action, or to trigger meaningful responses from our political and business leaders. People equate sustainability with efficiency, waste minimization, and pollution prevention - all worthy goals - but at the current rate of consumption and growth these approaches alone will not create the future of abundance and equity that we desire. To quote author and MIT professor John Ehrenfeld, "Reducing unsustainability - although critical - will not create sustainability." What will it take to extricate us from the current predicament and forge a new path? In this class, we will examine underlying psychological and cultural barriers to sustainability and discuss strategies for surmounting them. Students will learn leadership competencies and practices to help them more effectively lead change efforts for sustainability. Readings and discussions will explore the application of positive psychology to leverage the human technologies of creativity and collaboration in the pursuit of a more balanced and sustainable relationship with others and our ecosystems, and to shift the sustainability dialogue from the current problem-oriented approach to a vision of human wellbeing and planetary flourishing.

People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company

Climate change transforms the natural and built environments, and it is re-shaping how we understand, make sense, and care for our past. Climate changes history. This course explores the Anthropocene, the age when humans are remaking earth's systems, from an on-water perspective. In on-line dialogue and video conferences with research teams in port cities on four continents, this undergraduate course focuses on Philadelphia as one case study of how rising waters are transfiguring urban history, as well as its present and future. Students projects take them into the archives at the Independence Seaport Museum and at Bartram's Garden. Field trips by boat on the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers and on land to the Port of Philadelphia and to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge invite transhistorical dialogues about how colonial and then industrial-era energy and port infrastructure transformed the region's vast tidal marshlands wetlands. Excursions also help document how extreme rain events, storms, and rising waters are re-making the built environment, redrawing lines that had demarcated land from water. In dialogue with one another and invited guest artists, writers, and landscape architects, students final projects consider how our waters might themselves be read and investigated as archives. What do rising seas subsume and hold? Whose stories do they tell? What floats to the surface?

By focusing on the scientific analysis of archaeological remains, this course will explore life and death in the past. It takes place in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) and is team taught in three modules: human skeletal analysis, analysis of animal remains, and analysis of plant remains. Each module will combine laboratory and classroom exercises to give students hands-on experience with archaeological materials. We will examine how organic materials provide key information about past environments, human behavior, and cultural change through discussions of topics such as health and disease, inequality, and food.