LAR 1254: Environment and Natural Systems

This course provides an introduction to the environment and natural systems with an emphasis on their relationship to urban sustainability and resilience, including topics such as natural elements, structures, patterns, natural systems, ecology, and landscape ecology. Students will discuss the impact of human actions and decisions on the environment and natural systems from the local to the global scale, and will apply relevant theories and methods related to the environment and natural systems to planning and design.

Why take it?

Human disturbances to the environment and natural systems are believed to have caused global climate changes and regional and environmental degradation. Understanding what causes the changes in the environment and natural systems is vital to minimize impacts of planning and design decisions and activities. This course teaches how design and planning affect the environment and natural systems at a range of scales, particularly urban natural environments. This course serves as a foundation for other courses students will take and will help them identify environmental impacts in other subjects. Students from various disciplines (including science, engineering, humanities, and business, among others), as well as students majoring or minoring in landscape architecture, will benefit from this course.

LAR 1254 is an introductory course for the Ecological Cities Pathways minor and fulfills an elective in the Appalachian Cultures and Environments and Blue Planet Pathways minors. 

Requirements

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This course fulfills Pathways requirements in Reasoning in the Natural Sciences, Foundational Quantitative and Computational Thinking, and Intercultural and Global Awareness.