Geography program

GEO 200 Conservation of Global Environments Introduction to natural resources, resource management, environmental and land use ethics, environmental impacts of resource utilization and strategies to resolve environmental conflicts. Course examines the relationships between society and the environment from the global to the local scale. Offered Fall, Spring.

GEO 427 Sustainable Water Resource Management This course is designed to engage students in critical thinking with regard to the management of water resources within the socio-ecological framework. Students will understand how the interacting dynamics of the natural environment, social factors, politics, and economics shape sustainable water resources policies and practices. This course is taught largely at an undergraduate level. Graduate students will have additional course requirements/expectations. Prerequisite: junior standing. Offered Fall - Odd Numbered Years.

GEO 445 Remote Sensing of the Environment II This course covers advanced techniques of digital satellite and airborne image analysis and processing, emphasizing theory and applications in natural resource, land use and environmental assessment. It includes practical approaches to integrating imagery with geographic information systems for spatial analyses and decision making. Data acquisition, integrity, manipulation, formatting, storage, and retrieval are also examined. This course is taught largely at an undergraduate level. Graduate students will have additional course requirements/expectations. Lect. 2, Lab 2. Prerequisite: GEO 415; junior standing. Offered Spring.

GEO 430 River Systems A systematic study of the interactions between flowing water and surface landforms. Emphasis is placed on watershed and stream development, sediment transport and storage, flow frequency analysis, and applications of fluvial principles to river management and stream restoration. Class activities will include field exercises in the La Crosse region, mathematical analysis of hydrologic variables, and spatial analysis with Geographic Information Systems. This course is taught largely at an undergraduate level. Graduate students will have additional course requirements/expectations. Prerequisite: GEO 222; junior standing. Offered Spring - Odd Numbered Years.

GEO 211 Global Climate Change This course serves as an introduction to causes of natural and human-induced climate change, and the current and future impacts of climate change on environmental systems and society. Actions that could be taken by governments, industry, non-profit organizations, and individuals to mitigate the magnitude and effects of climate change will be addressed. The course will investigate social, cultural, and political aspects associated with climate change policy, including how vulnerability, resilience, and adaptability to a changing climate vary across the globe. Offered Fall, Spring, Summer.

GEO 221 Weather and Climate An introduction to physical principles and the dynamic processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere at global and regional scales. Spatial and temporal variations of energy, moisture, circulation, and weather systems; and the patterns of the world climate systems are discussed. Lect. 3; Lab 2. Prerequisite: GEO 101. Offered Fall.

GEO 428 Past Environmental Change An overview of the study of environmental change during the Quaternary. Approaches used to understand past climatic conditions and effects on terrestrial and marine ecosystems at global, regional and local scales will be explored, as will physical, geochemical and biological methods associated with continuous and depositional environments. This course is taught largely at an undergraduate level. Graduate students will have additional course requirements/expectations. Prerequisite: GEO 221 and GEO 222; junior standing. Offered Alternate Years.

GEO 321 Sustainable Development and Conservation This course is designed to engage students in critical thinking with regard to how the current momentum in environmental conservation is shaping global development practices. The dual and seemingly conflicting mandates of conservation and development are examined not only through theory but also case studies from different parts of the world. Offered Spring.