GEOG 465 - Sustainable Communities and Development

Units: 4 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-D; Sustainability
An assessment of the personal, corporate, local, national and global dimensions of sustainability, the challenges facing humanity, and the identification of future options and alternatives at each scale, with special emphasis on urban sustainability issues, goals, progress, and process.

Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division Area D1-3 requirements; and GEOG 200/ENVT 101.
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 with grade C- (CR) or better.
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online Asynchronous or Online Synchronous.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-D - Upper Division Social Sciences, Overlay - Sustainability
Cross-listed: ENVT 465.
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

identify and explain key sustainability issues as they apply to individuals, businesses, communities/cities, nations and the planet Earth as a whole.
explain the trade-offs and interactions between the three pillars of sustainable development: social equity, environmental sustainability, and economic development.
list and quantify global differences in terms of the use of and access to resources by different peoples and assess the relative contribution of these activities to global pressures and impacts on natural capital.
explain, differentiate and analyze key indicators of unsustainability/sustainability such as the ecological footprint, the food mile, energy intensity, carbon footprint, life cycle cost, and so forth.
explain and discuss the pivotal role of urban areas, populations and institutions in achieving sustainable development and intergenerational equity.
investigate and report on and assess the value of efforts being taken by innovative individuals, corporations, communities/cities, and/or nations to bring their activities in line with the long-term potential of the world’s biotic and abiotic resources

UD-D. Upper-division Social Sciences Learning Outcomes

analyze how power and social identity affect social outcomes for different cultural and economic groups using methods of social science inquiry and vocabulary appropriate to those methods;
demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply accurately disciplinary concepts of the social or behavioral sciences; and
demonstrate an understanding of and ability to effectively plan or conduct research using an appropriate method of the social or behavioral sciences.

Sustainability Overlay Learning Outcomes

identify the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, either in general or in relation to a specific problem;
analyze interactions between human activities and natural systems;
describe key threats to environmental sustainability;
explain how individual and societal choices affect prospects for sustainability at the local, regional, and/or global levels.