UC Davis Courses Related to Environmental Policy and Management
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The Governor's Plan for Investing in California's Infrastructure
ECI 289A, Instructor: Deb Niemeier, Spring 2006
On January 10, 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger announced one of the largest proposed public works investment plans in the history of California, $228b for improvements in transportation, education, water, flood control, public safety and courts projects. This class focused on three major areas of proposed infrastructure improvements: water supply, flood control and transportation. The water supply and flood control investment plan called for expanding water supply to serve 8.5m more people and the agriculture industry, and doubling the amount of flood protection in the Sacramento area. The transportation infrastructure improvement plan was aimed at reducing delays due to congestion and substantially improving air quality.
This plan represented a massive investment in these segments of public infrastructure, and a unique educational opportunity. This class examined the Governor's proposed public works investment plan for water supply and flood control and transportation infrastructure improvements. It examined public policy issues raised by such an investment and analyze both the Governors proposal and various Legislative proposals; the design-build concept, and a range of costs, benefits, and environmental and other trade-offs associated with each proposed investment. It looked at how projects were being selected, the long-term bonding implications, and the long-term environmental implications. The goal was a white paper to be made available prior to the proposed June referendum. Several Sacramento policymakers and/or staff presented key details of the budget throughout the quarter.
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Energy Policy
ESP 167, Instructor: Joan Ogden, Spring 2006
This course surveyed primary energy resources (fossil, renewable, nuclear), energy conversion methods, future energy demand scenarios, and environmental impacts of energy. It presented an overview of energy policy in the U.S. It featured discussion and analysis of policy alternatives for addressing energy-related environmental and national security issues.
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Water Policy and Politics
ESP 169, Instructor: Mark Lubell, Spring 2006
This course was a survey of water policy and politics in the United States, with a focus on institutions for managing common-pool resources. It included non-point and point source pollution, fisheries, biodiversity, water supply in California, and ecosystem management.
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Women in Science and Engineering
SAS 198/298, Instructor: Jeanine Pfeiffer, Spring 2006
The UC Davis Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) think tank combined brain power to envision WISE campus activities that support and promote women in UC Davis mathematics, science, and engineering programs. Students developed leadership skills through selected readings, researching funding sources, writing proposals for programs, and reaching out to campus leaders and officers to promote WISE on our campus.
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Transportation Planning and Policy
TTP 289A-005, Instructor: Susan Handy, Spring 2006
The objective of the course was to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the transportation planning process at the regional level as it is shaped by federal policy.
Topics included history; institutions, roles of public sector, private sector, and citizens; from federal to local level; federal transportation authorization bills, regional planning process, regional transportation plans (RTPs), transportation improvement programs (TIPs); air quality conformity: Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), state implementation plans (SIPs), transportation control measures (TCMs); project development processes: National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), environmental impact statements (EISs); modeling: role in planning, conformity analysis, EISs; financing: federal, state, and local financing; privatization; pricing policies; intermodal planning: institutional issues, strategies; integrated transportation and land use planning: institutional issues, strategies.
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Agricultural Law and Policy
Law 285C, Instructor: Prof. Jerrold Tannenbaum, Spring 2006
Approved as an elective for the environmental law certificate, this course is an introduction to agricultural law, focusing on legal principles and issues at the forefront of contemporary debates about agriculture in society. Topics included: environmental impacts of agricultural practices, labor law issues, agricultural biotechnology, conflicts between farming and ranching and expanding urban and suburban land use, food safety and security, farm subsidies and assistance programs, the future of the family farm, the law and sustainable agriculture, legal issues in aquaculture, farm animal welfare, and the roles of local, state, and federal governments in regulating agriculture. This course provided an introduction to the central issues and concerns of contemporary agricultural law. Students will learn about key concepts and principles relating to how the law has dealt and deals with agriculture, but were also be encouraged to think about how the law can and should address agricultural issues. Because agricultural law borrows from and relates to many different substantive legal fields, class sessions were conducted by experts in the areas that relate to agricultural law. Each of these lecturers was a nationally recognized leader in his or her field. The lecturers include academics at the forefront of the study of agriculture and agricultural policies; government regulators involved in the formation and application of public policy; agricultural lawyers in private practice; representatives of legal and policy advocacy groups; and people who have been directly involved in farming and ranching. The course presented these speakers not just a means of providing instruction about agricultural law and policy, but also to expose students to the wide range of potential opportunities for lawyers in the field.
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Communicating Ecological Issues to Citizens and Policy Makers
ECL 290, Instructor: Peter Moyle, Spring 2005
The goal of this course (offered in spring of 2005) was to enhance student understanding of specific ecology related policies and to prepare concise summary statements to the general public in the form of Eco-Briefs. This course was a mixture of speaker led discussions, student presentations and eco-brief writing on current ecological topics. Final briefs were peer-reviewed and faculty reviewed prior to publication.