Ecology II: engineering for sustainability

This MIT OpenCourseWare offers selected lecture notes, details of assignments, exams (with solutions), tools, and a reading list taken from the Ecology II: Engineering for Sustainability undergraduate course as taught in the spring of 2008.

The course focuses on the use of mathematical models to assess interactions between humans and the natural environment. By the end of the course, students should be able to formulate and use mathematical models to assess human impacts on the environment and assess the economic value of natural resources.
This course provides a review of physical, chemical, ecological, and economic principles used to examine interactions between humans and the natural environment. Mass balance concepts are applied to ecology, chemical kinetics, hydrology, and transportation; energy balance concepts are applied to building design, ecology, and climate change; and economic and life cycle concepts are applied to resource evaluation and engineering design. Numerical models are used to integrate concepts and to assess environmental impacts of human activities. Problem sets involve development of MATLAB® models for particular engineering applications. Some experience with computer programming is helpful but not essential.

[Description and screenshot taken from MIT OCW page for this course. (c) MIT used under the terms of their CC-NC-SA license.]

Link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/civil-and-environmental-engineering/1-020-ecology-ii-engineering-for-sustainability-spring-2008/
Author: Dennis McLaughlin
Publication Date: 2008-05
Source: http://ocw.mit.edu/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
Rights: Copyright MIT. Use subject to a Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike License and other terms of use. For full details see http://ocw.mit.edu/terms/