This course is designed to introduce students to the major issues in research in contaminant fluxes through terrestrial and aquatic systems. It will also expose students to the diverse fields of research expertise within the UTSC Group. Students will be expected to contribute one seminar paper in their own field of interest. The class will meet weekly throughout the fall and winter and will act as a focus group for the program. The course is restricted to those students enrolled in the M.Env.Sc. Program.
This course involves the design, implementation and presentation, of a research project involving literature review, laboratory or fieldwork. Existing faculty allow a broad range of research topics. The permission of a faculty member who agrees to supervise the project is required. The Program Director and the supervising faculty member must approve a detailed project proposal outlining the objectives and scope of the project. The research will be written up in a research journal format and will be evaluated by a small committee. The course is restricted to those students enrolled in the M.Env.Sc. Program.
This course will familiarize students with a working knowledge of analytical chemistry and modern instrumentation and the common laboratory methods used in the analysis of contaminants and ions in environmental media. Students will be introduced to a number of instruments and techniques and the methods used to analyze soils, air and water.
This course is designed to give student hands on experience with the methods used in environmental science for the monitoring of air and water quality. Lectures will cover the theory behind the methods and statistical requirements of sampling design, while field exercises will allow students to become familiar with the instruments and techniques.
This applied microbiology course introduces students to microbial activities with environmental implications in diverse areas such as public health, bioremediation, agriculture and green technologies. A key focus of the course is to introduce classical and advanced molecular methods used to detect and quantify microbes, and microbial activities, in environmental samples. Students are given the opportunity to perform microbial enumeration and characterization techniques in the lab to supplement the lectures.
This course will present fundamental chemical concepts and reactions that occur in soils with emphasis on contaminant behavior. The basics of soil chemistry will be introduced and the processes that relate to: quantities, attenuation, sequestration, and movement of ions, heavy metals, and organic molecules in terrestrial environments will be addressed in detail. Students will become familiar with geochemical computer models and these models will be used to predict the behavior of ions in soil. Soil chemical characteristics, which can be used to predict the fate of contaminants in terrestrial environments, will also be presented.
The course will deal with specifically environmental geology and geophysics of urban areas especially the Greater Toronto Area. Emphasis will be on waste management, contaminant migration and site assessments. The course will emphasize specific case histories and the various geological and geophysical methods used in field investigations in the special conditions found in urban areas. Some field work will be involved.
This course will examine the principal methods currently in use for remediating contaminated soils and waters. Emphasis will be placed on reviewing the advantages and limitations and site-specific applicability of remediation techniques and technologies.
This ten-day course will provide students with important experience of designing, conducting and reporting investigations in the field.
This course covers an advanced set of techniques and applications of GIS, including a substantial practical component. Technical issues (including data format and conversion, geo-referencing, spatial indexing and terrain analysis), application/spatial modeling (including watershed analysis, land use classification, soil erosion modeling, etc) as well as visualization and incorporation of spatial data and analysis into decision support systems will be examined. Underlying programming techniques will be reviewed and extended on a student-project basis.
This course examines contaminant transport in water bodies such as rivers and the Great Lakes using numerical modeling and other techniques. Physical methods for determining mass circulation in response to wind and water temperatures at different times of the year will be examined; case studies will be reviewed.
Freshwater environments support diverse communities of plants and animals that are controlled by both biotic and abiotic factors. Organisms respond to changes in the habitat through detectable shifts in population abundances and the loss/gain of species. Monitoring such biological changes in freshwater communities is an established protocol for assessing the condition of rivers, lakes and ponds subject to human influence. This course will have a large practical component in which students will have the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to evaluate the condition of aquatic environments variously affected by urbanization.
This course examines the dynamics and radiation physics of the atmospheric planetary boundary layers. Topics include the formation of a planetary boundary layer, vertical stability, temperature inversions, diurnal and seasonal variations and impacts of local and regional scale circulation. With this foundation the dispersion of airborne pollutants will be studied. The course will conclude with modeling of airborne pollutants and case studies.
This course focuses on groundwater contamination and the various methods used to investigate, assess and evaluate the movement and behavior of contaminants in the subsurface. Emphasis will be on urban groundwater issues with case study examples taken from North America, Europe, central Asia and Africa.
Students need permission from the Director of the Master of Environmental Science Program to register in this course.
If approved, students may follow a structured independent readings course in any sub-discipline of Environmental Science. A faculty member will supervise the student and a short description of the objectives, scope and procedures for evaluation for the course must be approved by both the faculty member and Program Director.
Students need permission from the Director of the Master of Environmental Science Program to register in this course.
If approved, students may follow a structured independent readings course in any sub-discipline of Environmental Science. A faculty member will supervise the student and a short description of the objectives, scope and procedures for evaluation for the course must be approved by both the faculty member and Program Director.
This course involves completion of a 4 month long internship at a location approved by the Program Director and a supervising faculty member. Students will be responsible for securing their own placements although the Director will be aggressive in securing commitments from industry and government. In those cases where the student is taking a leave of absence from an appropriate job, it is expected that he or she will normally return to this job as their placement. The student will be adjudged to have completed the intern portion of this course worth 0.5 FCE, upon receipt of a letter from the students supervisor at their place of work to the Program Director stating that the placement has been satisfactorily completed. The student will also submit a research paper on a project completed while on placement. This will be evaluated by a small committee and is worth 1.5 FCEs.
The study and consideration of climate change is of increasing significance to society. This course will review the evidence for climate change over the past 150 years using both direct measurements and proxy data. Projection of future climate change will also be considered by modeling. Students will complete a major case study and research paper.
This course provides an introduction to the rapidly growing field of ecological and environmental modelling. Students will become familiar with most of the basic equations used to represent ecological processes. The course will also provide a comprehensive overview of the population and dynamic biogeochemical models; prey-predator, resource competition and eutrophication models will be used as illustrations. Emphasis will be placed on the rational model development, objective model evaluation and validation, extraction of the optimal complexity from complicated/intertwined ecological processes, explicit acknowledgment of the uncertainty in ecological forecasting and its implications for environmental management.
This course provides an introduction to the field of ecological statistics. Students will become familiar with several methods of statistical analysis of categorical and multivariate environmental data. The course will provide a comprehensive presentation of the methods: analysis of variance, regression analysis, structural equation modeling, ordination (principal component & factor analysis) and classification (cluster & discriminant analysis) methods, and basic concepts of Bayesian analysis. Emphasis will be placed on how these methods can be used to identify significant cause-effect relationships, detect spatiotemporal trends, and assist environment management by elucidating ecological patterns (e.g., classification of aquatic ecosystems based on their trophic status, assessment of climate variability signature on ecological time series, landscape analysis). The course will consist of 2 hr-lectures/tutorials where the students will be introduced to the basic concepts of the statistical methods and 2-hr lab exercises where the students will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience in statistical analysis of environmental data.
This course will introduce the mechanisms of contaminant transport in lakes and the coastal ocean. The emphasis will be on a practical understanding of different dispersion regimes from point and distributed pollution sources. Students will learn to use the basic equations that model these processes and understand how these equations are used in water quality models. Students will also be introduced to field measurement techniques and learn to compare field data with model data. Among the subjects to be discussed are the dispersion of pollutants in lakes, rivers and the coastal zone, mixing in stratified estuaries and the dynamics of the seasonal thermocline.
This course will give an introduction to quantitative approaches to describing the behaviour of organic chemicals in the environment. Building upon a quantitative treatment of equilibrium partitioning and kinetically controlled transfer processes of organic compounds between gaseous, liquid and solid phases of environmental significance, it will be shown how to build, use, and evaluate simulation models of organic chemical fate in the environment. The course will provide hands on experience with a variety of such models.
The major objectives of EES1122H are to: 1) discuss major environmental challenges the planet earth is now facing and 2) examine how human interventions are deteriorating global environment and that affecting sustainable development; 3) analyse major environmental initiatives which include: the Stockholm Conference on Human Development, The Brundtland Commission Report, the Rio Earth Summit, the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable development, Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depletion, Kyoto Protocol and other global conventions, protocols and processes and their usefulness: 4) discuss extensive north-south cooperation in facilitating global environmental security and sustainable development.
Environmental regulations are based on the existence and/or likely occurrence of adverse effects. This course will examine the legal definitions of adverse effects and present possible scientific methods that can be used to establish the presence/absence of adverse effects. The specific regulations for Air, Waste, Contaminated Sites, and Water will then be examined to establish scientific methodologies that can be applied to show compliance with the letter and intent of the regulations. Particular emphases will be placed on the existence of variable scientific interpretations of the key general statements in the respective regulations.
Environmental projects must be completed in a timely manner, for a preset cost and must satisfy many levels of regulation. This course will cover the best practices in project planning, cost estimation, contracting and coordination of the numerous individuals and companies engaged to accomplish the project.
This course builds on the basics of Remediation Methods covered in EES1107 by elaborating on the practical implementation of the common remediation processes including Soil Vapour Extraction, Groundwater Pump and Treat (including treatment train design), Monitored Natural Attenuation, Bioremediation and novel innovative methods. Each method considered will be evaluated in the context of the applicability & treatment analyses, and pilot studies that must be completed before project implementation; full scale design & construction; startup & optimization; reporting requirements; off-gas/residue treatment methods; decommissioning & closure.
This new course focuses on the use of various isotopes and chemical factors for furthering our understanding of complex environmental problems, ranging from the characterization of freshwater resources to contaminant transport in aquatic systems. Particular focus will be placed on how chemical and isotope tracer studies can be coupled with physical measurements to understand complex problems in hydrology, biogiochemistry, and contaminant transport. This course will cover fundamentals of environmental tracer chemistry through to recent case studies, advanced models and applications.
The new course will aim to provide an introduction to geomicrobiology and to describe how microbial communities have influenced biogeochemical and mineralogical processes through geologic time. Topics will include microbial properties and diversity; microbial metabolism, cell surface reactivity and metal sorption; biomineralization; microbial weathering; microbial zonation and early microbial life.
This course will focus on biophysical interactions at the advanced level, incorporating specialized concepts on plant-soil relationships, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functioning in managed forests and agriculture. Students will be provided the opportunity to engage with course topics in seminar, field and laboratory format. Sampling and analytical techniques covered are in-situ soil and leaf-level gas exchange analysis, soil sampling, preparation and elemental analysis, and quantification of plant metrics. By the end of this course, students will have an understanding of the complexities and dynamics in managed environments, specifically ecosystem structure and function, soil fluxes including decomposition and mineralization processes, plant growth and nutrition, and production-diversity relationships.
This course introduces students to the regulatory framework for brownfields redevelopment in Ontario. The focus of the course will be building competency in Phase One and Phase Two Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), determining the requirement for remediation or environmental risk assessments, and in the filing of a record of site condition (RSC) according to Ontario Regulation 153/04. Students will be guided in the use of real date from actual GTA locations as case studies.
This course will involve a circular tour of central Ontario that exposes students to key features of the Ontario environment that allow for observation, measurement and sampling opportunities. Locations may vary from year to year but the most likely destinations will be : Manitoulan Island (to illustrate Devonian and Silurian rock formations), Killarney Provincial Park (to demonstrate lake acidification and collect phytoplankton samples), Parry Sound (to demonstrate geophysical mapping of Lake Huron and sampling), Havelock (central metasedimentary belt geology, forest diversity surveys, lake mapping, water quality testing inside and outside of anthropogenic inputs), and Burketon or Pontypool (Geology and hydrology of Oak Ridges Moraine).
This course will introduce and discuss the basic topics and tools of applied climatology, and how its concepts can be used in everyday planning and operations (e.g. in transportation, agriculture, resource management, health and energy). The course involves the study of the application of climatic processes and the reciprocal interaction between climate and human activities. Students will also learn the methods of analyzing and interpreting meteorological and climatological data in a variety of applied contexts. Topics include: Solar Energy; Synoptic Climatology and Meteorology; Climate and Agriculture; Climate and Energy; Climate and Human Comfort; Urban Effects on Climate and Air Pollution.
This course will cover environmental legislation at all levels of government that determines the way in which the Canadian Environment is managed. Students will be taught the values, assumptions and guiding principles which underlie environmental legislation and will cover the basic regulatory policies governing the environment, particularly as they relate to contaminants in the environment.
This course is a broad introduction to applied risk assessment for environmental professionals. Course material will cover Human Health Risk Assessment and Ecological Risk Assessment including conceptual models, risk characterization, uncertainty analysis, and risk perception and communication. Through specific examples, students will understand how to apply the theoretical concepts to conduct "quantitative" and "semi-quantitative" risk assessments as required under provincial regulations, and to communicate the results to a variety of stakeholders, including managers, regulators and the general public.