ENGS 41 - Sustainability and Natural Resource Management

Description

Natural resources sustain human productivity. Principles of scientific resource management are established, including mathematical model development based on material balances and decision making based on dynamical and stochastic systems. Three generic categories of resource are analyzed: exhaustible, living, and renewable. In the first category, we emphasize the life-cycle of exploitation including exhaustion, exploration and substitution. In the living category, we explore population dynamics under natural and harvested regimes, for fisheries, fowl and forests. The renewable case of water is treated in terms of quantity and quality. Finally, air quality management is considered through the lens of assimilative capacity. Throughout, the intersection of natural processes and economic incentives is explored with dynamical systems theory, computer simulations, and optimization techniques. Case studies illustrate contemporary management problems and practices.

Prerequisites

MATH 23 or ENGS 22, and ENGS 37

Distribution Code

TAS