Introduction

The water resources program in the graduate environmental studies (ENVS) program at CU-Boulder educates students and professionals about the range of issues and problems associated with the supply, use, and quality of water. Solutions to these problems will require a new breed of water resource specialists who can effectively integrate knowledge across a broad range of disciplines and a broad range of scales. A specialist in water resources will have a working knowledge of physical hydrology, water law, aquatic ecology, policy, culture and history, and economics.

Curriculum

Methodology Course: 3 credit hours

Water Resource Courses: 9 credit hours from courses within one of the two concentration areas listed below, (1) Water and the Environment or (2) Water and Society.

Water and the Environment

• EBIO 5030 Limnology
• EBIO 5060 Landscape Ecology
• GEOG 5003 Elements of Geographic Information Systems
• GEOG 5103 Introduction to Geographic Information Science
• GEOG 5241 Special Topics in Water
• GEOG 5251 Fluvial Geomorphology
• GEOG 5271 The Arctic Climate System
• GEOG 5321 Snow Hydrology
• GEOG 5501 Western Water
• GEOL 5080 Advanced Hydrogeology
• GEOL 5280 Aqueous Geochemistry
• CVEN 5323 Applied Stream Ecology
• CVEN 5424 Environmental Organic Chemistry
• CVEN 5404 Water Chemistry

Water and Society

• ECON 6555 Water Resource Development and Management
• ENVS 5810 Climate, Water & Environmental Sustainability
• ENVS 5730 The Decision Process
• ENVS 5720 Problem Orientation
• GEOG 5501 Western Water
• ENVS 5710 Introduction to Policy Sciences
• LAWS 6112 Foundations of Natural Resources Law
• LAWS 6302 Water Resources
• LAWS 6318 Law and Economics
• LAWS 7202 Environmental Law
• LAWS 8302 Seminar in Advanced Water Resources
• CVEN 5393 Water Resource Development and Management

Electives

Remaining courses with advisor approval.

CU Boulder Resources

Campus-wide Initiatives:

• Western Water Assessment

Departments:

• Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Economics
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Geography
• Geological Sciences
• Hydrologic Sciences
• School of Law
• Political Science

Institutes/Centers:

• CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
• INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research)
• IBS (Institute of Social and Behavioral Sciences)
• CADWES (Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems)
• NRCL (Natural Resources Law Center)

Federal Agency Laboratories, Offices in Boulder/Ft. Collins/Denver:

• U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division
• U.S.D.A. Forest Service
• U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• NOAA Office of Global Programs
• NOAA Climate and Societal Interactions
• NOAA Paleoclimate
• NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center
• NCAR

Faculty

• Mark Williams

• Joseph Ryan

• John Pitlick

• Jason Neff

• Diane McKnight

• Peter Blanken

Grad Students

• Katherine Powell

• Tyler Kohler

• Rachel Gabor

• Kelsey Cody

• John Berggren

Grad Program: