Water

Water Secondary Core, a graduate area of curriculum concentration

Rowing rig on the Colorado River

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:

Departments:

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:

Faculty

Grad Students