The Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Issues and Careers in Complex Environmental Problem Solving

Catalog description

This course will offer an in-depth exploration of issues related to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, with an emphasis on pollutants impacting water quality, and the long history of efforts to improve Bay watershed health. These issues will be explored from a wide variety of perspectives, including environmental, hydrological, historical, social, and political. While the main pollutants of concern are few (nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment), the issues related to addressing them are extremely complex and require a multidisciplinary approach to environmental problem solving. Nutrient pollution represents the leading unsolved water quality issue in the United States and is one of major worldwide significance threatening freshwater, estuarine, and coastal ecosystems. Students will be introduced to the wide variety of environmental career opportunities that exist in "saving the Bay," spanning multiple disciplines, areas of expertise, and job sectors. The depth of complexity of the issues and the diversity of careers will be experienced firsthand through classroom guest lectures, as well as travel throughout the Bay watershed, including overnight travel to the Chesapeake Bay.