Flood Hydrology and Wine Ecology

Catalog description

This course studies the intersection of two factors influenced by climate change in the Finger Lakes region of NY and Franconia, Germany – water availability and wine production. Soils, terrain, landcover, and precipitation interact to create conditions that impact floods, droughts, and available soil water storage. These same parameters influence where vineyards will flourish. Climate change is now complicating this hydrologic balance, with larger, more intense storm events, frequent droughts, higher temperatures, and altered growing seasons. This in turn impacts wine production, landscape ecology, and urban resiliency to climate change. Understanding the factors influencing climate change impacts will help city planners mitigate flooding and wine producers create more climate resilient and ecologically sustainable landscapes. This course will explore and enhance environmental, ecological, and economic models and analyses developed at RIT and the Technische Hochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) and study what wine producers and city planners in the Finger Lakes and Franconia are doing to help minimize stormwater and flooding impacts (urban resiliency) and promote ecological and economic sustainability. The course will meet during spring semester, with a required 2.5-week study tour to Würzburg, Germany after the end of the semester. Students must apply through RIT Global and an additional fee applies to the course.