Program Overview

Introduction to the Certificate in Integrative Design of Built and Natural Environments

The Certificate in Integrative Design of Built and Natural Environments, offered through the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, focuses on a transdisciplinary design approach that relies on design processes and thinking. It integrates spatial data technologies to effectively and efficiently inventory, represent, analyze, evaluate, and communicate planning and design alternatives for landscapes, cities, and regions.

Program Overview

The certificate program is designed to provide students with a diverse suite of elective courses that address social and environmental considerations through stakeholder engagement, environmental justice, policy, conservation, and management. Required courses will apply spatial technologies (GIS, Geodesign) to enable collaborations among the design professions (landscape architects, planners, engineers, and scientists and humanists from various disciplines), and community members.

How to Get in

Undergraduate students from across campus are encouraged to consider completing the Certificate. To declare the Certificate in Integrative Design of Built and Natural Environments, students must have completed at least one class that meets Certificate requirements, or be enrolled in at least one class in the current or upcoming semester that meets Certificate requirements.

Requirements

Students are required to complete a minimum of 14 credits to include:

• One introductory course
• One methods and applications course
• Elective courses

Course List

• Introductory Course (complete one): 2-4 credits
  • LAND ARC 311: Introduction to Design Frameworks and Spatial Technologies
  • GEOG/CIV ENGR/ENVIR ST 377: An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
• Methods and Applications: 3 credits
  • LAND ARC 511: Geodesign Methods and Applications
• Elective Courses: 7-9 credits
  • Stakeholder Engagement
    • LSC 561: Writing Science for the Public
    • LSC 625: Risk Communication
    • LSC 250: Research Methods in the Communication Industry
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 309: People, Land and Food: Comparative Study of Agriculture Systems
  • Environmental Justice and Policy
    • LAND ARC 363: Earth Partnership: Restoration Education for Equity and Resilience
    • AMER IND/ENVIR ST 306: Indigenous Peoples and the Environment
    • AMER IND/ENVIR ST/GEOG 345: Caring for Nature in Native North America
    • CHICLA/LEGAL ST/SOC 440: Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
    • CHICLA/LAND ARC 475: Latino Urbanism: Design and Engagement in the American City
    • ENVIR ST 308: Outdoors For All: Inequities in Environmentalism
    • GEOG/URB R PL 305: Introduction to the City
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 439: US Environmental Policy and Regulation
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 534: Environmental Governance: Markets, States and Nature
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST/LAND ARC/URB R PL 532: Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Planning
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 537: Culture and Environment
    • SOC/C&E SOC 140: Introduction to Community and Environmental Sociology
    • URB R PL 512: Gentrification and Urban Restructuring
  • Environmental Conservation & Management
    • LAND ARC 668: Restoration Ecology
    • LAND ARC/ENVIR ST/SOIL SCI 695: Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Natural Resources
    • A A E/F&W ECOL 430: Decision Methods for Natural Resource Managers
    • BOTANY/ENVIR ST/F&W ECOL/ZOOLOGY 516: Conservation Biology
    • C&E SOC/F&W ECOL/SOC 248: Environment, Natural Resources, and Society
    • C&E SOC/ENVIR ST/GEOG 434: People, Wildlife and Landscapes
    • ENVIR ST/GEOG 339: Environmental Conservation
    • ENVIR ST 413: Preserving Nature
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 333: Green Urbanism
    • GEOG/ENVIR ST 337: Nature, Power and Society
    • GEOG/AMER IND 410: Critical Indigenous Ecological Knowledges
    • GEOG/ART HIST/ENVIR ST/HISTORY/LAND ARC 239: Making the American Landscape
    • GEOG 538: The Humid Tropics: Ecology, Subsistence, and Development

Residence and Quality of Work

• At least 8 certificate credits must be completed in residence
• Minimum 3.000 GPA on all certificate courses

Certificate Completion Requirement

This undergraduate certificate must be completed concurrently with the students undergraduate degree. Students cannot delay degree completion to complete the certificate.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the frameworks and processes involved in integrative design of built and natural environments
2. Understand and demonstrate how to use techniques and research from biological, physical sciences, and social sciences in design, planning, and management contexts to create frameworks and designs
3. Select and evaluate geospatial technologies appropriate for a variety of design, planning, and management contexts
4. Understand and evaluate the role of stakeholder values and ethics in design frameworks relative to design, planning, and management of the built environment within social and natural systems

Advising and Careers

The interdisciplinary education provided through the Certificate in Integrative Design of the Built and Natural Environment will make graduates highly sought after by employers in local government, landscape and urban design, environmental science, management, and policy.