ENVR 310 | Environmental Decision Making

This course focuses on the decision making processes that shape the implementation of environmental policy in the United States. Environmental decisions are no longer the exclusive province of technical experts employed by government bureaucracies. Pioneering efforts to involve groups of environmental stakeholders (such as environmental groups, property owners, business interests, tribes, and officials at all levels of government) in environmental decision making began 30 years ago. Now environmental decisions are often held to a legal and public expectation that deliberations will be public and participatory. Students in this course will develop an understanding of the institutions shaping these decisions, the theory behind various decision making approaches, the relative effectiveness of different approaches, and the skills needed to make decisions in these complex policy contexts. This class includes group work on case-based projects and policy simulations.