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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "NS 290"
COURSE NAME: "Science and Urban Ecology"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2021
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Margaret Kneller
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: MW 3:00 PM 4:15 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS:
PREREQUISITES:
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course provides the liberal arts student with an introduction to the scientific issues which underpin human health in the urban environment. We study components of the urban environment by using basic concepts from ecology, biology, chemistry, and geology. We then learn about “linkages” (or interactions) between humans and their physical, chemical, and biological environment in order to understand human health in the urban environment. The interactions examined will relate to actual conditions found in major cities in the 21st century: we look at water supply and quality, air quality standards, energy supplies, and common diseases.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
From the Ecology viewpoint, and centered on Humans: What can we learn about the scientific aspects of the urban environment in a single semester?  This course provides an overview of interesting urban environments, and issues directly relevant to humans within cities.  Human population—basic statistics and relevant news—is presented. The concepts of the Commons, Carrying Capacity, and Ecosystem Services are introduced, and then used to understand problems/solutions. Water supply and quality, and air pollutants are explained…because the provision of clean air and water is necessary to thriving urban life.  Transboundary issues are covered.  Human health from the global viewpoint is introduced, along with the new understanding of the human microbiome.  To conclude, some interesting Natural Hazards (e.g. Tectonic, Coastal flooding) are shown.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Each urban environment is unique in terms of ecological components and processes.  Class lectures and related articles are selected, to provide examples of 21st century cities and urban ecology issues: for example drinking water quality, and air particle pollution.  Students learn to conceptualize their urban environment (global examples) as ecological components and processes—the class emphasizes issues with relevant to 21st century natural resource policy.

The course is organized into eight units:

1 & 2. Introduction: Homo sapiens and their cities. Human Population

3. Commons, Carrying Capacity and Ecosystem Services

4 & 5. Water: Supply and Quality

6. Air: Urban Pollutants and their sources 

7. Human Health: global perspective and the microbiome

8.  Natural Hazards
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
Various Titles, see the Schedule for Titles and LinksVarious, see the ScheduleGovernment, Academic, research centers.** Articles and book chapters are available on line, in the public domain, or in Moodle for our class   
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberComments
Cities, the First 6000 yearsMonica L. SmithPenguin Random House9780735223684  
Under a White SkyElizabeth KolbertPenguin Random House9780593136270  

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Midterm 30 %
4 Short PapersApproximately every two/three weeks, there will be an assignment, related to the material, where you will write or present your analysis. Approximately 500 - 1000 words of text, followed by a bibliography with the references. The Text/Info from the References will be clearly shown in your paper. The quality of the references used, is important. Each bibliographic entry must be sufficiently complete so that I can find it (only an http address is incomplete). Aim to follow one format consistently for all entries. Each student will submit the electronic copy of the paper, to our Moodle JCU page. Late papers may not be graded. TurnitIn may be used to assess your citations.30 %
Final 30 %
Class Discussion, Short AssignmentsRelevant discussion of topics, readings and assignments.10 %

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AThis type of work demonstrates the ability to learn the concepts and theories presented, and also to begin to make analysis. During class discussion and in written tests, the student shows clear evidence of a significant amount of reading, and comprehension, of the required and recommended articles and texts. The class work shows the student is ready to be a research assistant.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised. There is usually a demonstration of ability to learn the concepts and theories presented. During class discussion and in written tests, the student usually shows evidence of a significant amount of reading, and comprehension, of the required and recommended articles and texts. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading of the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Class attendance is required, more than four unexcused absences will lower the grade by one half (e.g. B to C). Students must follow JCU administration guidelines on attendance, for Fall 2021 semester. Otherwise, refer to the university catalog for the attendance and absence policy.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

This table shows the program for the course: topic and related reading. 

Minor changes may occur: exact day topic covered, examples of concepts (I update with recent news, as possible).

Please do reading for the class, and ask questions.

HOW to LEARN-select some new vocabulary, try to apply ecological concepts, and consider these articles as you “first exposure” to new topics.

Articles related to current events, not yet on the syllabus, will be used.

 August 2021 version.  Year 2021 articles will be added as the Course Progresses.

Topic

Topic, and Reading

1 Intro

10,000 years to 2008, Humans Become City Dwellers

· Urbanization, compiled by Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization

· Back in 2007, the projections, from: The Urban Millennium, selected pages from UNFPA State of the World Population, (the themes of this report are addressed in our class) http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/introduction.html

· Age of Megacities, interactive from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/age-megacities/

1 Intro

Introduction: Cities are Ecosystems? The Anthropocene.

· Text: Articles by Crutzen, Carey, Steffen all in Moodle

2 ES, CC, Commons

Ecosystem Services, Carrying Capacity, and “The Commons”

· Text: “The Tragedy of the Commons,” by Garrett Hardin, a classic from 1968, <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full>, and Perspectives on Commons [Moodle]

· “Carrying Capacity concept”, see http://www.csus.edu/indiv/l/loom/lect%2031-32%20s07.htm

· Text: ESA Definition of Ecosystem Services https://www.esa.org/esa/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ecosystemservices.pdf

· in class: Constanza et al., 1997 (Moodle and at http://www.esd.ornl.gov/benefits_conference/nature_paper.pdf )

 

Assignment One on Population

1 & 2

Human Population

· Lancet, World Population, 2020 and Pew Research, World Population, 2019 [Moodle]

· Article: C. Haub and J. Gribble, “The World at 7 Billion,” Population, Bulletin 66, no. 2. This is professional level article, but readable for our class. Concentrate on the vocabulary. There are also specific country examples. The article is from 2011, so its interesting to think what projections were correct.

· Article: Norman Myers, “How we covered the world at 5 billion…” These are two short articles, interesting from the recent historical perspective, since we are now approaching 8 billion. (Moodle)

3 Water Supply

Intro to Water Supply: groundwater, rainwater, glaciers, & rivers, precipitation (mean, anomaly)

· Text: The USGS Water Science school at https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/a-comprehensive-study-natural-water-cycle?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects [emphasis Surface Water and Groundwater tabs]

· Text: excerpts from IPCC WG1 2021 August release, SPM-- www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/. Read A.1.4, A.3.2 to A.3.5, Figure SPM.3 for observed changes, and for a projected change, look at Figure SPM.6

· How NYC gets its water: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/24/nyregion/how-nyc-gets-its-water-new-york-101.html

· Optional Lalasz and Richter, How Cities can get smart about water, is more Policy than Science.

· Optional Articles, UN SDG and MDG viewpoints: read WESTRATE, ORTIGARA and BISWAS articles, in the Moodle folder, for an introduction to the Policy of the UN with respect to water goals.

· Optional: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_United_States

· Just keyword search, e.g. <nytimes water supply> !!

3 Groundwater Supply

Transboundary Water

· Read Famiglietti: “Global Groundwater Crisis,” Nature, 2014 [Moodle]

· Read Libya_USMidwest_GWater [Moodle]

· Optional: M Rodell, JS Famiglietti, “Emerging trends in global freshwater availability ...” 2018. This is a research article, updates the Famiglietti 2014 article, is a large review on what is know about groundwater, and is likely difficult to read [Moodle].

4 WaterQuality

Awareness about Water Quality

· Optional Reading: A. Biswas, “clean water” vs. “improved sources” [Moodle, previous week]

· Read/Get to Know the site: US EPA perspective on Contaminants (Policy based on Science): https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations or https://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/drinking-water-regulations

· Optional, the EU perspective: website https://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-drink/index_en.html and try the research Wujits et al., 2021 article “Protection of drinking water resources from agricultural pressures...” [Moodle]

 

Assignment 2 on Water Quality/Supply

4 Water Quality focus LEAD and Arsenic

Water Quality, continued

· Read: “Flint’s Water Crisis and the ‘Troublemaker’Scientist” by D Hohn, 2016, (NYTimes online site, JCU has access to NYT), and

· “Before Flint: D.C.’s drinking water crisis …” by NAugenstein, WTOP, April 4, 2016 [Moodle] and

· updates (from Sultan, Denchak, and more) on the Lead in drinking water situation. These articles are high quality secondary sources—go to Moodle folder

4 & 5

What is an Exposure Pathway?

 

5 Air Pollutants, introduction

Air Pollutants, introduction

· Explore & Compare: World's Air Pollution: Real-time Air Quality Index http://waqi.info/ and European Air Quality Index https://airindex.eea.europa.eu/Map/AQI/Viewer/

· Text: N Chestney and B Lewis, “Europe’s toxic air” (Moodle)

· Articles in: <London_Beijing_Air_Pollution> [Moodle]

· Optional: WHO air pollution, you could start here https://www.who.int/news/item/29-10-2018-more-than-90-of-the-worlds-children-breathe-toxic-air-every-day OR start at WHO>Environment and Health>Air Pollution PORTAL which is https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/air-pollution/ambient-air-pollution

· Optional: WHO air quality databases strengths and weaknesses by D. H. Schwela and G. Haq, 2020, at https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-19-11-oa-0605

 

MIDTERM

5 Air Pollutants

Air Pollutants continues after Midterm, into Weeks 8 & 9, depending on Current Events

· Reading: You Read and Review the Sites, Articles, Visualized Databases, just above (pre Midterm).

5 Air Pollutants: PMs

Particulate Matter Articles and Sites

· Look at Background Air Quality in Italy, real time: https://www.iqair.com/us/italy , and then look at your Developed and Devoloping Country. Memorize the patterns and think of the sources.

· Look at the “European city air quality viewer” at https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air/urban-air-quality/european-city-air-quality-viewer

· Read the June 21, 2021 news release, “Air pollution in many EU cities ... “ https://euobserver.com/climate/152190

· Read “Air Quality Index” at https://www.euronews.com/weather/copernicus-air-quality-index

· Read this 2021 News Release: “These are Europe’s air pollution hotspots” from WEF, at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/air-pollution-health-europe-urban/

· Read the Guardian article—“More than half of Europe’s cities still plagued by dirty air, report finds” by Fiona Harvey, June 2021—and compare it with the previous WEF article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/16/europe-cities-still-plagued-dirty-air-report-finds

· Read BACKGROUND section, Table 1 and Table 4 in Giannadaki, D., Lelieveld, J. & Pozzer, A. Implementing the US air quality standard for PM2.5 worldwide can prevent millions of premature deaths per year. Environ Health 15, 88 (2016), at https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-016-0170-8

Question: How is the Index related to Concentration? Can you determine any cities Not covered by the EU indices? Which air quality viewer would you use in the future, and why?

 

Assignment 3: Air Pollution

5 Transboundary

Transboundary Air Pollution, emphasis Forest and Peat Fires

· Read: News on Southeast Asia fires, articles up to year 2017 [Moodle]

· Read: News and Interactive Maps on Wildfires in North America, as of August 2021 [Moodle].

· August 2021 note: Wildfires became a global issue in years 2018+, so I/we see will try learn about them, from Air Pollution and Ecosystem viewpoints. The information changes fast.

5 Air Pollutants, Lead

Air Pollution: the case of Leaded Gas

· Read: “Lead Blood Level & Map Petrol” docx [Moodle] which contains Adler’s summary of blood lead levels, and the UNEP maps of leaded petrol phaseout.

· Read: J Kitman, Secret History of Lead, 2000 [online at The Nation, and Moodle has a copy]

· Optional: Nevin, “Understanding international crime trends: The legacy of preschool lead exposure,” 2007 [Moodle]

· Optional: Reyes, Jessica, “Environmental policy as social policy? the impact of childhood lead exposure on crime,” 2007 [Moodle]

6 Global Health

Intro to Global Health

· READ, the WHO year 2020 “World Health Statistics, a visual Summary” at https://www.who.int/data/gho/whs-2020-visual-summary Learn: communicable vs. non communicable, major pathogenic diseases, regional differences.

· then READ the WHO year 2021, https://www.who.int/data/stories/world-health-statistics-2021-a-visual-summary Learn/Observe: the change in emphasis due to COVID-19.

· Look at some of the data at this site https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/topic-details/GHO/world-health-statistics . Be patient, the Visualisations take seconds to load.

· Summary of the paper, Case and Deaton, "Rising Morbidity and Mortality in Midlife Among White non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st Century," PNAS, Nov 2 2015 from EurekAlert News and in Moodle.

· Mortality in the US, 2015 and 2019: NHCS Briefs online (keyword search) and in our Moodle folder.

 

 

Assignment 4
6 Health, the Microbiome

The Human Microbiome

· See <Human Microbiome Articles> in Moodle

· Fast Facts About The Human Microbiome, U Washington [Moodle]

· Lloyd-Price et al., “The healthy human microbiome,” Genome Medicine (2016) 8:51. DOI 10.1186/s13073-016-0307-y [Moodle]

· American Academy of Microbiology, 2013, Human Microbiome FAQ [Moodle]

6 Health, Bacteria: Cholera

Examples of Epidemics caused by a Bacteria

· Reading: You have a choice between the high quality news article (Deborah Sonntag, 2012) or the research news article by Orata (PLOS, 2014). Sonntag delves more into the situational and political errors. [all in Moodle]

· Read: Katz, 2016--this is the news annoucement by UN--its role in the cholera epidemic.

· Optional: News on Antibiotics in Livestock [Moodle]

· Optional: E. coli outbreak in Germany, 2011 [Moodle]

6 Health, Viruses

Influenza and SAR-CoV-2 virus--their Infectious Diseases

• WHO definition of Influenza pandemic/epidemic [Moodle]

• Covid 19 and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, have much similarity from the public health perspective (although the context of the two pandemics differs). Here is one research article which explains, and it’s written at a comprehensible level for non-science majors. “Lessons to be learnt from 100 year old 1918 influenza pandemic viz a viz 2019 corona pandemic with an eye on NTEP” by Matta et al., I ndian J Tuberc. 2020, and online here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7543972/ Alternatively, here is a news article, still high quality: by Richard Evans, “What can we learn from the 1918 pandemic?” in The Nation, December 2020 https://www.thenation.com/article/society/1918-covid-catharine-arnold/

• Spiegel article on 2009 Swine Flu Panic [Moodle]

Visit and look around the WHO FLUNET site. FluNet is a global web-based tool for influenza virological surveillance first launched in 1997. https://www.who.int/tools/flunet

• 2013: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/19/coronavirus-how-easily-spread

• The 2019 SAR-CoV 2 began to eclipse all other pathogenic diseases, starting in 2020. We will look at the available information online, given the class time restraints.

· Optional: Ebola Virus, see Moodle Folder: Ebola articles

7

Natural Hazards and Cities

· Text: The Economist, “Natural Disasters versus Natural Hazards” 2012 (Moodle)

· Munich Re Lost Events

· Munich Re Geophysical Events [Moodle]

7 SLR

Sea Level Rise in the 21st Century?

· Text: Revkin “Coastlines and Cities” (Moodle)

7 Tectonics

Natural Hazards and Cities

Case Studies: Tokyo and Fukushima, New York City and Sandy

 

FINAL—the date set by JCU Registrar. NOTE that the FINALS period is in the first part of December! We must take our Final on the scheduled day and time.