MURP: Environmental Planning & Policy Specialization
Managing human interaction with the natural environment, while protecting important natural systems, continues to be one of the critical challenges facing society. While rooted in scientific and technological fields, environmental problems and their solutions increasingly deal with public values, economics, law, policy, and planning. The environmental planning and policy specialization provides graduate education in the theoretical frameworks for environmental management, as well as the professional tools essential for developing solutions to environmental problems, including: analytical techniques for environmental planning; public participation and negotiation; institutional approaches; and policy development, implementation, and evaluation. More than 25 environmental courses are offered in Urban Affairs and Planning and other Virginia Tech departments including Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Geography, Forestry and Wildlife Management, and Applied Economics. Three options are available to students within the environmental concentration:
- Environmental Land Analysis & Management
- Pollution Prevention & Control
- Natural Resources Management
Environmental Land Analysis and Management focuses on land analysis and evaluation methods (inventories, ecological analysis, impact assessment, geographic information systems (GIS)) as well as regulatory, non-regulatory, and collaborative approaches for managing private land use. Pollution Prevention and Control includes coursework in legal and institutional aspects, economics, and engineering, related to water and air pollution, waste management and recycling, and pollution prevention. Natural Resources Management focuses on public resources, primarily land, water, parks, and wildlife, and draws from courses in planning, policy, forestry, wildlife, engineering, and landscape architecture. Students are also able to combine interest in environmental planning and policy with other concentrations offered by the Department, including: International Development, Public and Non-Profit Management, and Physical Development Planning. Graduates of the environmental planning and policy concentration have found employment in local and regional planning offices, state and federal environmental and resources agencies, private development and consulting firms, and non-profit environmental organizations.
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