COURSE: Spring 2013, ENVR 890-004, 1 credit hour
TITLE: Water In Our World
LECTURE: Monday, 10:00 - 10:50
LOCATION: RO 133
ENROLLMENT CAP: 150
AVAILABILITY: Graduate and advanced undergraduate students (juniors and seniors). No department
restrictions, no prerequisites.
INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD: Dr. Jamie Bartram, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Environmental Sciences and Engineering, jbartram@email.unc.edu
Co-instructors/guest speakers
Dr. Urooj Amjad, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Environmental Sciences and Engineering,
amjad@unc.edu
Dr. Joe Brown, University of London, Disease Control, joe.brown@lshtm.ac.uk
Dr. Peter Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Global Research Institute
Dr. Ben Meier, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Alan Wilson, Auburn University, Fisheries, wilson@auburn.edu
Guests: Ms Clarissa Brocklehurst (GRI Fellow) and Mr Felix Dodds
CONTENT: Water is necessary for our survival and is a lynch pin of public health in the 21st century.
Escalating human population growth is currently placing unsustainable demands on our water resources.
Concomitant climate change and other environmental changes, poor resource management, and
emerging and re-emerging diseases are compromising our access to and quality of water resources. This
course highlights current issues facing our water resources and how these problems influence the health
of humans and the planet.
Course content is organized into 7 two-week units. In the first week of each unit, the topic will be
presented by one of the instructors, and readings will be assigned. The following week, each class will
begin with a 5 minute quiz, followed by an interactive class discussion. The 7 units will be (in no
particular order):
1. Global water and sanitation access, trends, targets, and approaches. Introductory course material
(Bartram).
2. Water as a human right (Meier).
3. Water safety: emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and the global burden of disease
(Brown)
4. Water and civilisations: collapse and failure and the future of humankind (?!) (Coclanis)
5. Ecosystem health and water (Wilson).
6. Alliances and strategies (Brocklehurst).
7. Water-energy conundrums (Amjad).
Extra (perhaps as the second week of Clarissa’s session?):
development and sustainability (Mr Felix Dodds)
Negotiating international compacts for
REQUIRED MATERIALS: No required text. Articles from the peer-reviewed literature will be selected by
the instructors and provided to the class.
GRADING: Course grades are based on each student's cumulative performance for the following
assignments:
Activity
Attendance and participation
Quizzes (7)
Final, in-class exam
Total points
Points
30
30
40
100
Grading scale
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = < 60%