2008-2009 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

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to complete the MS-ERE requirements
while being employed.
MS-ERE graduates are specially
qualified to work for engineering, financial,
and operating companies engaged
in mineral processing ventures, the
environmental industry, environmental
groups in all industries, and for city,
state, and federal agencies responsible
for the environment and energy/resourse
conservation. At the present time, the
U.S. environmental industry comprises
nearly 30,000 big and small businesses
with total revenues of over $150 billion.
Sustainable development and environmental
quality has become a top priority
of government and industry in the
United States and many other nations.
This M.S. program is offered in
collaboration with the Departments
of Civil Engineering and Earth and
Environmental Sciences. Many of the
teaching faculty are affiliated with
Columbia’s Earth Engineering Center.
For students with a B.S. in engineering,
at least 30 points (ten courses) are
required. For students with a nonengineering
B.S. or a B.A., preferably with a
science major, up to 48 points (total of
sixteen courses) may be required for
makeup courses. All students are required
to carry out a research project and write
a thesis worth 3–6 points. A number
of areas of study are available for the
MSW-ERE, and students may choose
courses that match their interest and
career plans. The areas of study include:
• alternative energy and carbon management
• climate risk assessment and management
• environmental health engineering
• integrated waste management
• natural and mineral resource development
and management
• novel technologies: surficial and colloidal
chemistry and nanotechnology
• urban environments and spatial analysis
Additionally, there are four optional concentrations
in the program, in each of
which there are a number of required
specific core courses and electives.
In each case, students are required to
carry out a research project and write a
thesis (3–6 points). The concentrations
are described briefly below; details and
the lists of specific courses for each
track are available from the department.
Water Resources and Climate Risks
Climate-induced risk is a significant
component of decision making for the
planning, design, and operation of water
resource systems, and related sectors
such as energy, health, agriculture, ecological
resourses, and natural hazards
control. Climatic uncertainties can be
broadly classified into two areas: (1)
those related to anthropogenic climate
change; (2) those related to seasonalto
century-scale natural variations. The
climate change issues impact the design
of physical, social, and financial infrastructure
systems to support the sectors
listed above. The climate variability and
predictablilty issues impact systems
operation, and hence design. The goal
of the M.S. concentration in water
resources and climate risks is to provide
(1) a capacity for understanding and
quantifying the projections for climate
change and variability in the context of
decisions for water resources and related
sectors of impact; and (2) skills for integrated
risk assessment and mangement
for operations and design, as well as for
regional policy analysis and management.
Specific areas of interest include:
• numerical and statistical modeling of
global and regional climate systems
and attendant uncertainties
• methods for forecasting seasonal to
interannual climate variations and their
sectoral impacts
• models for design and operation of
water resource systems, considering
climate and other uncertainties
• integrated risk assessment and management
across water resources and
related sectors
Sustainable Energy
Building and shaping the energy infrastructure
of the twenty-first century is
one of the central tasks for modern
engineering. The purpose of the sustainable
energy concentration is to expose
students to modern energy technologies
and infrastructures and to the associated
environmental, health, and resource
limitations. Emphasis will be on energy
generation and use technologies that
aim to overcome the limits to growth
that are experienced today. Energy and
economic well-being are tightly coupled.
Fossil fuel resources are still plentiful,
but access to energy is limited by environmental
and economic constraints.
A future world population of 10 billion
people trying to approach the standard
of living of the developed nations cannot
rely on today’s energy technologies and
infrastructures without severe environmental
impacts. Concerns over climate
change and changes in ocean chemistry
require reductions in carbon dioxide
emissions, but most alternatives to conventional
fossil fuels, including nuclear
energy, are too expensive to fill the gap.
Yet access to clean, cheap energy is
critical for providing minimal resources:
water, food, housing, and transportation.
Concentration-specific classes will
sketch out the availability of resourcs,
their geographic distribution, the economic
and environmental cost of resource
extraction, and avenues for increasing
energy utilization efficiency, such as cogeneration,
district heating, and distributed
generation of energy. Classes will
discuss technologies for efficiency improvement
in the generation and consumption
sector; energy recovery from solid wastes;
alternatives to fossil fuels, including solar
and wind energy, and nuclear fission
and fusion; and technologies for
addressing the environmental concerns
over the use of fossil fuels and nuclear
energy. Classses on climate change, air
quality, and health impacts focus on the
consequences of energy use. Policy and
its interactions with environmental sciences
and energy engineering will be
another aspect of the concentration.
Additional specialization may consider
region specific energy development.
Integrated Waste Management (IWM)
Humanity generates nearly 2 billion tons
of municipal solid wastes (MSW) annually.
Traditionally, these wastes have been
discarded in landfills that have a finite
lifetime and then must be replaced by
converting more greenfields to landfills.
This method is not sustainable because
it wastes land and valuable resources.
Also, it is a major source of greenhouse
gases and of various several contaminants
of air and water. In addition to MSW, the
U.S. alone generates billions of tons of
industrial and extraction wastes. Also,
the by-product of water purification is a
sludge or cake that must be disposed in
SEAS 2008–2009