Focus area: Environmental Modeling

Environmental modeling is the process of constructing a representation of a real system that can be used to aid in understanding the system and its variability, and in making decisions concerning the system. Three main types of representations or models are commonly used: physical models, statistical models, and deterministic and stochastic mathematical models. Of these three types, mathematical models based upon fundamental descriptions of mass, momentum, and energy conservation and transport are generally considered the most powerful. They form the bases for most state-of-the-art models used in environmental sciences and engineering.

The focus area in Environmental Modeling provides a means to deliver the fundamental principles and applications of environmental modeling, which play an increasingly important role in virtually all sub-disciplines within the broad field of environmental sciences and engineering. The fundamental principles include fluid dynamics, transport phenomena, mathematical principles, computational methods, computer science, stochastic analysis, environmental decision analysis, and quantitative risk assessment. The applications include porous medium systems, surface water systems, indoor air systems, atmospheric systems, coupled systems, exposure analysis, and integrated exposure-health effects analysis.

Students interested in specializing in environmental modeling should have entry-level mathematics including ordinary differential equations, calculus-based physics, general chemistry, undergraduate fluid mechanics, and some background in probability and statistics, numerical methods, and computer science.

The Environmental Modeling curriculum consists of four types of courses:

    * courses designed to provide an introduction to environmental

      modeling, which are appropriate for the majority of students at

      the MS level in the sciences, and upper-level BS students

    * courses in environmental science, such as fluid dynamics,

      transport and reaction phenomena, and media-specific and

      multimedia applications courses

    * courses in mathematical, numerical, and computational aspects of

      environmental modeling

    * courses in stochastic analysis, decision analysis and quantitative

      risk assessment.

The four types of courses are summarized below:

*Introduction *

ENVR 160 Environmental Systems Modeling

*Environmental Science *

ENVR 152 Fluid Dynamics

*Mathematical and Computational Principles and Applications *

ENVR 163 Scientific Computation I

ENVR 164 Scientific Computation

ENVR 165 Methods of Applied Mathematics I

ENVR 166 Methods of Applied Mathematics II

*Stochastic Analysis and Risk Assessment *

ENVR 161 Geostatistics for Spatial Temporal Environmental Phenomena

ENVR 162 Random Field Modeling of Physical Processes