Karen C. Seto
Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science; Director of the Hixon Center for…
Urban Specialization
The Urban Specialization prepares students to engage deeply in the management of urban ecosystems. Students will learn to understand and assess key environmental challenges and possible policy and business solutions to address these issues.
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The focus students choose will prepare them for their career goals – which may include, for example, working at a city-level on environmental policy, providing research or policy analysis to international development organizations, or joining a scientific research organization, among many other possibilities.
Note that a capstone course used to fulfill the MEM capstone requirement cannot also be used toward fulfilling an MEM Specialization requirement; a capstone course taken once cannot be used to fulfill multiple requirements. Learn more about YSE capstone courses by visiting the MEM Capstone page.
Program Courses
Core
Two required courses.| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 573 Urban Ecology for Local and Regional Decision Making |
Grove W 1:00-3:50 |
Grove Tentative |
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| ENV 645 Urbanization, Global Change and Sustainability |
Seto Tu 1:00-3:50 |
Seto |
Electives
Students must select four additional courses, including one course from each of the following four bins below. There is no guarantee that faculty will accept YSE students in classes offered outside of YSE.Bin 1: Urban Spatial Analysis
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 704 Workshop on Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry with Drones |
Lee | |||
| ENV 726 Observing Earth from Space |
Lee Tu,Th 9:00-10:20 |
Lee | ||
| ENV 730 Environmental Data Science in R: Introduction to Data Integration and Machine Learning |
Malone Th 2:30-5:20 |
Malone | ||
| ENV 755 Modeling Geographic Space |
Kelly Th 1:00-3:50 |
Kelly Tentative |
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| ENV 756 Modeling Geographic Objects |
Kelly Th 1:00-3:50 |
Kelly Tentative |
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| ENV 819 Measuring and Visualizing Urban Environments |
Salazar Miranda Th 2:30-5:20 |
Salazar Miranda |
Bin 2: Urban Environmental Resource Management
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 602 Ecosystems and Landscapes |
Bradford | |||
| ENV 608 Our Air, Our Health |
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| ENV 694 Invasive Species: Ecology, Policy, and Management |
Duguid | |||
| ENV 697 Science for Policy and Practice: A Seminar |
Bradford Tu 1:00-2:20 |
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| ENV 712 Water Management |
Anisfeld M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Anisfeld | ||
| ENV 744 Conservation Science and Landscape Planning |
Schmitz M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Schmitz | ||
| ENV 745 Global Human-Wildlife Interactions |
Harris | Harris | ||
| ENV 794 Climate Ethics and Economics |
Rao | |||
| ENV 814 Energy Systems Analysis |
Rao M,W 9:00-10:20 |
Rao | ||
| ENV 884 Industrial Ecology |
Piao Tu,Th 10:30-11:50 |
Yao Tentative |
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| ENV 963 Case Studies in Water Management: Conflict and Cooperation |
Anisfeld | |||
| ENV 979 Climate Solutions Capstone: Sub-National Actors |
Klee W 2:30-5:20 |
Klee Tentative |
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ARCH 6115 Soil Sisters |
Lokko | |||
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ENAS 6730 Air Quality and Energy |
Gentner |
Bin 3: Land Use and the Built Environment
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 831 Urban Planning Strategies for Sustainable Development |
Salazar Miranda Th 1:00-3:50 |
Salazar Miranda Tentative |
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| ENV 835 Seminar on Land Use Planning (Fall-1 term Aug 27-Oct 10) |
Bacher Th 1;00-2:20 |
Bacher W 1:00-2:20 |
Bacher | |
| ENV 894 Green Building: Issues and Perspectives |
Kops Tu 2:30-5:20 |
Kops Tentative |
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| ENV 956 Strategies for Land Conservation |
Gentry Tu 2:30-5:20 |
Holmes | ||
| ENV 966 Sustainability Implementation: Change Management in Institutional Settings |
Smiley Smith Th 9:00-11:50 |
Smiley Smith Tentative |
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| ENV 969 Housing Connecticut: Developing Healthy and Sustainable Neighborhoods |
Woods F 9:30-12:30 |
Woods Tentative |
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| ENV 971 Land Use Clinic |
Bacher W 10:30-11:50 |
Bacher | ||
| ENV 982 Green Engineering and Sustainable Design |
Zimmerman M,W 1:00-2:15 |
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ARCH 6005 Environmental Design |
Lokko | |||
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ARCH 6101 Bad Buildings: Decarbonization Through Reuse, Retrofit, and Proposition |
McNamara | |||
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ARCH 6108 Regenerative Building Research |
Organschi | |||
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ARCH 8801 Introduction to Urban Design |
Rubin | |||
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ARCH 8811 Introduction to Planning and Development |
Rose | |||
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MGT 544 International Real Estate |
Gray | |||
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MGT 546 Real Estate Development |
Sheinberg |
Bin 4: Cities and Civil Society
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 620 History of Environmental Thought and Activism |
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| ENV 631 Poverty, Environment and Inequality |
Taylor Tu,Th 1:00-2:20 |
Taylor Tentative |
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| ENV 642 Environmental Justice/Climate Justice |
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| ENV 649 Food Systems: The Implications of Unequal Access |
Taylor | |||
| ENV 682 Environmental Justice/Water Justice |
Torres M,W 10:30-11:50 |
Torres Tentative |
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| ENV 759 Power, Knowledge, and the Environment: Social Science |
Dove M 1:00-3:50 |
Dove | ||
| ENV 878 Climate and Society: Past to Present |
Dove Th 1:30-3:20 |
Dove | ||
| ENV 959 Clinic in Climate Justice, and Public Health |
Carrion Th 1:00-2:50 |
Carrion Tentative |
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| ENV 960 Urban Climate Solutions Capstone: Topic TBD |
Seto |
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ARCH360/URBN 360 Urban Lab: An Urban World |
Hsiang | |||
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ARCH 7121 Urban Century: Theorizing Global Urbanism |
V. Rao | |||
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ARCH 7155 Race and the Built Environment |
Carver | |||
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ARCH 8113 Port City: Transformations of Urban Networks |
Plattus | |||
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ARCH 8118 Ghost Town |
Rubin | |||
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EHS 537 Water, Sanitation, and Global Health |
Chen | |||
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MGMT 536 Urban Poverty and Economic Development |
Cooney | |||
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MGMT 537 Inequality and Social Mobility |
Biasi | |||
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MGT 826 Inclusive Economic Development Lab: Special Topics |
Cooney | |||
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PUBH 507 Social Justice and Health Equity |
Keene |
Additional Electives
In addition to the two required courses and the four electives, students may select additional electives to complete the requirements for the MEM degree. Additional electives that may support students’ focus area in the Urban Specialization are listed below.| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall 2026 | Spring 2027 |
| ENV 594 Global Carbon Cycle |
Denning M,W 9:00-10:20 |
Denning Tentative |
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| ENV 636 Carbon Dioxide Removal |
O’Rourke M 2:30-5:20 |
O’Rourke Tentative |
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| ENV 705 Global Climate Change: Simple, Serious, and Solvable |
Denning M,W 1:00-2:15 |
Denning Tentative |
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| ENV 829 Pathways to a Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions Future |
Esty | |||
| ENV 855 Climate Change Mitigation in Urban Areas (Dates TBD) |
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AMST 623/CPLT 880
Working group on Globalization |
Denning | |||
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ARCH360/URBN 360 Urban Lab: An Urban World |
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ARCH 5103 Cartographies of Climate Change |
Hsiang | Hsiang | ||
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ARCH 7121 Environment Architecture |
Gissen | |||
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EHS 547
Climate Change and Public Health |
Carrion | |||
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EHS 560 Methods in Climate Epidemiology |
Chen | |||
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ENAS 8000 Smart City Engineering with IoT |
Khurshudov |
Learning Community
There is a corresponding “Learning Community” for each specialization, where anyone interested in the topic can find related news, spotlights, colleagues, and events.
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