Water Resource Science and Management Specialization
The Specialization builds student expertise in the science, policy, and management of water resources in preparation for careers that call for solutions to challenges posed by the world's emerging and longstanding water-related issues.
On This Page
Students seeking employment within federal and state environmental agencies (e.g., USGS, USEPA, DEP), environmental non-governmental organizations (e.g., WRI, Nature Conservancy), international development agencies, local and interstate watershed commissions, industry, and environmental consulting firms should consider this specialization.
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
Required for all Water Resource Science and Management students.Course 1
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall | Spring |
| ENV 712 Water Management |
Anisfeld |
Course 2
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall | Spring |
| ENV 735 Hydrologic Science for Environmental Managers |
Saiers |
Elective
Students must take at least one course from each category.Management
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall | Spring |
| ENV 639 Food Systems and Climate Services |
Hernandez-Aguilera | |||
| ENV 641 Market-Based Mechanisms for Water Management |
Pilz Tentative |
|||
| ENV 824 Environmental Law and Policy |
Klee | |||
| ENV 828 Risk Assessment & Management: Climate Change |
Wargo | |||
| ENV 834 Environmental Economics and Policy |
Faculty | |||
| ENV 840 Climate Change Policy and Perspectives |
Klee | |||
| ENV 971 Land Use Clinic |
Bacher |
|
EHS 537 / EMD 537
Water, Sanitation, and Global Health
|
Ying Chen and Michael Cappello |
Science
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall | Spring |
| ENV 586 Fisheries & Aquaculture |
Freidenburg | |||
| ENV 594 Global Carbon Cycle |
Denning | |||
| ENV 646 Regenerative Agriculture Systems |
Wood | |||
| ENV 705 Global Climate Change: Simple, Serious, and Solvable |
Denning | |||
| ENV 706 Toxic Organic Chemicals in the Environment |
Anisfeld | |||
| ENV 708 Aquatic Chemistry |
Faculty | |||
| ENV 713 Coastal Ecosystems |
Anisfeld | |||
| ENV 723 Wetlands Ecology, Conservation & Management |
Freidenburg | |||
| ENV 725 Water, Energy, and Food Interconnections in a Changing Climate |
Saiers | |||
| ENV 734 Biological Oceanography |
Decker |
Methods, Tools, and Quantitative Analysis
| Course | Fall 2025 | Spring 2026 | Fall | Spring |
| ENV 603 Environmental Data Visualization for Communication |
Queenborough | |||
| ENV 617 Real World Environmental Data Science |
Grewal Tentative |
|||
| ENV 730 Environmental Data Science in R: Introduction to Data Integration and Machine Learning |
Malone | |||
| ENV 755 Modeling Geographic Space |
Faculty | |||
| ENV 756 Modeling Geographic Objects |
Faculty | |||
| ENV 757 Data Exploration and Analysis |
Reuning-Scherer | Reuning-Scherer | ||
| ENV 762 Foundations of Applied Math for the Environment (FAME) Fall-2 meets Oct 20-Dec 17 |
Fenichel | |||
| ENV 795 Nature as Capital: Merging Ecological and Economic Models |
Fenichel | |||
| ENV 819 Measuring and Visualizing Urban Environments |
Salazar Miranda |
Cross-Over Electives
One Course
Water management influences, and is influenced by, a wide range of natural-resource issues, environmental challenges, and policy actions. Students are encouraged to explore the core courses of other MEM specializations to fulfill the cross-over elective. (Some core courses for other specializations are listed in the Management bin above – each of those core courses can satisfy the requirement for the Management bin or the Cross-Over bin, but a single course cannot be used to satisfy the requirement for both bins.) Courses outside the specialization cores may also be suitable, subject to approval by the Water Learning Community Faculty Coordinator.
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.
Faculty Coordinator