University of Virginia
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Master of Urban and Environmental Planning degree prepares students to make significant contributions as professionals in a variety of public, private, and non-profit settings. A distinctive feature of the program is a commitment to community sustainability. Sustainability is addressed in specific courses with that title, but sustainability also provides the underlying framework for virtually all of the department’s courses. The program believes it is necessary to consider both the urban and environmental aspects of a setting to address its issues, problems, and opportunities, and is as much concerned with the economy and issues of equity as with the environment and find it more useful to emphasize linkages than distinctions. The program hopes to inspire students to share enthusiasm for addressing the planning needs of sustainable communities.

The Department of Environmental Sciences (EVSC) is an academic department offering instruction and conducting research in the areas of ecology, geosciences, hydrology, and atmospheric sciences. This unique juxtaposition of several sciences in one department fosters cooperation and exchange among traditional disciplines that share similar methodological and philosophical problems. The research endeavors of both faculty and graduate students, whether disciplinary or interdisciplinary, deal largely with problems of fundamental scientific interest. Research fields include environmental biogeochemistry, coastal processes, hydrogeology, catchment hydrology, microbial ecology, wetlands ecology, terrestrial ecology, boundary-layer meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and climatology. Initiatives involving groups of faculty in contaminant hydrogeology, global environmental change, and coastal ecosystems encompass a number of graduate research opportunities.

The department offers three graduate degree programs: The Master of Arts, Master of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy. The M.A. degree candidate must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours, including 24 credits of course work at the graduate level. The student’s M.A. program of study is developed in consultation with the candidate’s major professor and includes a thesis. Training in ecology, hydrology, atmospheric science, and geosciences is expected of the degree candidate. The M.S. program emphasizes new scientific research in addition to fundamental coursework. A degree candidate must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours including 24 hours of graduate level coursework. One course from each of the four core areas of the department (ecology, hydrology, geosciences, and atmospheric sciences) is required. The Ph.D. program degree emphasizes original research and independent study. The degree candidate is required to complete the four core-area courses as for the M.S., one additional 700-level course and a minimum of 54 credit hours including thesis research. Thesis committees are usually interdisciplinary and are composed according to the type of research to be conducted. Ph.D. candidates must pass a written and oral comprehensive examination administered by their dissertation committee within four semesters of entering the program.

https://sustainability.virginia.edu/curriculum

Environmental Sciences | BA, BS, MA, MS, DMP, Ph.D.
Civil & Environmental Engineering | BS, ME, MS, Ph.D.
Urban & Environmental Planning | BUEP, MUEP
Environmental & Land Use Law | JD
Innovation for Sustainability | MBA

The Urban Design Certificate program is open to graduate students in any department of the School of Architecture who want to pursue an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the sustainable design of urban areas. Participants in this certificate are asked to assume the cities of the future will respond coherently to environmental challenges. Urban growth cannot continue unchecked without a clear strategy for responding to climate change and the difficulty of generating sufficient clean energy. This program proposes to use the need for energy as a tool for discovering how we can design new cities. Energy can help to establish new relationships between the land and the city.

The curriculum for the Urban Design Certificate is comprised of nine credits in three required core courses; six credits in an urban design studio as designated by the program director and six credits of elective coursework.