Seminar in Physical and Environmental Geography, CSULB

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH

Geography 640-02:
Seminar in Physical and Environmental Geography

Spring 2019 Topic: Hazards

W 7-9:45 p.m., PH1-230
Ticket #11013

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Dr. C.M. Rodrigue

E-mail: rodrigue@csulb.edu

Instructor's Home Page: http://web.csulb.edu/~rodrigue

Course home page: https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geog640/

Office: CSULB PH1-233

Telephones: (526) 985-4895 or -8432

Mailbox: PH1-210

Office Hours: M 3-4:40 p.m., W 3-3:50 p.m., and by appointment and e-mail

(please start the subject line of your e-mail with "640" so I can find you in the spam tsunami!)

Seminar Description:

(3 units)
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. In depth investigation of physical and/or environmental issues and problems. Topics vary by instructor. Letter grade only (A-F). May be repeated to a maximum of 6 units with consent of departmental advisor.
This semester, our topic of focus is natural hazard in a time of increasingly anthropogenic climate change. We will be discussing changing wildfire régimes and storm patterns, as both these meteorologically-driven hazards are especially susceptible to changes in the underlying climatological equilibria. We will explore options for reducing social and ecological vulnerability and increasingresilience and how we, as physical and human geographers and GIScientists, can contribute to sustainability, efficiency, and equitability through all stages of the disaster cycle.

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this seminar, graduate students should be able to:

become familiar with the basic physical dynamics creating various natural hazards with a meteorological component
understand Earth as a dynamically changing planet which has shown drastically different equilibrium conditions in its past, far beyond the more equable fluctuations that have prevailed throughout the Holocene Epoch
realize how human agriculture, state societies, and urbanization have been built in and depend on the relatively stable Holocene
to become familiar with the links between human activity and climate drivers
to understand predicted trends and uncertainties in how meteorological hazards may respond to anthropogenic climate forcings
appreciate the value of spatial analysis, mapping, GIS, and remote sensing for risk assessment and real-time management of disasters and their effects
analyze different policy options for mitigating and preparing for disaster and managing emergency situations in a sustainable, efficient, and equitable manner
enhance professional research, analysis, collaboration, writing, and presentation skills

Tentative Topics:

Trends in natural disaster mortality, morbidity, and economic loss
Environmental dynamics during the Quaternary Period
Anthropogenic forcings and how climate may respond
Hazards of meteorology

Storms and floods

Hurricanes
Arctic vortices
Pineapple Express atmospheric river

Drought
Heat waves
Wildfire

WUI: Woolsey and Camp fires
Wildfires escaping the WUI, a new element: Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa

Course Materials:

Readings each week will come from refereed articles accessible through our library's electronic collection and sometimes through Google Scholar, as well as certain web pages. Most weeks, there will be 2-5 reading assignments.

Grading:

Grading is based on seminar participation, moderating half evening discussions, and the quality of an original group research project, which is to be presented to a local conference at the end of the semester (you might want to take advantage of Dr. Ban's presentation clinics!):

California Geographical Society (3-5 May, Big Bear)
Los Angeles Geographical Society (student symposium 3 May, LACC)
Southern California Academy of Sciences (also 3 May, at CSUN)

The allocation of grade points is as follows:

25% = participation in seminar discussions
20% = the half-seminars you moderate
40% = the quality of your research project, including peer evaluation of your contribution
15% = the quality of your conference presentation

Makeup Policy:

Makeups aren't quite meaningful in a graduate seminar of this type. An absence or late completion of an assignment are the nearest analogues. Makeups in these situations are possible in the event of a documented unexpected emergency in a student's life or through prior arrangement with the instructor when the student has advance knowledge of a conflict in schedule, including jury duty or other governmental obligation; death, injury, or serious illness/caretaking responsibilities in the household or family; work-related issues; certain University sanctioned activities; or religious obligations and observances. Makeups under these circumstances will not be penalized with prior notice or documentation. Scheduling a plane flight before the seminar ends is not a compelling conflict in schedule and will be penalized. All other makeup requests, especially those requested after the fact or unsupported by documentation, are subject to denial or serious penalty.

Withdrawal Policy:

It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes. Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend classes and, because of the bureaucratic difficulty involved, generally choose not to do so.
Here are the various deadlines: https://www.csulb.edu/enrollment-services/key-dates-and-deadlines.

Accessibility:

It is the student's responsibility to let me know at the beginning of the semester if s/he has a disability that may require accommodation. I am personally committed to making my classes accessible and providing accommodations that will help everyone have the same chance at success. I need to know about the issue at the beginning of the semester, though, so that we can work out a mutually reasonable and satisfying accommodation. For more information on campus support services for disabled students, please check out https://web.csulb.edu/divisions/students/dss/.
Related to accessibility, this course will be set up on BeachBoard to enable convenient contact. You will need to have a CSULB e-mail account to use BeachBoard, however. Announcements and messages from me to the class generally come by e-mail.
The CSULB Technology Help Desk is available for students, by the way. The URL for the Help Desk is https://csulb.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/Home/. Their telephone number is (562) 985-4959.

Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism:

Work that you hand in is reasonably assumed to be original unless your source material is documented appropriately. Using the ideas or words of another person, even a peer, or a web site, as if it were your own, is plagiarism. Simply changing the wording around so that it's not a direct quotation is still plagiarism if you don't give credit to the source of the ideas. If you use the exact wording of your source, enclose the statement in quotation marks or (with longer quotations) indent and single space it and then cite the source and page. When in doubt, cite. Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses: They represent intellectual theft. Doing due diligence makes you look like a professional.
Students should read the section on cheating and plagiarism in the CSULB catalogue, which can be accessed at http://catalog.csulb.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=30.
Furthermore, students should be aware that faculty members have a range of academic actions available to them in cases of cheating and plagiarism. As graduate students, you can reasonably be expected to understand what plagiarism and cheating are and their gravity. I will, accordingly, fail a student in the course. I also may then refer the student to Judicial Affairs for possible probation, suspension, or dismissal. When in doubt, please ask me if you think you're getting into a grey area, and I'll try to help you find the right way to handle it.

Document maintained by Dr. Rodrigue
Last revision: 01/21/19

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