Offered By	ANU College of Law, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU Joint Colleges of Science, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, ANU College of Business and Economics, and ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Academic Contact	Dr Rob Dyball
Areas of Interest	Environmental Studies, Geography, Human Ecology, Interdisciplinary Studies - Sustainability, Policy Studies, and Resource Management and Environmental Science

Human Ecology is an explicitly transdisciplinary major that addresses a key issue of the 21st Century, the maintenance of the health and well-being of our planet's ecosystems in the face of the socio-cultural demands placed on them. The major is open to undergraduates with a wide range of first year backgrounds.

The foundation course, ENVS2011 Human Ecology, provides an introduction to the fundamental linkages between social and ecological systems that all humans live within. The course introduces dynamic system thinking as a means of understanding how these coupled systems behave. Core courses ENVS2012 Sustainable Systems: Urban and ENVS2022 Sustainable Systems: Rural are offered in alternate years. Each applies dynamic systems approaches to understanding issues of sustainability in their respective domain and their linkages with human health and wellbeing. Third year courses in the program, ENVS3040 Solving Complex Environmental Problems and ENVS3023 Human Futures are complementary and are designed to engage students in the practice of collaborative, integrative, multidisciplinary research needed for the exploration of any human social or ecological system and for creating viable human futures. This may include the chance undertake project work with a range of government, NGO and private sector organisations.

This major provides the opportunity to develop the experience and skills to

• understand the complex, multi-scaled interactions that characterize human-ecological situations and their associated problems;
• apply advanced systems thinking to understand human-ecological problems in terms of more basic, simple and easily grasped concepts and processes;
• apply critical methodological approaches to evaluate current human-ecological interactions and to critically evaluate proposed alternatives;
• apply a range of written, oral and visual communication skills to effectively convey and discuss information about human-ecological change processes; and
• demonstrate the ability to engage with community, government or private institutions and companies that are engaged with managing and improving human-ecological interactions across a range of scales.

Requirements

A minimum of 42 units of courses, including:

a. no more than 12 units of first year ANTH, ARCH, BIOL, ENVS, SCNC or SOCY courses

b. ENVS2011 Human Ecology and one or both of

• ENVS3023 Human Futures
• ENVS3040 Solving Complex Environmental Problems

c. at least 6 units from:

• BIOL2191 Ecology of Health and Disease
• ENVS2004 Weather, Climate and Fire
• *ENVS2009 Quantitative Methods & Applications in Environment
• ENVS2012 Sustainable Systems: Urban
• ENVS2013 Society and Environmental Change
• *ENVS2014 Qualitative Methods for Sustainability
• ENVS2020 Hydrology and Landforms for Natural Resource Management
• ENVS2021 Vegetation and Soils: Co-evolution and Ecology
• ENVS2022 Sustainable Systems: Rural

d. at least 6 units from:

• ENVS3007 Participatory Resource Management
• ENVS3028 Environmental Policy
• ENVS3033 International Environmental Policy 
• ENVS3039 Biodiversity Conservation in Modified Landscapes
• *ENVS3040 Solving Complex Environmental Problems

Note that students are required to take at least 18 units of 3000-coded courses for this major.

* Students pursuing this major must include at least one of the starred courses.

Fenner School Course and Major Advice

Students considering taking fourth-year Honours in the Fenner School, or enrolled in a direct-entry Honours degree program and studying in the Fenner School, are expected to take ENVS3040 Solving Complex Environmental Problems.  This course may be included in an appropriate major or taken as part of the degree more generally.

First Year Course Advice

Students choose two courses from ENVS1001, ENVS1008, BIOL1003, BIOL1008 or SCNC1001.

Students seeking further advice on appropriate course selections are invited to consult the convener of the Human Ecology major.

The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.