Urban Watershed Management

LWS/SOIL 516 001 - Winter Term 1

Instructor: Julie Wilson (Email: julie.wilson@ubc.ca)

Office Hours: By appointment

Course Structure 

As a blended course offering, students can expect to interact with the course materials, instructor and other students both asynchronously (on your own schedule, from different locations), and synchronously (in the classroom, during scheduled class time). The course has the following components:

• All course information is posted on Canvas, which contains announcements, discussion boards, links to readings and resources, etc.

• The Canvas Course Modules are supplemented by a required in-class* Discussion Period on Tuesday afternoons, 12:30 - 2:00pm, at UBC’s Point Grey campus in ORCH 4002 (Orchard Commons building, 6363 Agronomy Road).

• Prior to each Tuesday discussion, there will be pre-assigned readings and activities organized in the Modules for students to complete in preparation. There may be short recorded lecture videos; readings including journal articles, book chapters, course e-Textbook material and grey literature; questions to prepare for discussions in-class, and more.
• Assignments will be posted and submitted through Canvas. See Assessment and Grading for more information.

*What if I cannot attend the In-class Discussion?

Please do not worry if you find you must miss a discussion session. All course materials will be available to students via Canvas. Many discussion periods will have a follow-up question/activity online providing an alternative means of participation, within a given time frame. All assignments are shared and submitted via Canvas.

Make a connection early in the term to another student or group of students in the class. You can help each other by sharing notes. If you don't yet know anyone in the class, post on the Canvas discussion forum to connect with other students. You can also make an appointment with the instructor either in-person or virtually, if you have a question.

IMPORTANT: If you are feeling unwell, please DO NOT come to class. This is to protect the health and well-being of all students, staff and faculty at UBC. Please send an email before the scheduled Discussion to inform me if you are unable to attend (julie.wilson@ubc.ca).

Learning Objectives

• Review and describe how biophysical watershed processes respond to urbanization, including those that affect water quantity, quality and aquatic ecosystem health.
• Discuss principles of watershed effects, and the dynamics between watershed monitoring, indicators, references and assessment.
• Analyze a problem and investigate alternative beneficial management practices to mitigate the impacts of urbanization on aquatic ecosystems and water resources.
• Evaluate management decisions and how they affect, and are affected by, biophysical, socioeconomic, governance/policy components and processes in the urban watershed system.
• Integrate principles or concepts from different disciplines in urban watershed management, through written and oral communication.

By the end of the course, students should have a sound knowledge base on the biophysical processes, impacts, and beneficial management practices in urban watersheds. It is expected that course participants who are involved in developing and implementing a watershed management plan will be able to directly apply the course concepts to their activities.

Assessments of Learning

The Urban Watershed Management course has the following assessment components:

For more information, visit Assessment and Grading.

Prerequisites

There are no course prerequisites. As this is a graduate-level course, a Bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as environmental sciences, engineering, planning, geography or biology is recommended. Academic or professional experience related to land and water resource management in an urban context is desirable. Fourth-year undergraduate students may contact the instructor to request course registration permission.

University Policies

UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious, spiritual and cultural observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions.

Details of the policies and how to access support are available on the UBC Senate website.

Academic Integrity

The academic enterprise is founded on honesty, civility, and integrity. As members of this enterprise, all students are expected to know, understand, and follow the codes of conduct regarding academic integrity. At the most basic level, this means submitting only original work done by you and acknowledging all sources of information or ideas and attributing them to others as required. This also means you should not cheat, copy, or mislead others about what is your work.

The use of generative artificial intelligence tools is strictly prohibited in all course assignments unless explicitly stated otherwise. This includes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools and programs.

Violations of academic integrity (i.e., misconduct) lead to the breakdown of the academic enterprise, and therefore serious consequences arise and harsh sanctions are imposed. For example, incidences of plagiarism or cheating may result in a mark of zero on the assignment or final exam and more serious consequences may apply if the matter is referred to the President’s Advisory Committee on Student Discipline. More information about what constitutes plagiarism can be found here in this helpful infographic.

All Discussion posts and Assignments must be written in your own words. All submissions will be scanned for plagiarism using TurnItIn. When submitting your work, it is recommended that students run a similarity report to review your writing.