Florida International University
AC-4: Graduate Program

The Department offers an environmental studies graduate degree in a Master of Sciences in areas of environmental policy, natural resource science and management, and sustainable development, with particular focus on the South Florida region, the Caribbean Basin, and Latin America. An emphasis of the program is the cultural and political milieu in which environmental issues of the region are embedded. In addition, students may select a concentration in the regional geology of Southern Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America, including problems related to the above-mentioned fields.

Offered by the Department of Earth and Environment, PSM-EPM focuses on diverse areas of environmental policy and management, including conservation biology, water resource management,public land management, and environmental analysis using GIS and statistical methods. Students will have access to state-of-the-art labs and instrumentation through their participation in handson workshops taught by expert faculty. Students will also have opportunities to interact with established environmental policy and management practitioners through guest speakers, classroom visits and field visits. PSM-EPM is ideal for current practitioners interested in career and leadership development, and for students looking to launch careers in the private and public sectors, international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

The goal of the Graduate Certificate in Water, Environment, and Development Studies is to provide students with a multidisciplinary education in the occurrence, characteristics, and management of water resources in South Florida and internationally. Students will learn about the natural occurrence and dynamics of surface and ground water, the key biological and chemical factors affecting water resource quality, and the fundamental linkages between water and development. The graduate certificate program promotes an integrated understanding of the theoretical and practical elements of water resources management.

This graduate certificate is an interdisciplinary program focused on various environmental issues that is analogous to the undergraduate Certificate in Environmental Studies. It is aimed primarily at graduate students in Politics and International Relations, Economics, and Global and Sociocultural Studies as well as those doing an environmental concentration or track in graduate programs in Tourism, Liberal Studies, Journalism, Education (particularly Parks and Recreation Management), and Latin American Studies. The Certificate Program provides an analytic basis for understanding local, regional and global environmental problems and their solutions.

The Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems provides students with an interdisciplinary background in GIS. The program consists primarily of graduate level courses in Geographic Information Systems with electives in related disciplines such as Biology, Civil Engineering, Environmental Studies, Geography, Geoscience, International Relations, Landscape Architecture, Sociology, Public Health, and Urban Planning. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a set of computer hardware and software used to organize, manipulate, and analyze maps and spatial data. GIS is a rapidly developing technology that can be applied to many areas of the natural and social sciences. Applications areas include: Architecture, Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Public Health, and Urban Planning. There is an increasing demand for GIS specialists in the job market as a result of advancements in information technology, and the development of spatial/geographic database management programs.