Concentrations > ECSD

Environmental Conservation, Sustainability and Development Concentration (ECSD)

Geographic science graduates trained in resource analysis, environmental conservation and sustainable development have obtained jobs with local, state and federal governments, non-profit organizations, and for-profit agencies. Organizations hire geographers to work in environmental and land use planning, resource management (including hydrology, forestry and soil conservation), area or regional specialties, international business, community development, and development of human and natural resources in foreign nations. Many geographic science graduates move on to graduate degrees (master's and Ph.D.) and become educators in higher education (community colleges and universities) or obtain other higher level positions in both the private and public sector.

Private environmental organizations and consulting firms, as well as government agencies, have all hired students completing the environmental studies concentration at JMU. Principal employers include the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey and non-profit organizations including the Nature Conservancy and Peace Corps. Particularly marketable for JMU geographic science graduates is the combination of experiences in the environmental geographies and AGIS.

In addition to the Geography Core requirements, students in the ECSD Concentration must complete the following coursework.

ECSD Concentration Requirements

---

Required Courses	Description	Credit Hours
GEOG 320	Human Dimensions of Global Change	3
GEOG 470	Senior Seminar in ECSD (choose one of the options listed below) *	3
Global Biodiversity
Politics of the Environment
Global Perspectives on Population
Sustainability
Principles and Theories of Sustainable Communities
* GEOG 429 also satisfies this requirement

ECSD Cognate courses (Choose 3 credit hours from the following)

---

Courses	Description	Credit Hours
GEOG 310	Environmental Issues
GEOG 331	Geography of Virginia
GEOG 339	Geography of Caribbean
GEOG 365	Cartography and Geospatial Visualization	3
GEOG 366	Geographic Information Science	3
GEOG 380	Cultural Geography
GEOG 385	Principles of Remote Sensing	3
GEOG 407	Forest Ecology
GEOG 429	Sustainability in Ecological Perspective

ECSD elective courses (12 credit hours selected from four of the following)

---

These 300-level courses are identified on their concentration form, which will be reviewed and approved by the ECSD committee.  Other courses may substitute for one of the electives with approval of the ECSD committee.

Course	Description
GEOG 300	Population Geography
GEOG 311	Endangered Environments
GEOG 315	Field Studies
GEOG 322	Agricultural Systems
GEOG 325	Environmental Ethics
GEOG 327	Climatology
GEOG 332	Geography of Europe
GEOG 333	Geography of Russia and the Former Soviet Union
GEOG 334	Geography of East Asia
GEOG 335	Geography of Africa
GEOG 336	Geography of North America
GEOG 337	Geography of Latin America
GEOG 338	Geography of the Philippines
GEOG 340	Biogeography
GEOG 341	Wilderness Techniques
GEOG 342	Management and Protection of Natural Resources
GEOG 343	Wildlife Management
GEOG 344	Economic Geography and Development Issues
GEOG 345	Geography of Poverty
GEOG 350	Topics in Geography
GEOG 375	Political Geography
GEOG 376	Urban Geography
ISAT 425	Environmental Hydrology