All course information is listed within this syllabus.

CEDEV 567: Resilient Communities and Ecosystems (3 credits). Understanding connections between communities and surrounding ecosystems; exploration of management techniques for building adaptive, resilient, and sustainable communities and environments.

Prerequisites: CEDEV 452 and CEDEV 509

Instructor

Instructor for CEDEV 567.

Frans J.G. Padt, Ph.D.
Teaching Professor

Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education
214 Armsby Building
University Park, PA 16802

Phone (Office): 814-863-8644
E-mail: Use Canvas Inbox

Educational and Professional Background

Frans Padt has more than 25 years of experience in community and regional environmental planning and design as a researcher, educator, policymaker, and consultant. He received his Ph.D. in Political Sciences of the Environment from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands in 2007. Currently, he teaches in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His teaching and research include the political, institutional, and leadership aspects of community and regional environmental planning.

Teaching Experience

  • CED 409 — Land Use Planning and Procedure
  • CED 309 — Land Economics and Policy
  • CED 155 — Science, Technology and Public Policy
  • CED 327 — Environment and Society
  • CEDEV 500 — Community and Economic Development: Theory and Practice
  • CEDEV 509 — Population, Land Use, and Municipal Finance
  • Landscape Architecture Studios and Seminars

Course Overview

This course provides an overview of the connections between communities and their local environments, the institutional barriers and boundaries that guide these relationships, and how both work together in impacting the long-term community and economic development trajectories at multiple scales. The first part of the course will be spent learning about resilience and interlinked social and ecological or social-ecological, systems. We will spend the second portion of the course examining some of the basic tools of social-ecological system management, exploring the basic social, regulatory, and political systems in which social-ecological interactions take place. The third part of the course explores two social-ecological case-studies, where we will discuss in-depth some of the implications of these concepts for community and economic development. In the last part of the course, we will talk about scale and how to manage across scale, as well as how we can work within social and institutional boundaries for resilient, sustainable community development.

Course Objectives

By the end of this CEDEV 567 you should be able to:

  1. Identify basic concepts related to resilience and the role they play in long term sustainability and resilience for communities.
  2. Describe how concepts of community relate to the relationships people have with their local environment.
  3. Critically assess approaches to social-environmental system management.
  4. Analyze the roles of government and regulatory structures on development and change.
  5. Analyze case studies of social-environmental conflicts and apply concepts of resilience and community and economic development toward addressing them.
  6. Work with your own examples to apply concepts and ideas to increase your understanding of the concepts and to aid in understanding change and development, and barriers to change and development.

Course Outline

M1 Course Overview

M2 Resilient Communities and Ecosystems — An Overview

M3 Resilience and Adaptation

M4 Environmental Laws and Regulations

M5 Environmental Planning Part 1 — The Basics

M6 Environmental Planning Part 2 — Land Use

M7 Risk Perception, Communication, and Management

M8 Sustainability from a Resilience Perspective

M9 Natural Resource Dependency

M10 Social and Environmental Justice

M11 Managing Social-Ecological Systems Across Scales

M12 Resilient Communities and Ecosystems — Bringing It All Together

M13 Work Week for Final Project

Course Schedule

For due dates, refer to the Course Summary on the Syllabus page in Canvas.

Course Materials

Most World Campus courses require that students purchase materials (e.g., textbooks, specific software, etc.). To learn about how to order materials, please see the Course Materials page. You should check the World Campus Course Catalog approximately 3–4 weeks before the course begins for a list of required materials.

Required

ISBN: 978-1597267304
Randolph, J. (2011). Environmental Land Use Planning and Management (2nd ed.). Island Press. (E-Book option available)

ISBN: 978-1597260930
Walker, B., & Salt, D. (2006). Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World (1st ed.). Island Press. (E-Book option available)

For pricing and ordering information, please see the Barnes & Noble College website.

Materials will be available at Barnes & Noble College approximately three weeks before the course begins. It is very important that you purchase the correct materials. If your course requires one or more textbooks, you must have exactly the correct text required (edition and year).

Optional

The following textbook is optional and is available for free online on the Sustaining the Commons website.

Anderies, J. M., & Janssen, M. A. (2013). Sustaining the Commons (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity.

E-Book Option

An online version of one or more of your texts is available at no cost as a Penn State Library E-Book. Some E-Books will only be available online, while others will be available to download in full or in part. You may choose to use the E-Book as an alternative to purchasing a physical copy of the text. You can access the E-Book by selecting Library Resources in the Course Navigation Menu, and then selecting the E-Reserves link. For questions or issues, you can contact the University Libraries Reserve Help (UL-RESERVESHELP@LISTS.PSU.EDU).

E-Reserves

This course requires that you access Penn State library materials specifically reserved for this course. You can access these materials by selecting Library Resources in the Course Navigation Menu, or by accessing the Library E-Reserves Search and searching for your instructor's last name.

Note: You must have an active Penn State Access Account and be registered with the University Libraries in order to take full advantage of the Libraries' resources and services. Registration and services are free!

Assignments

Missed Modules and Late Work

Students are expected to turn work in on the dates announced in the course. However, we realize that most of you are working professionals and will on occasion have to do something that will keep you from completing module work on time. If you have a conflict for work, travel, or family, please notify your instructors as soon as you can BEFORE your scheduled conflict. We are willing to work with you, but you have to work with us too! Likewise, this is a privilege and not a right--if we feel you are abusing this privilege, we have the option of not accepting your work for that module or modules.

Grading Policy

The following table is the grading criteria for the course.

Grading Criteria
Requirement Cumulative Point Value Weight Assigned Due
Final Project Proposal 5 5% Module 1 End of Module 6
Final Project 35 35% Module 1 Friday prior to Finals Week
Book/Article Review 10 10% Module 1 End of Module 14
Environmental Law Briefing Project 10 10% Module 4 End of Module 5
Discussions (10) 20 20% Weekly End of week
Rational Middle Reflection 10 10% Module 9 End of Module 9
Ancient Futures Argument 10 10% Module 10 End of Module 10
TOTAL: 100 100% --- ---

The following table is the grading scheme for the course.

Grading Scheme
Letter Grade Percentage
A 100% – 95%
A- < 95% – 90%
B+ < 90% – 86.7%
B < 86.7% – 83.4%
B- < 83.4% – 80%
C+ < 80% – 75%
C < 75% – 70%
D < 70% – 60%
F < 60%

Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Graduate Courses for additional information.

NOTE: If you are planning to graduate this semester, please communicate your intent to graduate to your instructor. This will alert your instructor to the need to submit your final grade in time to meet the published graduation deadlines. For more information about graduation policies and deadlines, please see "Graduation" under World Campus Student Resources.

Online Students Use of the Library

As Penn State World Campus students, you have access to many of the materials that the library offers to students. The library website has a lot to offer, but can be overwhelming. A guide has been created to serve as your introduction to important library resources, services, and important pages within the library. The Online Student Library Guide is updated regularly by the online librarian and is intended to provide a level of comfort through an introduction to help you feel comfortable navigating the library website to find valuable information for your coursework.

Technical Requirements

This course is offered online and it is assumed you possess the minimum system requirements and computing skills to participate effectively. A list of technical requirements is listed on World Campus' Penn State Technical Requirements page.

Minimum Skills

  • You should have an understanding of basic computer usage (creating folders/directories, switching between programs, formatting and backing up media, accessing the internet).
  • You must be able to conduct word processing tasks such as creating, editing, saving, and retrieving documents.
  • You must be able to use a web browser to open web pages, download files, and search the internet.
  • You must be able to use an e-mail program to send and receive messages and to attach and download documents/files.
  • You must be able to download and install programs or plug-ins from the internet.

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In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation. If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus' disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Accommodations for Military Personnel

Veterans and currently serving military personnel and/or spouses with unique circumstances (e.g., upcoming deployments, drill/duty requirements, disabilities, VA appointments, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor in the case that special arrangements need to be made.

Use of Trade Names

Where trade names are used, no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by World Campus, Outreach and Cooperative Extension, the College of Agricultural Sciences, or The Pennsylvania State University is implied.

Subject to Change Statement

Please note that this Course Syllabus is subject to change. Students are responsible for abiding by such changes.

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