Urban and Environmental Planning (BS)
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Description
The BS Urban and Environmental Planning program (offered starting in the Fall semester of 2016) is designed to prepare graduates to work as professional planners, geographic information systems (GIS) analysts, and environmental specialists and in related fields. The program will ensure students are trained with cutting-edge geospatial technologies and with a deep knowledge of local and regional sustainability concerns.
The program is unique due to the full integration of geospatial technologies and sustainability throughout the curriculum. Geospatial technologies have been rapidly expanding and evolving in recent years. An abundance of spatially-oriented information is emerging from aerial photography, satellite remote sensing, image processing, global positioning systems (GPS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Geospatial technologies permeate all layers of society with GPS-enabled smartphones, to real-time traffic maps, to increasingly more sophisticated data availability from satellites and other remote sensing sources.
The focus on sustainability will result in a curriculum that incorporates more solutions to some of the world's greatest contemporary challenges, such as uncovering solutions and adaptations to global climate change. Considering the multiple components of sustainability, the program offers the integration of economic development, environmental protection, social priorities and place-based problem solving.
Graduates of the program will be prepared to work in the public, not-for-profit, and public sectors. Whether planners, environmental specialists or GIS analysts, the program provides future practitioners with the knowledge, technical skills, and values to enable them to become effective professionals.