Environmental science

Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary study and research that specifically focuses on the human environment and the impact of human activities on the environment. Due to the traditional subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics, which have played a major role in the development, environmental sciences are a part of the natural sciences.

Subregions

Depending on the focus, there are many natural and social scientific disciplines that are involved in the environmental sciences. The following list is therefore not exhaustive, but lists only the most important areas of expertise:

  • Soil Science
  • Botany
  • Geology
  • Hydrology
  • Climatology
  • Oceanography
  • Meteorology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Environmental Geology
  • Environmental Communication
  • Environmental Medicine
  • Environmental Law
  • Environmental Physics
  • Ecopsychology
  • Environmental Sociology
  • Zoology

In addition to these subjects, the participate both actively and passively, there are a number of auxiliary sciences, be supportive, like all disciplines, from environmental science itself does not get detected searchingly. These include statistics ( mathematics), social sciences, psychology and computer science. Especially the subject computer science has a high priority because without his help would not be possible to capture complex systems.

The central library for the branches of environmental science in Germany, the ZB MED at its location in Bonn.

Research and application areas

Due to the cross-curricular and subject- interlocking work of environmental science, there are many specialists in research, teaching and practice, which are mostly active in the following areas.

  • Waste Management
  • Contaminated Sites
  • Species and habitat protection
  • Soil Science
  • Pollution Control
  • Circular economy
  • Agriculture
  • Landscape Planning
  • Conservation
  • Policy
  • Water

The environmental science will focus on examining the Human-influenced natural systems, but also describe the regularities of a largely uninfluenced by man-made environment. So it is concerned, for example, to from the perspective of geologists with the anthropogenic pollution of ground water, biologists with the impact of pollutants on living organisms, physicists and physicians with the effects of radiation on living organisms, a chemist with the behavior of pollutants. Engineering edit environmental science topics in the form of environmental technology. Cultural studies work with the environmental sciences by dealing with the social perception of environmental issues ( Environmental Sociology ) or with the history of environmental protection and environmental awareness ( environmental history ). Also humanities deal with the environment, for example by formulating its own environmental ethics. In the law and economics the areas of environmental law and environmental management systems are becoming increasingly important. At the intersection of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, the geography deals with the human-environment relationship. Skilled scientists of different disciplines and interdisciplinary training environmental scientists (see courses) then deal from the aforementioned angles with the following questions:

  • Current environmental changes such as global warming
  • Social impact of environmental changes
  • Pollution and environmental damage
  • Environmental impact assessment
  • Reconstruction of past environments

Courses

Environmental Science is offered in courses of college and universities. Depending on the focus to include the subjects of environmental chemistry, environmental physics, biology (ecology, botany and zoology ), environmental computer science, environmental management, communications, environmental law, criminal law, administrative law, European law and construction law. Focus and affiliation of the course of study at a department or a faculty varies depending on the university. More scientific studies in environmental sciences are geo-ecology and landscape ecology. In the courses of study Environmental Sciences barely represented, but also belonging to the environmental sciences, the applied environmental engineering, environmental engineering, and thus the field of Environmental Systems Research. The latter area is based on a combination of technical engineering, social science and applied social research ( empiricism ) of the seventies and the increasing since the 1980s computer science from mathematics. The Environmental Systems Research covers insights and trends of the environmental movement, which have been included in many academic and practical disciplines. Highlighted Done and to rely in particular the University of Kassel / University of Kassel and the University of Bielefeld. Protagonists this time are in the dualism of research sociologist Niklas Luhmann and system researchers and planners in the economics of Lucius Burckhardt. Basis for understanding the Umweltsystemik, the sciences and the natural sciences also supplied the German artist Joseph Beuys. In Kassel for the tiered diploma study model was associated with practice- oriented fundamental research and application development ( Kassel model ( study) ). A Study of Environmental Systems Science is offered at universities in Graz, Klagenfurt and Osnabrück.

Germany

In Germany, the courses have been offered since the beginning of the 1990s, graduating with a diploma and have now been converted for the purposes of such recognition to the Bachelor and Master degrees. The subject is, inter alia, offered at the following universities (selection):

  • University of Bielefeld
  • University of Bremen
  • Goethe University
  • Ernst- Moritz- Arndt University of Greifswald
  • University of Koblenz -Landau
  • University of Lüneburg
  • Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
  • University of Trier

Since 2000, there is in the area of ​​distance and continuing education teaching the course Interdisciplinary distance learning Environmental Sciences ( infernum ), as a cooperation of the University of Hagen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen.

Austria

In Austria, courses are offered as individual graduate studies since the early 1990s at the University of Graz. Since the academic year 2003/2004 the program in Environmental Systems Science is run as a bachelor's and master's program.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, the program in Environmental Science was introduced in 1987 at the ETH Zurich. Reason for this was also the environmental disasters at Chernobyl in April 1986 and Swiss Hall in October 1986.

Pedology (soil study) Ecoinformatics
791367
de