URPL-GP 2624: Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond Spring 2018 Tuesdays 4:55 pm 6:35 pm Location: TBD

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1 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service URPL-GP 2624: Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond Spring 2018 Tuesdays 4:55 pm 6:35 pm Location: TBD Atul Pokharel What are the possibilities and limits that communities, broadly conceived, encounter for achieving environmental justice at the intersection of race, class, gender and caste? This course develops a framework for understanding key issues in Environmental Planning and Activism from the perspective of communities, collective action and fairness. Students will also be encouraged to begin developing their own philosophical orientation and toolkit for practice. In the first part, Environmental Justice, we will examine four key debates in the field: fairness of process and outcome; scarcity, renewability and growth; utilitarian ethics and the alternatives; scientific expertise and indigenous knowledge. In the second part, Institutions, we will examine the institutions of state, market, community and their combinations for addressing environmental problems. These comprise the first half of the course. In the second half of the course, Tools, we will learn how to use techniques and strategies of Environmental Planning to address environmental problems. In addition, we will use simulated, role playing exercises to reflect on implementation. While emphasizing the tools of environmental planning, the class will also touch topics such as sustainability, resilience, the local and global commons, environmental impact assessments, urban air quality, climate change adaptation, deep ecology, social ecology, feminist environmental ethics, and digital activism. Learning Objectives At the conclusion of the class, students will be able to: 1. Explain four key debates in the field of environmental planning 2. Articulate their positions with respect to these debates 3. Identify state, market, community and hybrid institutions in practice 4. Understand common techniques and strategies for addressing environmental problems 5. Recognize ways to engage with current and emerging environmental issues Prerequisites URPL-GP 2660 : History and Theory of Planning CORE-GP 1011 : Statistical Methods for Public, Nonprofit and Health Management Assignments There will be periodic assignments, a midterm essay as well as a final essay on a topic of the student s choice. Students will also be expected to participate in in-class role playing simulations. Instructions for all assignments will be provided. 9/25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 1 of 6

2 Course Requirements This course has three requirements. 1. Class Participation: The course depends on active and ongoing participation by all class participants. Class participants are expected to read and discuss the readings on a weekly basis. That means coming prepared to engage the class, with questions and/or comments with respect to the reading. You will be expected to have completed all the required readings before class to the point where you can be called on to critique or discuss any reading. There will also be occasional classroom exercises and simulations. Your engaged participation in all of them all go into your participation grade. Please remember that you will be assigned to a group in each simulation and you will be given a critical role in it. You will also have your own unique preparatory materials. If you miss class on a day of the simulation, your group will not be able to complete it. 2. Assignments: You will be asked to periodically complete homework assignments on the topics taught in lecture. This includes writing short reflection papers on the readings and on the simulations, as well as short take home assignments. 3. Midterm and Final Papers: Instructions will be handed out in class. Grading 20% Assignments 30% Midterm Paper 30% Final Paper 20% Class Participation Grading is not curved. This course will abide by the Wagner School s general policy guidelines on incomplete grades, academic honesty, and plagiarism. It is the student s responsibility to become familiar with these policies. All students are expected to pursue and meet the highest standards of academic excellence and integrity. Please familiarize yourself with the following guidelines: Incomplete Grades: Academic Honesty: Late Policy Extensions will be granted only in case of emergency. This is out of respect to those who have abided by deadlines, despite equally hectic schedules. Papers handed in late without extensions will be penalized one-third of a grade per day. Textbooks These books will be available at the university library and bookstore. Consider purchasing them. 1. Randolph, John. Environmental Land Use Planning and Management. Washington, DC: Island Press, Susskind, Lawrenece. Ed. Environmental Problem-solving. Anthem Press, /25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 2 of 6

3 Optional Reference Books We will refer to these books at times, but there is no need to consider purchasing them. 1. Daniels, Tom, and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning Handbook. Washington, 2. DesJardins, Joseph R. Environmental Ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Role Playing Simulations [Case details will be hidden in the final syllabus. They are included here for review only.] 1. Flooding by Lawrence Susskind, Sarah Hammitt and Jessica Artiles. Harvard Program on Negotiation case studies Long River by Lawrence Susskind and Catherine Ashcraft. Harvard Program on Negotiation case studies Dirty Stuff II by Lawrence Susskind and Jeffrey B. Litwak. Harvard Program on Negotiation case studies Schedule of Topics and Selected Readings Part I: Environmental Justice In this first part, we examine different approaches to environmental justice by asking of them: what is better, ethical, fair and right? January 23 The more the better? Scarcity, renewability and growth 1. Hardin, Garrett The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162(3859): Zimmerman, Michael E. "Deep Ecology, Ecoactivism, and Human Evolution." 3. Schumacher, E.F. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered Fullerton, Don, and Robert Stavins. "How Economists See the Environment." Nature 395 (October 1998): January 30 What is ethical? Utilitarianism and its critics 1. DesJardins, Joseph R. Environmental Ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Selections. 2. Mill, John Stewart, Philip M (Ed.). On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays (Oxford World Classics). London, UK: Hackett, Pearce, David. "An Intellectual History of Environmental Economics." Annual Review of Energy and the Environment: Leonard, Herman B., and Richard J. Zeckhauser. "Cost-Benefit Analysis Defended." In Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works. Edited by David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, February 6 What is fair? Processes, outcomes and practical justice 9/25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 3 of 6

4 1. Dinan, Terry, and Diane Lim Rogers. "Who Gains and Who Pays Under Carbon-Allowance Trading?" Washington, DC: Congressional Budget Office, June DesJardins, Joseph R. Environmental Ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Selections. February 13 Simulation 1 (Long River) : Making a scientifically sound decision. Case prep materials. February 20 What is right? Expert and Indigenous Knowledge 1. Randolph Ch.11 and 12: "Environmental Geospatial Data and Geographic Information Systems," and "Soils, Topography and Land Use." 2. Hayek, F. A The Use of Knowledge in Society. The American Economic Review 35(4): Briggs, John. "The Use of Indigenous Knowledge in Development: Problems and Challenges." Progress in Development Studies 5, no. 2 (2005): Part II: Institutions In this part, we examine three key types of institutions for environmental planning and the relationships between them: communities, market and state. February 27 Communities and the commons 1. Ostrom, Elinor A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science 325(5939): McClosky, Michael. "Local Communities and the management of public forests." Ecology Law Quarterly (1999). 3. Pokharel, Atul. Fairness and Cooperation. Book Manuscript. Excerpts. March 6 State and market institutions 1. David R. Karp, and Clark L. Gaulding. "Motivational Underpinnings of Command-and-Control, Market-Based, and Voluntarist Environmental Politics." Human relations 48, no. 5 (1995): Ackerman, Frank, and Kevin Gallagher. "Getting the Prices Wrong: The Limits of Marketbased Environmental Policy." Global Development and Environment Institute Working Paper Medford, MA: Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute, Harrington, Winston, and Richard D. Morgenstern. "Economic Incentives Versus Command and Control: What's Best for Solving Environmental Problems?" Resources (Fall/Winter 2004): March 13 No Class Spring Break 9/25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 4 of 6

5 Part III: Tools In this part, which takes up the second half of the course, we learn the key tools that planners have at their disposal when planning for the environment at various scales, with different ideas of environmental justice, and in various institutional roles. March 20 The tools of Land use planning 1. Randolph, Ch "Managing Human-Environment Interactions," "Environmental Planning," and Land Use Planning for Environmental Management 2. Susskind, Lawrenece. Ed. Environmental Problem-solving. Anthem Press, Daniels, Tom, and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning Handbook. Washington, March 27 Methods of public collaboration and sustainable design 1. Randolph, Ch "Collaborative Environmental Management and Public Participation," "Land Conservation for Working Landscapes, Open Space and Ecological Protection," and "Design with Nature for People: Sustainable, Livable, and Smart Land Use Development." 2. Singleton, Sarah. "Collaborative Environmental Planning in the American West: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Environmental Politics (2002). 3. Daniels, Tom, and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning Handbook. Washington, April 3 Simulation 2 (Flooding) : Negotiating the Effects of Climate Change Adaptation Case prep materials. April 10 Tools for managing growth and the ecosystem 1. Randolph, Ch "Local Government Smart Growth Management," "Regional, State and Federal Management of Environmentally Sensitive Lands," "Natural Hazard Mitigation," and "Ecosystem and Watershed Management." 2. Daniels, Tom, and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning Handbook. Washington, 3. R. Zimmerman and C. Faris, Infrastructure Impacts and Adaptation Challenges, Chapter 4 in Climate Change Adaptation in New York City: Building a Risk Management Response, New York City Panel on Climate Change 2010 Report, edited by C. Rosenzweig and W. Solecki. April 17 Planning for stormwater management, runoff pollution and groundwater 1. Randolph, Ch "Land Use, Stream Flows and Runoff Pollution," "Stormwater Management and Stream Restoration," and "Land Use and Groundwater." 2. Daniels, Tom, and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning Handbook. Washington, April 24 Simulation 3 (Dirty Stuff II): Regulating Harmful Industrial Waste 9/25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 5 of 6

6 Case prep materials. May 1 Wrapping Up: Landscape Ecology and techniques for Integrated Assessment 1. Randolph, Ch "Landscape Ecology, Urban Forestry and Wetlands," "Land Use, Wildlife Habitats, and Biodiversity," and "Integration Methods for Environmental Land Analysis." 9/25/17 Environmental Planning: Communities, Fairness and Beyond (Spring 2018) Page 6 of 6