LAND 2310 – Introduction to Sustainability (Spring 2022)
My anchor course, Introduction to Sustainability, provided me with an in-depth understanding of environmental issues with an emphasis on human planning and design processes. This course introduced elements related to the health of the physical and biological environment, including ideas related to economic, social, cultural, and political systems.
Before this course, I had never contemplated the environmental impact of various types of land use and landscape design decisions. I now have the background necessary to critically evaluate environmental problems and solutions related to landscape design with an interdisciplinary approach. This course provided me with a more profound understanding of the strong relationship between the built and natural environment. Because this course offered such a wide scope of topics, it allowed me to piece together my understanding of my own role in sustainability and my local environment.
One of the objectives of this course focused on the value of services provided by current ecosystems and the corresponding importance of preserving environmental resources for the future. I included a lab assignment as Artifact #1 where I was assigned to observe a chosen area on UGA’s campus and evaluate the degree it is contributing to the ecosystem services that benefit the campus population. I chose to evaluate the Founders Garden on north campus, as it is my favorite spot to relax during the school day. By focussing on an ecosystem as small as the Founders Garden, this lab assignment reminded me of the importance of recognizing the bigger contributions of the local, regional and global scale of environmental issues.