Faculty:

Aitazaz Farooque, Associate Professor, Interim Dean
Xiuquan Wang, Professor
Adam Fenech, Associate Professor
Sara Sadri, Associate Professor
Emma Ladouceur, Assistant Professor
Yuliya Rashchupkina, Assistant Professor
Farhat Abbas, Adjunct Professor
Bishnu Acharya, Adjunct Professor
Andrew Clark, Adjunct Professor

The UPEI Bachelor of Science in Applied Climate Change and Adaptation provides students with a strong foundation in climate sciences complemented by courses in climate related policy and cultural impacts of climate change. The program offers strong comprehensive theory-based courses and a high level of experiential and applied learning. Courses are designed to develop well-rounded students who have a high level of climate change science knowledge supported by highly relevant skills needed to utilize climate change related technology. Faculty members teaching within the Bachelor of Science in Applied Climate Change and Adaptation program are focused on providing quality instruction and student growth within a cohort-based learning community. Graduates of the program will emerge ready to pursue various climate change related careers, professional studies, or graduate education.

This program of study examines “climate change adaptation” which refers to the adjustments that societies or ecosystems make to limit the negative effects of climate change or to take advantage of opportunities provided by a changing climate. Adaptation can range from a farmer planting more drought-resistant crops to a coastal community evaluating how best to protect its infrastructure from rising sea level. Climate change is already impacting societies and ecosystems around the world, and many impacts are expected to increase as global temperatures continue to rise. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is required to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, a certain amount of global warming is inevitable, due to the long-lasting nature of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, and to heat already stored in the oceans. Adapting to the changes that are already underway, and preparing for future climate change, can help reduce the risks societies will face from climate change.

REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLIED CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION

Students following this degree program must complete 120/121 semester hours of required courses. (NOTE: As per Academic Regulation #1 h), all undergraduate degree programs require successful completion of IKE-1040 and a Writing Intensive Course.)   

YEAR 1

• ACC 1010 Introduction to Climate Change and PEI’s Living Lab
• ACC 1020 Introduction to Climate Adaptation Tools and Technologies
• BIO 1010 Current Issues in Environmental Biology
• CHEM 1110 General Chemistry I
• MATH 1120 Calculus for Managerial, Social and Life Sciences; or 1910 Single Variable Calculus I
• IKE 1040 Indigenous Teachings of Turtle Island
• Four Electives

YEAR 2

• ACC 2020 Climate Change Policy and Politics
• ACC 2030 Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change
• ACC 3050 Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies
• CS 1910 Computer Science I
• ENV 2120 Earth’s Physical Environment
• PHYS 2630 Climate Physics
• STAT 1910 Introduction to Probability and Statistics
• Three electives

YEAR 3

• ACC 3010 Global Climate Systems and Science
• ACC 3030 Climate Change Monitoring
• ACC 3040 Climate Change Statistics in R
• ACC 3100 Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity and Ecosystems
• ACC 3120 Climate Change Policy in Canada
• Four Electives

SUMMER SESSION

• ACC 3160 Work Integrated Learning II

YEAR 4

• ACC 4010 Climate Coastal Science
• ACC 4040 Virtual Reality and Climate Change
• ACC 4060 Measuring Carbon Footprint and Accounting
• ACC 4080 Climate Change Impacts and, Mitigation and Adaptation
• ACC 4090 Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism
• ACC 4120 International Climate Diplomacy
• ACC 3060 Geospatial Analysis for Climate Change and its Management
• ACC 4100 Precision Agriculture for Climate Resilience
• Two electives

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN APPLIED CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION

Students may obtain a degree with a minor in Climate Change and Adaptation by successfully completing the following courses:

• ACC 1010
• ACC 1020
• ACC 2020
• ACC 2030
• ACC 3050

AND

Two of the ACC 3rd or 4th year courses excluding following courses:

• ACC 3160
• ACC 3040
• ACC 4040

APPLIED CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION COURSES

1010 INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND PEI’S LIVING CLIMATE LAB
This course focuses on how Prince Edward Island is the perfect “living laboratory” for understanding the causes, impacts, and solutions to the challenge of climate change. Students will examine how unique locations on the Island can play a role in understanding the vulnerability, impacts and adaptation to climate change.
One hour lecture, four hours field/laboratory a week; Three semester hours

1020 INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE ADAPTATION TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
This course provides hands-on experience in utilizing technologies to develop solutions to address climate change. Developing skills in drone technology, video game programming, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, surveillance, and renewable energies, this course examines how technologies can assist in the understanding of the vulnerability, impacts and adaptation to climate change.
Two hours lecture, two hours laboratory a week; Three semester hours

2020 CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AND POLITICS
This course surveys how climate change emerges as a political issue; which state and non-state actors are involved in climate change policy making; who gains and who loses from climate change policies; and what policy strategies and tools can mitigate and help adapt to the impacts of climate change across different government jurisdictions. The students will learn about dealing with complexity in climate policymaking including the questions around political economy of decarbonization and international cooperation around the issue. By studying different approaches to climate change policy, the students will better understand the policymaking process.
Three hours a week; Three Semester hours.

2030 INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
This course brings knowledge of Canadian Indigenous communities’ relationship to the environment as valuable lessons for understanding climate vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. Students will be led by a local First Nations teacher whose valuable insights to implementing efficient uses of our land and spiritual relationships with nature can assist in addressing global sustainability.
Cross-listed with IKE 2030
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

3010 CLIMATE SYSTEM MODEL
The course will introduce the energy budget balance for the Earth’s climate system, the greenhouse effects and global warming, how human activities contribute to global warming, and the main climate feedback loops. Students will also be introduced to global climate models and regional climate models, as well as some simple climate models to help understand the causal effects of increasing greenhouse emissions on global warming. The course will also examine greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and their driving of climate models as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Emission Scenarios and the new approaches to future scenarios.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1020
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

3030 CLIMATE CHANGE MONITORING
Students will be given the opportunity to understand how the components of climate are monitored instrumentally, the history of written climate archives, and how climate records are organized. They will plan and set up a climate station that reports to a UPEI climate database, access online climate records, quality control climate records, analyze climate trends, and calculate climate indices.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1020
Three hours lecture, three hours laboratory a week; Three semester hours

3040 CLIMATE CHANGE STATISTICS IN R
The R language is widely used among climatologists for data analysis and provides a wide variety of statistical and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible. This course will provide an introduction to computer programming in R and how to use R for effective climate data analysis, such as linear regression, logistic regression, classification and clustering, trend detection, extreme value fitting, return period analysis, etc.
PREREQUISITE: MATH 1910 or MATH 1120, CS 1910 and STAT 1910
Three hours lecture, three hours laboratory; Three semester hours

3050 RENEWABLE ENERGY AND CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES
This course examines sustainability theory and green technology, beginning with an examination of the historical context for the physical, environmental, technological, economic and political aspects of traditional energy systems and energy transitions. Students will then be introduced to different types of renewable energy technology and how they can work as a replacement for conventional technologies.
PREREQUISITE: PREREQUISITE: Admission to the Applied Climate Change and Adaptation degree program OR enrollment in the Applied Climate Change and Adaptation Minor
Three hours a week, field trips; Three semester hours

3060 GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS MANAGEMENT
This course introduces and integrates concepts in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) for climate change studies, adaptation, and management. Students will learn and combine GIS and RS techniques to address a climate change issue in PEI, Canada, and globally. GIS techniques such as spatial model & analysis, Geographical Positioning Systems, coordinate systems, image classification, and suitability mapping will be explored. RS topics such as image acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and collection using drones and satellite-based platforms, environmental monitoring using vegetative ratios, land use classification, and change will be explored. This course will have a laboratory hands-on experience component, where students will apply these techniques in analyzing impacts of climate change, such as change detection due to deforestation, flooding, or wildfire due to climatic extremes.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1020
Three hours lecture, three hours laboratory per week; Three semester hours

3100 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS
This course will assess biodiversity conservation and ecosystem integrity policy responses to global climate change; integrate our knowledge of likely future changes on biodiversity and ecosystems; guide the design of adaptation strategies; and establish a framework for future collaborative research on climate change and biodiversity and ecosystems.
PREREQUISITE: BIO 1010
Three hours a week with three hours field/laboratory work; Three semester hours

3120 CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY IN CANADA
The course focuses on Canadian domestic and international policy and politics in the realm of climate change examining the questions of political institutions; climate change related legislation; policy making and the impacts of climate change on economy, communities and the environment in Canada. The course will also introduce students to a policy analysis framework and will guide them through writing a policy memo to a government official on a climate change solution of their choice.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 2020
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

3160 WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING
This course can be taken in Year 2 or Year 3 and is a summer work-integrated-learning (WIL) opportunity facilitated through either a flagship partnership agreement with Parks Canada, or a number of government and industrial organizations that will provide real world experiences to students that will assist them in securing employment upon graduation.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the ACC Program
Twelve weeks full-time work experience; Three semester hours

4010 CLIMATE COASTAL SCIENCE
This course will examine the impacts of global climate change on the oceans and their implications on fisheries and aquaculture; the influence of ocean basins on climate and the development of coasts; and the use of littoral zones in the assessment of the effects of coastal risks and hazards on shorelines. Students will assess the vulnerability of the local fishery to climate impacts and develop adaptation options.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1010

4040 VIRTUAL REALITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
An emerging approach to enhancing participation and building awareness is the use of 3D landscape visualization to depict past and future scenarios. Following an introduction on the basics and essentials of the Unity gaming software, students will use the imagery data acquired by the drone in ACC 3040 to develop a 3D interactive sea-level rise tool.
PREREQUISITE: CS 1910 and ACC 3040
Three lecture hours, three hours laboratory per week; Three semester hours

4060 MEASURING CARBON FOOTPRINT AND ACCOUNTING
This course explores greenhouse gas emissions accounting and reporting, equipping students with the skills to design and conduct emissions inventories and propose mitigation strategies. Key topics include defining analysis boundaries, acquiring data, calculating emissions, and preparing reports. Students will also assess the carbon footprint of selected businesses, companies, or public organizations. Students will learn about the role of climate change in business, introducing carbon pricing systems, adaptation strategies, and the integration of climate considerations into risk assessments.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1010
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

4080 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS, MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
This course will explore different types of climatic changes and climate extreme events, and their potential impacts from multiple perspectives, such as loss of biodiversity, impacts on agriculture and food security, water scarcity, human health, economic consequences, etc. Furthermore, students will quantify human sources of greenhouse gas emissions to determine the best approaches for meeting a “safe” or “below dangerous level” of atmospheric concentrations of these gases, which will help cushion the impacts. Students will also use regional & global scenarios of future climate change, and the guidelines set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to rapidly assess climate change potential adaptation strategies for the PEI & worldwide economy and ecology.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1010 and ACC 1020
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

4090 CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Students will develop an awareness of the environmental, socio‐cultural and economic impacts of tourism; study the possible measures to redress the negative impacts of tourism; develop an appreciation of environmental sustainability in tourism; examine the concept of ecotourism; and incorporate the principles of sustainable tourism into developing and managing tourism destinations and products.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 3140
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

4100 Precision Agriculture for Climate Resilience
This course explores the role of precision agriculture in developing climate resilience in North American agricultural systems. Students will work on hands-on projects, engage in discussions, and collaborate to explore adaptive strategies and innovative solutions to promote sustainable food production. The course also emphasizes developing both technical and professional skills for effective problem-solving in real-world contexts, preparing students for practical application in the field.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 1010
3 Credit Hours

4110 CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN HEALTH
This course will explore how human health is shaped by environmental, social, cultural, economic, and political forces; investigate the impact of systems put in place to deal with illness; examine the influence of climate change on vector borne diseases, mental health, chronic health, prenatal health, and food security; and understand First Nations approaches to human health and community well-being.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 2030
Three semester hours

4120 INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE DIPLOMACY This course provides an historical and analytical view for understanding international environmental relations, examines international environmental agreements and their implications for Canada, identifies the main actors and how they address global environmental problems, and explores environmental governance. Students will take on the role of countries in the United Nations and negotiate a climate agreement.
PREREQUISITE: ACC 2020
Three hours a week; Three semester hours

4130 SPECIAL TOPICS
A Special Topics course designed to reflect Climate Change.
3 credit hours

4150 DIRECTED STUDIES
These courses may be offered at the discretion of the department to advanced students. Conditions under which they are offered and entry will be subject to the approval of the Associate Dean of the School and the Dean of Science. (See Academic Regulation 9 for regulations Governing Directed Studies)
3 credit hours