Explores neighborhood, planning issues from the professionals' and citizens' perspectives.

Collaborative Planning for Sustainability asserts that communities can only be sustained ecologically, socially, and economically by community members working together to solve problems. Most people yearn for ways to engage one another productively to care for their environment and their communities. Such caring can engender conflict, but when done well, authentic collaborative planning can transform civic disarray into civic virtue.

Green infrastructure includes water, habitats, parks, soils, and forests essential for healthy communities and building community resiliency. Working in teams, students conduct field work and determine community needs and opportunities for a community's urban forests, water, recreation, and historic and cultural resources. Students then complete a strategic green infrastructure plan for a city.

Adaptation refers to actions taken at the individual, local, regional, and national levels to reduce the risks posed by a changing climate. This course contrasts the theory and academic research of climate adaptation planning with the state of practice in communities around Virginia. Anticipated impacts such as sea level rise, heat waves, and coastal storms will be explored as well as implications for natural ecosystems & urban infrastructure.