Courses

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University

Gazipur, Bangladesh

 For MS Program

Minimum Course Requirement for M.S.Degree¹

¹Degree requirements may be changed on the recommendation of BOS and the Student’s Advisory Committee

²Approved by the Student’s Advisory Committee

Course outlines (For MS program)

 1.      BES 501 Principles of Environmental Science (3 cr.): Concept, scope and importance of environment and environmental science; Environmental components and classification, ecology and ecosystem; Major environmental issues; Environmental contaminants, sources, types, impacts; Biodiversity and conservation; Environmental law; Environmental ethics.

2.      BES 510 Environmental Pollution and Agriculture (3 cr.):  Introduction on Environmental Science, components, ecosystem and ecosystem services; Concept on environmental pollution, contaminants and pollutants, types of pollutants,  description, sources, uses and toxicities of different air, water and soil pollutants; NOx, SOx, POPs and their characteristics and nature of pollutions; Pollution – concept, characteristics, types, causes, nature and mode of pollution, impact of pollution in ecosystems and its mitigations and managements.

3.      BES 515 Agroclimatology (3 cr.): Climatology – concept, scope; Atmosphere – concept, nature, division; Weather and Climate- concept, component and impacts; Metrology and Micrometeorology – concept, scope, importance, application; Heat and temperature – solar radiation, radiation budget, variability and distribution; Water resources – rainfall, precipitation, water budget, water conservation, water cycle; Climate, vegetation and soils – climatic variation with latitude, longitude and altitude distribution of flora & fauna, Climate change – concept, climate trends, cycles, theories of changes, drivers and forecasting.

4.      BES 521 Ecology (3 cr.): Concept, types, component, classification of ecology; Ecosystem –  structure, function, services, cut-off, drivers, energy flow and biogeochemical cycles of ecosystem, food web/chains, energy flow; Succession;  Population and Community Ecology.

5.      BES 525 Wastes Management (3 cr.):  Concept, characteristics, types, problems associated with wastes, management, treatment, disposal and recycling of wastes, benefit of wastes, value addition of the wastes products.

6.      BES 531 Wastewater Treatment and Disposal (3 cr.): Introduction on water and wastewater, significance, nature, sources, causes, types and quality of wastewaters; Generation scale of wastewater, comparative studies of the features of Bangladesh with other countries; Impact on soils, crop, aquatic lives and ground water. Treatment: scope, importance, types, problem, mechanism; Disposal: concept, scope, problem, mechanism of disposal etc.

7.      BES 535 Environmental Microbiology (3 cr.): Concept, scope and importance;  Microbes – classification, roles of microbes in environment; microbial ecology, bioassay; Microbial pollution – soil, water, living organisms etc; Microbial remediation – concept, importance, mechanisms etc;  Environmental friendly uses of microbes – biodegradation, biofertilizer, biopesticides, enzyme production, biogeochemical transformation etc.

8.      BES 541 Global Warming and Climate Change (3 cr.): Global warming – Concept and overview; Green house gases, their nature and properties in global warming; Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, chloroflurocarbons (CFC), depletion of ozone and chemistry; gas cycles, modeling effect of global temperature; Global warming management – sources of emission gases and possible ways of reducing emission;  Climate Change – concept and overview, impacts on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, animals, humans and pests; adaptation and mitigation etc.

9.      BES 545 Environmental Hazards and Disaster Management (3 cr.): Concept and overview, features, classification, factors, potential processes, dimension of disaster; exposure and impact of various natural hazards, geoenvironmental problems identification and risk management, frame work for risk based site management; Major hazards and disasters in Bangladesh aspects – River erosion, Flood, Drought, Salinity, Cyclone and its causes & possible management; Earthquake – seismological aspect, magnitude, intensity and frequency of earthquake, earthquake caused by human activities, seismic risk in geotechnical earthquake engineering and earthquake hazard reduction; Coastal hazard and disaster management – types and levels of costal hazard, adjustment of hazard, warning and forecasting system; Disaster and hazard reduction – scope of mitigation, mitigation methods, risk reduction model, institution, early warning information, GIS based disaster technology.

10.  BES 575 Organic Agriculture & Food Security (3 cr.): Organic Agriculture – Concept, history, scope, importance,demand and principles; Organic food production: concept, scope in Bangladesh, organic vs conventional food production, problem of organic food production; Organic farm development: technique, preparation, using resources, management, certification etc; Food Security – Concept, importance, necessity, present status in Bangladesh; Food contamination and adulteration: present status, organic toxicants in food, public health; organic farming vs food security, methods/techniques to ensure secured food for public interest.

11.  BES 601 Environmental Chemistry (3 cr.): Concept and scope, relationship with other chemical sciences; the atmosphere and atmospheric chemistry, chemistry of hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, element cycles, sources, fate and effects of chemicals in the environment emphasis on contemporary problems in living organisms and the environment; Chemistry of polutants; Analytical techniques-optical method of analysis, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, potentiometer, HPLC, GC, ion chromatography.

12.  BES 605 Remediation of Environmental Contaminants (3 cr.): Overview, importance, sources, types and causes of environmental pollution; types of wastes, remediation, methods (Ex situ and In situ: physical, chemical and biological), Bioremediation: bioseparation and biosorption; Phytoremediation: rhizofiltration, phytoextraction, phytostabilization, rhizodegradation, phytodegradation and phytovolatilization; Biofilms: advantages and disadvantages, remediation of wastewater, groundwater; Biochar: soil contaminants, emission of GHG.

13.  BES 610 Environmental Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (3 cr.): Concept, scope, importance, application in pollution control, treatment, mitigation – bioconversion, bioremediation, biotransformation, bioflocculation, biobleaching, bioadsorption, bioabsorption, biodetoxification techniques; Bioengery production; Biomonitoring of pollution, Biosensors in environmental analysis; Pollution control using recombinant DNA technology.

14.  BES 615 Environmental Impact Assessments and Regulations  (3 cr.): Concept, scope and goal of environmental impact assessment (EIA), origin and development of EIA in USA and Bangladesh, role of USEPA in developing the EIA in developing countries, EIA costing, EIA in project planning and implementation; EIA methodology: information collection, identification, prediction, impact assessment, mitigative measures, environmental management plan (EMP) and environmental monitoring, utilization; Environmental regulation and auditing-hazardous waste legislation, protocols, nature of environmental auditing, audit planning, basic component of auditing; Case study of EIA of some developing countries; Role of GIS in EIA baseline study; Risk assessment and risk management: definition, legal frame work, risk evaluation, characterization, risk analysis, industrial issues and health risk etc.

15.  BES/AFE 618 Biodiversity Conservation and Management (3 cr.): Concepts, importance and classification of biodiversity, ecosystem stability, needs for biodiversity, environmental issues related to biodiversity, structure, assessment, depletion, causes of threatening biodiversity, IUCN Red list categories of biological resources, status of the rare and endangered species, CITES lists of rare and endangered plants and animals, biodiversity conservation and preservation, conservation factors, global biodiversity conservation strategies, indicators for different biodiversity and conservation, conservation methods: conservation strategies and action plans, developing monitoring and early warning systems.