Agroecology is a discipline, an agricultural practice, and a political-social movement. Students will attend public lectures by experts from different fields and will reflect on agroecology and its principles. Moreover, students will expand their knowledge with case studies and discuss about the role of agroecology to support sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Biogeochemical cycles in aquataic systems are discussed from a global or regional perspective, important methods to determine reaction rates and pathways are introduced and typical mechansims are discussed on a molecular level.

This course focuses on the technical, economic, and political challenges of dealing with water allocation and pollution problems in large international river systems. It examines ways and means through which such challenges are or can be addressed, and when and why international efforts in this respect succeed or fail.

Students write an individual term paper on technical, economic, and political water challenges in an international context. Coached by one of the instructors, students develop and write a case study that examines ways and means to address a specific challenge, and to evaluate success or failure of international collaboration.

This course introduces plant ecology. Through lectures, exercises and excursions, students will gain a broad vision of the cutting edge topics that are being researched and studied at the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH and WSL. This will be the base for a future dialog between the field of landscape architecture and the field of sciences.

This course introduces the students to interdisciplinary field work in aquatic systems. The aim is to learn modern sampling and analysis methods, to acquire informative data and to analyse the results to answer questions regarding the state and the relevant processes in a given river, lake or groudndwater system.

The course examines rivers and their ecosystems, human impacts, and sustainable management. Students apply interdisciplinary approaches, discuss case studies, and take responsibility in groups by preparing a presentation, moderating a session, and writing a report.

We analyse a lake as a biogeochemical environmental system.1. Catchment: We determine the material loads of in- and outflows and trends in the lake's reservoir2. Sediment archives: We estimate sedimentation rates and reconstruct the environmental history.3. Light and dark: We analyse vertical water profiles and estimate rates of photosynthesis and respiration.

With excursions the students gain insights into scientific as well as practical aspects of various areas in which environmental chemistry and microbiology play a key role. Topics include a.o. waste water treatment, landfills, drinking water purification, impact of agriculture on surface water quality and environmental assessment of synthetic chemicals.

Students work in teams to develop an interdisciplinary question, research the literature required to answer it and create an overview of the scientific facts. On this basis, they then create information material for a non-scientific audience in a selected media form (video or infographic).

The seminar provides an introduction to the ecological, chemical and physical literature in the aquatic sciences. Students present their summary and review of recent or classical papers, they get familiar with on-line access tools and improve their presentation skills.

Students critically assess the economic, social, political, and environmental implications of extracting and using energy resources, metals, and bulk materials along the mineral resource cycle for society. They explore various decision-making tools that support policies and guidelines pertaining to mineral resources, and gain insight into different perspectives from government, industry, and NGOs.

Students integrate their knowledge of mineral resources and technical skills to frame and investigate a commodity-specific challenge faced by countries involved in resource extraction. By own research they evaluate possible policy-relevant solutions, engaging in interdisciplinary teams coached by tutors and experts from natural social and engineering sciences.

The ability to critically evaluate original (scientific) literature and to summarise the information in a succinct manner is an important skill for any student. This course aims to practice this ability, requiring each student to write a term paper of scientific quality on a topic of relevance for research in the areas of biogeochemistry and pollutant dynamics.

This class is the 2nd part of a series and participation is conditional on the successful completion of "Term Paper 1: Writing". The results from the term paper written during the previous term are presented to the other students and advisors and discussed with the audience.

The participants in this seminar for PhD students first acquire basic skills for assessing and explaining success or failure in national and international freshwater management (SS 2005). They then write a paper on a case of their choice and present the results in the second part of the seminar (WS 2005/2006). The focus is on large dams in Africa.

The participants in this seminar first acquire basic skills for assessing and explaining success or failure in national and international freshwater management (HS08). They then write a paper on a case of their choice and present the results in the second part of the seminar (FS09).In HS08, the seminar will take place on:8 and 22 October 20085 and 19 November 20081:15pm - 5:00pm, CHN P.12.

The participants in this seminar for PhD and MSc students first acquire basic skills for assessing and explaining success or failure in national and international freshwater management (HS 2007). They then write a paper on a case of their choice and present the results in the second part of the seminar (FS 2008).

The participants in this seminar for PhD students first acquire basic skills for assessing and explaining success or failure in national and international freshwater management (SS 2006). They then write a paper on a case of their choice and present the results in the second part of the seminar (WS 2006/2007). The focus is on large dams in Africa.

The United Nations Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an opportunity for the international community to shape the course of sustainable development. With their range of expertise, universities can develop the science to help achieving the SDGs. The lectures center on sustainability challenges and provide context from academics and societal actors.