This site teaches students about access to water in Kenya, Ghana, and their own community as they read stories by Peace Corps Volunteers.

Through this unit, students identify how alternatively fueled cars of tomorrow can be used in their community. The unit contains an introductory activity that helps students determine which energy and transportation issues are important to them and their communities, and three research sections about alternative fueled vehicles that address availability and distribution; emissions and health; and operation, maintenance, and refueling. With each lesson, students discover another social, scientific, or technical aspect of cutting-edge automotive technologies and fuels. PDF file.

For South Africa, finding a policy approach that balances the increasing demand for energy with the need for sustainability, equity, and climate change mitigation is a particular challenge. Through energy modelling indicators of sustainable development and policy analysis, Harald Winkler builds a rich and detailed case study illustrating how a development-focused approach to energy and climate policy might work in South Africa. Moreover, with recent recordsetting global crude oil prices, he points out that making energy supply and use more sustainable is a central challenge in South Africa's future development path. An energy researcher, IPCC author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a member of the South African delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Winkler offers a nuanced examination of where the synergies and tradeoffs lie, and makes clear the imperative of considering long-term implications when meeting short-term needs.

D-Lab is a design studio course in which students work on international development projects for under served communities. The class is focused on a participatory, iterative prototyping design process, with particular attention on the constraints faced when designing for developing communities. Students work in multidisciplinary teams on term-long projects in collaboration with community partners, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields. Students will learn about their partner communities through the collaborative design process and be exposed to many hands-on fabrication and prototyping skills relevant to development at MIT and manufacturing in their partner community. The course will consist of hands-on labs, guest speakers, and a guided design process with review by experts and professionals in development and design.

D-Lab is a year-long series of courses and field trips. The fall class provides a basic background in international development and appropriate technology though guest speakers, case studies and hands-on exercises. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in an IAP fieldtrip to Haiti, India, Brazil, Honduras, Zambia, Samoa, or Lesotho and continue their work in a spring term design class. As part of the fall class, students will partner with community organizations in these countries and develop plans for the IAP site visit. In addition, students will learn about the culture, language, economics, politics and history of their host country.

D-Lab: Energy offers a hands-on, project-based approach that engages students in understanding and addressing the applications of small-scale, sustainable energy technology in developing countries where compact, robust, low-cost systems for generating power are required. Projects may include micro-hydro, solar, or wind turbine generators along with theoretical analysis, design, prototype construction, evaluation and implementation. Students will have the opportunity both to travel to Nicaragua during spring break to identify and implement projects. D-Lab: Energy is part of MIT's D-Lab program, which fosters the development of appropriate technologies and sustainable solutions within the framework of international development.

D-Lab Health provides a multidisciplinary approach to global health technology design via guest lectures and a major project based on fieldwork. We will explore the current state of global health challenges and learn how to design medical technologies that address those problems. Students may travel to Nicaragua during spring break to work with health professionals, using medical technology design kits to gain field experience for their device challenge. As a final class deliverable, you will create a product design solution to address challenges observed in the field. The resulting designs are prototyped in the summer for continued evaluation and testing.

The Module is designed to provide a critical overview of the theory and practice of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as operated internationally to those students who need to understand EIA: this includes formal students being graduate and postgraduate students, plus practitioners/professionals. Within this framework there are opportunities to customise the material to reflect local jurisdictional procedures and issues.

This Instructional Guide has been developed to provide instructors using the Environmental Impact Assessment Course Module with an understanding of the design of the Module so that they can customise the its material and assessment to the needs of their learners and location.

This graduate course is in three Parts. Together they are intended to provide theoretical, empirical, and policy perspectives on source and consequences of globalization, focusing on emergent structures and processes, and on the implications of flows of goods and services across national boundaries - with special attention to the issue of migration, on the assumption that people matter and matter a lot. An important concern addressed pertains to the dilemmas of international policies that are shaped by the macro-level consequences of micro-level behavior.

Tracing the evolution of international interactions, this course examines the dimensions of globalization in terms of scale and scope. It is divided into three parts; together they are intended to provide theoretical, empirical, and policy perspectives on source and consequences of globalization, focusing on emergent structures and processes, and on the implications of flows of goods and services across national boundaries – with special attention to the issue of migration, on the assumption that people matter and matter a lot. An important concern addressed pertains to the dilemmas of international policies that are shaped by the macro-level consequences of micro-level behavior. 17.411 fulfills undergraduate public policy requirement in the major and minor. Graduate students are expected to explore the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.

The urban and rural activities of our complex social system aimed toward comfort and progress also have harmful side effects. This segment from a WPSU documentary Liquid Assets describes how the water resources of one city are suffering from these.

This video from a WPSU documentary Liquid Assets shows the transformation of Las Vegas’ water infrastructure. A desert community, Las Vegas is reducing water consumption and re-using wastewater, making optimal use of limited water resources.

A watershed and its features are very important parts of a region’s water supply system. It can also be a powerful predictor of the quality of life in this region. This segment of a WPSU documentary Liquid Assets describes how a watershed is formed.

"Can you make a cellphone change the world? NextLab is a hands-on year-long design course in which students research, develop and deploy mobile technologies for the next billion mobile users in developing countries. Guided by real-world needs as observed by local partners, students work in multidisciplinary teams on term-long projects, closely collaborating with NGOs and communities at the local level, field practitioners, and experts in relevant fields. Students are expected to leverage technical ingenuity in both mobile and internet technologies together with social insight in order to address social challenges in areas such as health, microfinance, entrepreneurship, education, and civic activism. Students with technically and socially viable prototypes may obtain funding for travel to their target communities, in order to obtain the first-hand feedback necessary to prepare their technologies for full fledged deployment into the real world (subject to guidelines and limitations)."

Now you can be the protagonist of the petroleum era: explore and drill around the world, corrupt politicians, stop alternative energies and increase the oil addiction. Be sure to have fun before the resources begin to deplete.

Explores policy and planning for sustainable development. Critically examines concept of sustainability as a process of social, organizational, and political development drawing on cases from the US and Europe. Explores pathways to sustainability through debates on ecological modernization; sustainable technology development, international and intergenerational fairness, and democratic governance. Third subject in the Environmental Policy and Planning sequence.

This module on population and development is part of the World Bank Group's educational site that addresses sustainable development in the world. An introduction, objectives, activities, and references are provided. Educators can use the activities to help students understand population growth rates.

Without it we are dead! Water is essential, but what processes must it go through to become fit for human consumption? This unit will guide you through the continuous cycling of water between land, open water surfaces and the sea before moving on to an overview of the water treatment and supply process.