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Read about USC Dornsife's "water warriors"

SSCI 265Lg: The Water Planet

Share your findings

As the final project, you'll construct an ArcGIS StoryMap, an online platform in which you can integrate digital maps with graphs, text, photographs, video and audio.

Your StoryMap will bring together data on natural and social systems around the presence (or absence), quality, and movement of water on or near the Earth’s surface.

Satisfies General Education Category 3 (Physical Sciences)

Curious about water on our planet Earth?

In this course, you’ll learn surprising things about the multi-faceted dimensions of water from a scientific perspective.

We’ll consider micro-scale concerns (water properties, form and behavior), to regional-scale issues (water resource distribution, groundwater mining and watershed dynamics), to global-scale processes (the hydrologic cycle including atmospheric and oceanic circulation and climate change).

We examine the human (social science) dimensions of water supply and demand, and the implications for past and future societies.

Through a series of case studies, we simultaneously explore the water footprint of modern consumer societies and how various cultures and countries have been shaped by some of the world’s largest and most iconic rivers as well as some other globally significant freshwater sources.

water map of southern california

Contact Us

Spatial Sciences Institute

University of Southern California
3616 Trousdale Parkway, AHF B55
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0374
213.740.5910
spatialsciences@usc.edu
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

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Undergraduate Programs

Dr. Diana Ter-Ghazaryan
213.821.1190 | terghaza@usc.edu

Graduate Programs

Dr. Darren M. Ruddell
213.740.0521 | druddell@usc.edu

Masters Programs

Dr. Katherine A. Lester
213.821.0672 | lesterk@usc.edu

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