The MS Environmental Planning Degree (MsEP) is a STEM designated degree, and it prepares students for the planning profession and provides them with expertise in landscape level analysis and planning. Graduate education in environmental planning recognizes the importance of the reciprocal relationship between the biophysical attributes of a region and the human dimensions of settlement and culture. The program prepares future planners and land managers to work within a transdisciplinary environment providing better alternatives for land-use decisions and policy.
The two-year Master of Science degree program presents an interdisciplinary core of courses and faculty for the purpose of addressing complex issues in the areas of bioregional analysis, planning and management. Emphasis is placed on four problematic content areas associated with environmental planning: biophysical, social/demographic, economic, and public policy. The spatial focus is on the planning of large landscapes with a diversity of dispersed population densities and a primary economic base in agriculture, energy development, tourism/recreation, new communities, and natural resources.
Contact our Advisor
Carlos V. Licon
Associate Professor | Graduate Program Director
MLA Fast Facts
Graduate Credits Required: 41
Years to Complete: 2
Student Cost:
~$24,000
Salary Range: $35,000-60,000
Cohort Size: 3-5
Student Outcomes
The Master of Science in Environmental Planning (MsEP) degree provides future planners with the skills to respond to the evolving needs of growing communities and provides them with expertise in landscape level analysis and planning. Students learn to recognize the importance of the relationships between physical attributes of a region and the human dimensions of settlement and culture. This 2-year program prepares future planners and land managers to work in an interdisciplinary environment, leading to better land-use decisions, policy, and implementation.
Student Reports
- Uintah Basin Revisited
- Spatial Conversions and Alternative Futures SITLA/BLM: A Preliminary Analysis
- Wasatch Back Summit County- Alternative Futures Study
- Bear River Watershed- Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge 2010
- Upper Colorado River Ecosystem- Alternative Futures Study (Phase I)
- Alternative Futures Study: Little Bear River Watershed
- Cache Valley 2030
- Great Salt Lake Watershed- Alternative Futures
- Bear River Watershed
- Alternative Future Growth Scenarios for Conserving Space along Utah's Wasatch Front
- San Rafael River Basin: Alternative Futures Study 2013-2014
- South Cache Valley Project: Planning with Geodesign (2015)
- Blacksmith Fork - Little Bear Watershed: Alternative Futures Study 2015-2016
Student Theses
- Spatial Model of Grazing in Southeast Utah
- Do Fee-Access Hunting Programs Conserve Wildlife Habitat? A Case Study of Utah's Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit Program
- Great Salt Lake Watershed: Its role in maintaining the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake
- Shifting Contexts and Increasing Complexity in the American Electric Power Industry
- Linking Communities In Box Elder County
- South Cache Ecovillage
- A Rural Character Planning Tool: Modeling Components of Settlement Pattern
- Uintah Basin Alternative Futures Study
- Ogden Valley Alternative Futures
- Bear Lake Project
- Alternative Futures for the Upper Colorado River Ecosystem: Phase II
- Evaluating Decline: An Assessment of Variables Correlated with Shrinking, Rural Communities
- Inventory, Assessment and Preliminary Management Planning for Utah's Sovereign Land Along the Bear River