Technical Electives

Students should consult the Academic Calendar for course availability and pre-requisites. Electives may be cancelled if enrolment is low or if a suitable instructor is not available. Full list of technical electives are below, and can also be found here. ENVL students can pick any Technical Electives from the pre-approved APSC and Non-APSC course lists (with exceptions, please refer to the footnotes). If you’re interested in other courses that are not included in the pre-approved technical elective lists, please contact the ENVL office at environmental.engineering@ubc.ca for further evaluation.

CourseNameTermPre-Req Check
APSC 461Global Engineering Leadership – Not offered in Winter 2025
APSC 486New Venture Design1,2Yes***
CHBE 344Introduction to Unit Operations1Yes
CHBE 352Transport Phenomena II1Yes
CHBE 355Kinetics and Reactor Design2No
CHBE 376Computer Flow sheeting and Unit Operation Design2
CHBE 381 ***Biological Engineering and Biomanufacturing I2Yes***
CHBE 472Technologies for Human and Environmental Health2
CHBE 473Environmental Engineering and Sustainability Leadership2Yes
CHBE 476Advanced Process Engineering and Simulation1Yes
CHBE 477Fuel Cell and Electrochemical Engineering2Yes
CHBE 483Energy Engineering for Climate Change and Sustainability1
CHBE 487Interfacial Phenomena2Yes
CHBE 488Carbon Capture, Conversion and Sequestration Technologies2Yes
CIVL 300Construction Engineering and Management2Yes
CIVL 301 ***Modelling and Decision-Making in Civil Engineering1Yes***
CIVL 311Soil Mechanics II1No
CIVL 340 ***Transportation Engineering I2Yes***
CIVL 408Geo-Environmental Engineering – Not offered in Winter 2025
CIVL 411Foundation Engineering II2
CIVL 413Design of Earth Dams and Containment Structures2No
CIVL 415Water Resource Engineering – Not offered in Winter 2025
CIVL 417Coastal Engineering2Yes
CIVL 418Engineering Hydrology2Yes
CIVL 440 ***Transportation Engineering II1Yes***
CIVL 441 ***Transportation Planning and Analysis2Yes***
CIVL 475Environmental Stewardship in Civil Engineering – Not offered in Winter 2025
CIVL 478Building Science2Yes
CIVL 498QTopics in Civil Engineering – ENV MICROBIO ENG 1
MECH 327Thermodynamics II1
MECH 375Heat Transfer1,2
MECH 380Fluid Dynamics2
MECH 386Industrial Fluid Mechanics – Not offered in Winter 2024
MECH 392Manufacturing Processes1
MECH 469Dynamic System Modelling – Not offered in Winter 2025
MECH 470Energy Conversion Systems2
MECH 495Industrial Engineering2Yes
MECH 496Engineering Management1Yes
MINE 420Applied Geostatics2
MINE 455Mine Water Management2Yes
MINE 486Mining and The Environment2Yes
MINE 491Mine and Plant Engineering Design Feasibility Study1,2

*** Instructor permission is required for registration

CourseNameTermPre-Req Check
APBI 402Sustainable Soil Management2No
ARCL 309Archeology Collapse & Sustainability – Not offered in Winter 2024
ATSC 313Renewable Energy Meteorology1,2Yes
CHEM 301Aqueous Environmental Chemistry2No
CHEM 302Atmospheric Environmental Chemistry1No
CHEM 341Global Challenges: A Chemical Perspective1No
COMM 487 **Environmental Management – Not offered in Winter 2024
COMR 329 **Principles of Organizational Behaviour1,2
COMR 457 **Fundamentals of Financial Accounting1,2
COMR 458 **Fundamentals of Managerial Accounting2
COMR 465 **Marketing Management1,2
CONS 330Conservation Science and Sustainability2No
CONS 340Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Forestry and Conservation – Not offered in Winter 2024Yes
CONS 370Indigenous Forestry2Yes
CONS 486Fish Conservation and Management2No
CPSC 302Numerical Computation for Algebraic Problems1
CPSC 303Numerical Approximation and Discretization2
ECON 371Economics of the Environment1,2
ENDS 440Environment and Urban Form – Not offered in Winter 2024
ENST 311Urban Environments1,2No
ENVR 410Energy, Environment, and Society1Yes
ENVR 420Ecohydrology of Watersheds and Water Systems2Yes
EOSC 340Climate Change: Causes & Solutions1Yes
EOSC 350Environmental, Geotechnical, and Exploration Geophysics I1Yes
EOSC 372Introductory Oceanography: Circulation and Plankton1Yes
EOSC 373Introductory Oceanography: Climate & Ecosystems1No
EOSC 426Fundamentals of Geomicrobiology – Not offered in Winter 2024
EOSC 428Field Techniques in Groundwater Hydrology2Yes
EOSC 429Groundwater Contamination2Yes
EOSC 442Climate Measurement and Analysis1,2No
EOSC 474Marine Pollution1Yes
FRST 385Watershed Hydrology1Yes
FRST 386Aquatic Ecosystems and Fish in Forested Watersheds2Yes
FRST 411Complex Adaptive Systems, Global Change Science, and Ecology Sustainability1Yes
FRST 443Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Management2Yes
GEOG 310Environment and Sustainability1,2No
GEOG 312Climate Change: Science and Society2No
GEOG 313Environmental Justice and Social Change2No
GEOG 314Analyzing Environmental Problems2No
GEOG 497The Arctic1
GEOS 300Microscale Weather & Climate2No
GEOS 401Urban Meteorology2No
ISCI 360Systems Approaches to Regional Sustainability1No
LAW 387CEnvironmental Law 2No
MICB 301Microbial Ecophysiology1No
MICB 405Bioinformatics1No
MICB 425Microbial Ecological Genomics2No
PHYS 333Energy and Climate1Yes
POLI 351Environmental Politics and Policy1Yes
POLI 375AGlobal Environmental Politics1,2yes
SCIE 420Sustainability for Community and the World2Yes
UFOR 330Environmental Justice and Urban Green Equity2Yes

+ EOSC 428 has limited capacity, with priority given to GEOE students. ENVL students must first register for the Waiting List, and be screened for significantly restricted seats.

** Restricted to students taking a Commerce Minor. Only one 3-credit Commerce course can be double counted as a technical elective.

CourseNameTermPre-Req Check
ANTH 360Introduction to Ecological AnthropologyYes
APSC 367Humanitarian Engineering: Politics and Practice1Yes
CONS 425Sustainable Energy: Policy and Governance2Yes
GEOG 302Climate Justice2Yes
GEOG 350Urban Worlds2Yes
PLAN 331The Just City in a Divided World1Yes
PLAN 351Green Cities1Yes
UFOR 403/
APBI 423
Ecological Restoration2Yes
PLAN 425Urban Planning Issues and Concepts2Yes

Note: Students may take only one of ANTH 360 (effective Sept 2025), APSC 367, CONS 425, GEOG 302, GEOG 350, PLAN 331, PLAN 351, UFOR 403/APBI 423, and PLAN 425 as a Technical Elective. Additional courses from this list may be taken as Humanity courses or as extra credits, depending on their eligibility assessed here.

* Students will not receive credit for CIVL 406