Minor in Sustainable Cities
The minor in Sustainable Cities emphasizes sustainability, community engagement, and social justice. It provides students with a deep learning experience that integrates classroom learning and real-world, community-based project experience in creating sustainable communities, with a focus on the built urban environment.
The minor is affiliated with the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education - SCoRE.
Explore This Minor
Required Courses
City Planning Course List
Related Academic Disciplines Course List
Chair-Approved Course List
Cities are complex systems and the minor explores this complexity - transportation, housing, social justice, environmental planning, climate change, food systems, sprawl, resilience, smart growth, etc. and connections with other disciplines such as engineering, data science and analytics, public health, social work, urban design, urban planning, etc.
The minor in Sustainable Cities consists of five courses and fifteen credit hours. It includes:
- one 3-credit key content course - choose between CP 2233: Sustainable Urban Development and CP 2020 Introduction to Urban and Regional Planning
- six credit hours (typically two 3-credit courses) offered by the School of City and Regional Planning - CP prefix
- one 3-credit elective selected from a list of courses offered in related academic disciplines
- one 3-credit elective drawn from the courses on either list - CP or related academic disciplines.
The lists of courses shown below are not exhaustive. With permission of the Chair of the School of City and Regional Planning students may substitute one course with substantial Sustainable Cities content that is not on the below lists. All courses previously approved by the Chair will be included on an updated list below.
Note that at least nine credits of the required 15 credits of coursework for the minor has to be upper level (3XXX, 4XXX or 6XXX course number).
A maximum of three credit hours of transfer credit may be used to satisfy the course requirements for a minor. This includes courses taken at another institution or credit earned through the AP or IB program, assuming the scores meet Georgia Tech minimum standards.
All courses counting toward the minor must be taken on a letter-grade basis and must be completed with a grade of C (2.00) or better.
It is the responsibility of the student and major advisor to verify that any courses a student wishes to count toward both a major and a minor meet all the Georgia Tech and major School requirements. For Georgia Tech minor requirements see the Catalog entry describing requirements for any minor.
If you have questions about the minor, please contact our office. To officially declare the minor, please complete the Change of Minor form.
Required Course
City Planning Course List
Select six hours of City Planning courses. Undergraduates with senior standing (by credit) are eligible to register for 6000-level graduate courses. They must first contact the minor advisor for permission to take a graduate class, then request a level permit by contacting the Registrar’s Office. Below is a list of undergraduate CP classes that are offered regularly. Please note it is not exhaustive and remember that any CP-prefixed class can count towards the minor. Please note that at least 9 credits of coursework for the minor has to be upper level (3XXX, 4XXX or 6XXX course number)
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| CP 2010 | Foundation of Urban & Region Development | 3 |
| CP 2020 | Introduction to Urban & Region Planning | 3 |
| CP 2030 | The City and its Technology | 3 |
| CP 2040 | The City in Fiction and Film | 3 |
| CP 2233 | Sustainable Urban Development | 3 |
| CP 2235 | World Cities | 3 |
| CP 4030 | The City and Its Technology | 3 |
| CP 4040 | The City in Fiction and Film | 3 |
| CP 4052 | Sustainable Cities Studio | 3 |
| CP 4060 | Urban Data Science | 3 |
| CP 4105 | Land Conservation | 3 |
| CP 4190 | Introduction to Climate Change Planning | 3 |
| CP 4310 | Urban Transportation and Planning | 3 |
| CP 4510 | Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems | 3 |
| CP 4541 | Environmental Geographic Information Systems | 3 |
| CP 4545 | Climate Change Analytics | 3 |
| CP 4570 | Socioeconomic Geographic Information Systems | 3 |
| CP 4610 | Introduction to Real Estate Investment | 3 |
| CP 4620 | Housing and Real Estate Economics | 3 |
| CP 4811 | Special Topics | 3 |
| CP 4812 | Special Topics | 3 |
| CP 4813 | Special Topics | 3 |
Related Academic Disciplines Course List
Select three hours from the following list of courses in related academic disciplines.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| MGT 4803 | Special Topics in Management (Business Decisions for Shared Value) | 3 |
| MGT 4803 | Special Topics in Management (Social Impact: In-depth Exploration and Design) | 3 |
| BIOS 2300 | Ecology | 3 |
| BIOS 2301 | Ecology Laboratory | 1 |
| PUBP 3315 | Environmental Policy and Politics | 3 |
| PUBP 3350 | Energy Policy | 3 |
| HTS 2803 | Special Topics (Semester in the City) | 3 |
| HTS 3012 | Urban Sociology | 3 |
| HTS 3011 | The City in American History | 3 |
| HTS 3005 | American Environmental History | 3 |
| LMC 2350 | Introduction to Social Justice | 3 |
| LMC 3308 | Environmentalism and Ecocriticism | 3 |
| CS/INTA 4745 | Information and Communication Technologies and Global Development | 3 |
| CS/INTA 6745 | Information and Communication Technologies and Global Development | 3 |
| CEE 4160 | Smart and Sustainable Cities | 3 |
| CEE 4610 | Multimodal Transportation Planning, Design, and Operations | 3 |
| ISYE 4501 | Energy, Efficiency, and Sustainability | 3 |
| ARCH 4151 | History of Urban Form | 3 |
| ARCH 4227 | Architecture and Ecology | 3 |
| INTA 2050 | Intro to Global Development | 3 |
| INTA 3040 | Energy, Environment, and Policy | 3 |
| INTA 4744 | Global Development Capstone | 3 |
VIP options | ||
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VIP Proj Team SO I | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VV5 Engineering for Social Innovation | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VVS HumaniTech | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VZ2 - NO-HEAT | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VYG – GROWER (Grid Resilience, Outage, Weather, Emergency Response) | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VYT - Africa: Serve, Learn, Sustain | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VZ4 - Coastal Georgia Climate Solutions | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VY8 - Innovation-Led Economic Development | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VVC - Smart City Infrastructure | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VYH - Surrogate Models for Urban Regeneration | 2-3 See note |
| VIP 2601, VIP 3601, VIP 3602, VIP 4601, VIP 4602, VIP 4603, VIP 4983 | VWZ - SDGs: Resilient Infrastructures and Sustainable Innovation | 2-3 See note |
| Study Abroad in Japan: Summer Program in Sustainable Development or Study Abroad in Italy: Sustainable Development & Climate Change (courses may also be taken on campus in Atlanta) | ||
Modern Language course options: | ||
| SPAN 4693 | Sustainability in Spain (LBAT) | 3 |
| FREN 3011 | France Today (taught only at GTL) | 3 |
| FREN 3500 | Field Work Abroad | 1-3 |
| FREN 3694 | LBAT French Semester Abroad (LBAT) | 3 |
| GRMN 3030 | Crossing Borders | 3 |
| GRMN 3696 | Current Issues (LBAT) | 3 |
| SPAN 3200 | Globalization in Latin America | 3 |
| SPAN 4150 | Spanish Service Learning | 3 |
| SPAN 4156 | Spanish Service Learning Abroad I | 3 |
| SPAN 4157 | Spanish Service Learning Abroad II | 3 |
| SPAN 4251 | Hispanic Community Internship | 3 |
| SPAN 4350 | Iberoamerican Cities | 3 |
Note regarding VIP credits: To count a VIP towards the Sustainable Cities Minor, a student must take at least two semesters of the same Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), for one or two credits each semester. VIPs are structured as long-term research projects, and students are encouraged to enroll for as many semesters as their schedule allows. Note that a maximum of three credits per VIP can count towards the minor. Students might be able to count additional VIP credits towards their major. Interested in exploring this option? Please contact your major adviser.
Chair-Approved Course List
The lists of courses shown above are not exhaustive. With permission of the Chair of the School of City and Regional Planning students may substitute one course with substantial Sustainable Cities content that is not on the above lists. All courses previously approved by the Chair are included on an updated list below. Check out our newest addition to our course list : World Cities
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| HTS 2086 | Semester in the City: Engaging Communities | 3 |
| HTS 2803 | Special Topics: Organizing for Social Change | 3 |
| PUBP 4211 | Urban Policy | 3 |
| CEE 4803 | Special Topics: Ped Infra Design and Assess | 3 |
| CP 4813 | World Cities | 3 |
| CP 4813 | Special Topics: Sustainable Cities Internship | 3 |
| ARCH 3135-R | City Literacy - Study Abroad Barcelona | 3 |
| ABCD Short Course | 1 | |
| VIP 2601/3601/3602/4601/4602/4603/4983/6601/6602/6603 | VWM Building for Equity and Sustainability | 2-3 See Note |
Note regarding VIP credits: To count a VIP towards the Sustainable Cities Minor, a student must take at least two semesters of the same Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), for one or two credits each semester. VIPs are structured as long-term research projects, and students are encouraged to enroll for as many semesters as their schedule allows. Note that a maximum of three credits per VIP can count towards the minor. Students might be able to count additional VIP credits towards their major. Interested in exploring this option? Please contact your major adviser.
More Details
For more information on minor requirements, please visit the listing in the official Georgia Tech catalog.
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