Differences in Majors

Environmental Science and Management (ESM) and Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning (EPAP) both emphasize the role of natural and social science in understanding human impacts of environment and natural resource management.  ESM focuses on the science of the environment but also looks at how that science is used to solve environmental problems, and EPAP focuses more on how to use that science to understand the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of environmental policy. Hence there is an element of solving environmental problems in both, be it more through applying basic science or through environmental policy processes. EPAP is based more on social sciences like environmental economics, political science, planning and law, whereas ESM uses more natural sciences like biology, physics and chemistry and how they relate to living, land, air and water resources.