The objective of the course is to introduce students to the concepts of environmental complexity through a tangible exploration of the inter-relationships between natural (air, land, water, and biomes), human (demography, economy, equity, and sustainability), and built systems (energy, transportation, water resources, waste management, and land use). Students will draw on experiences, examples, and current events afforded by the proximity of metropolitan Atlanta, and will develop an open-code computer model that simulates and predicts regional system performance as it relates to quality of life.