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Core modules:

Earth, Wind, Ice and Fire

This module introduces the general principles of physical geography for students with diverse backgrounds.  The module seeks to develop a holistic understanding of how the Earth functions as a system, focusing in particular on the functioning of key elements of this system - notably the operation of the geosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere - and how these elements interact to influence the evolution of the system as a whole. Consideration of the latter aspect will include discussion of the impacts and consequences of alterations to the operation of different parts of the system, such as those caused by past and present climatic change. Finally, we consider how the form of Earth's surface reflects current and past geosphere, atmosphere and cryosphere processes at a range of spatial scales, from small-scale fluvial, aeolian and glacial landforms, to the evolution of continents and large mountain ranges.

20 credits

Biodiversity, Climate and Conservation

Humanity is facing inter-related crises of biodiversity decline and climate change. This module will give you an understanding of the anthropogenic and natural factors that determine the distribution of biodiversity, species' interactions and population sizes, and key biological-geochemical cycles that regulate environmental conditions on our planet.

You'll explore links between biodiversity decline, climate change and ecosystem function, before discussing the consequences for nature's ability to provide benefits to people and sustainability, and the solutions that can mitigate these impacts.

During this module, you'll also take part in field-based training to develop practical skills for identifying and measuring biodiversity and carbon storage.

20 credits

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

This module provides fundamentals of environmental sciences with an emphasis on biogeochemical cycling. You will be able to learn about how challenges including loss of biodiversity, access to clean water, climate change and provision of food for a quickly growing population may best be approached and centred in sustainability (recycling, reducing consumption) and citizen engagement. The module aims to cover the main earth system approaches that underpin our understanding of environmental challenges using a systems approach. The contents focus heavily on global environmental cycles including climate, air and water resources, pollution, biological communities, geology and energy. This will provide you with foundations of scientific knowledge and understanding that you will develop further during the rest of the programme.

20 credits

Critical Inquiry

This module establishes a foundation in the core academic skills required for critical scholarship. You will participate in small group tutorials focusing on refining your research and writing skills. Lectures explore fundamental concepts and theories within the fields of geography and environmental science, alongside essential principles of academic integrity, including proper referencing techniques. You will gain an understanding of the relationship between academic skills and their application in future careers.

20 credits

Physical Geography and Environmental Science in the Field

Fieldwork is an integral part of geographers' and environmental scientists' skillsets. The ability to design and carry out effective field research is a useful and transferable skill. This module will provide you with valuable hands-on training in key field methods, focusing on the local area

20 credits

Maps and Stats

Geographers and Environmental Scientists are well-known for having a versatile set of practical and transferable skills. This module guides you to develop key research and software methods from across the discipline, in a lecture and practical format. Lectures introduce you to research methods and skills, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Earth Observation (EO), statistics, and surveys. Practical sessions provide you with the exposure to industry-standard software, enabling you to develop sought after geographical and environmental employability skills.

20 credits

Core modules:

Environmental Pollution and Quality

This module introduces you to the origins, pathways and consequences of some common pollutants in water and soil. Pollutants are released into the environment through natural or anthropogenic sources, affecting the quality of the environment we live in. Therefore, understanding the physical, chemical and biological processes involved in water and soil quality is essential to protect the environment. This module provides hands-on laboratory training to assess water and soil quality, with lectures covering basic concepts.

20 credits

GIS, Earth Observation and Data Analysis

This module builds on Earth Observation (EO), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data analysis, crucial tools to understand our changing environment. In our digital world, data are everywhere, so it is important for us to understand how such data are generated, what data we can trust, and how we can analyse and visualise data to tell us more about the world. Vital aspects of this include our knowledge of data processing, handling, and spatial, statistical or mathematical analysis. This module will provide you with a theoretical framework and hands-on experience of using EO, GIS, and statistical software, thus improving your digital fluency and capability.

20 credits

Environmental Science Research Design and Fieldwork

The ability to design, conduct, analyse and present meaningful findings from fieldwork is an essential part of degree-level Environmental Science, and enhances employability. This module builds on your learning from 'Physical Geography and Environmental Science in the Field' in the first year, addressing the philosophical background to, and the process of, designing and conducting fieldwork. The module introduces the principles of research design and provides practical experience of fieldwork to facilitate immersive learning and engagement with earth surface processes. The module is delivered through lectures, small-group teaching, and a residential fieldclass. Assessments provide you with ongoing feedback linked to the experience of designing, conducting and reflecting upon the research journey, culminating in a dissertation proposal.

20 credits

Principles of Ecology and Conservation

This module will develop your understanding of the fundamental ecological processes that determine the diversity, structure, dynamics, and function of communities. 

We'll discuss ecological concepts and the principles and objectives of conservation biology. You'll learn about mitigating factors like economics, social science, and legislation, before exploring key tools and approaches that can reduce the adverse impact of human activity on biodiversity. 

Throughout the module, you'll use case studies to bring these topics to life, covering freshwater, marine and terrestrial communities across a wide range of ecosystems in tropical and temperate environments.

20 credits

Optional modules:

Sustainable Development and Global Justice

Development in the Global South is a major issue of international concern in the 21st century. This module explores contemporary development issues and examines the contribution that geographers, and geographical thought, can make towards understanding inequality, poverty and socio-economic change. Definitions of 'development', 'poverty' and 'the poor' shift and are invested with political meaning which reflect specific geographies and ways of seeing the world: students develop critical understandings of such terminology and the power dynamics implicit within them. This module addresses diverse theories, paradigms and contemporary critiques of development, and explores some of the central issues affecting processes of development. Case examples are drawn from Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia.

20 credits

Understanding the Climate System

In order to understand global climate change, one first has to understand how the climate system works. This module will give students a strong understanding of the global climate system, focusing on the atmospheres, the oceans, and their interaction. The first part of the module will consider the main characteristics of, and processes behind, climate from the global to the local scale. The second part of the module will examine the physical characteristics of the oceans and their geographical variation, and the role of the oceans in the climate system.

20 credits

Understanding Dynamic Landscapes

This module looks at the relationship between geomorphological processes and Earth surface landforms and landscapes at a variety of scales in space and time. It examines the influence of endogenic (mainly tectonic) processes originating within the earth; and exogenic processes (notably wind and water) at the Earth's surface. The module starts by introducing geomorphological concepts; and frameworks, and later introduces field and analytical approaches (such as landscape dating and numerical modelling) that are used to elucidate process rates and their drivers. A field visit and two practical exercises provide hands-on appreciation of approaches to understanding hillslope, fluival and aeolian processes.

20 credits

Ecosystems and Sustainability in a Changing World

Human impacts on the world's ecosystems are profound and without precedent in Earth's history. The urgent need to understand the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, land-use change and overexploitation has meant that ecosystem science has become one of the most important biological disciplines. Knowledge developed within this discipline has also become vital for devising strategies in sustainable agriculture. This module will build on the L1 module 'Climate change and sustainability' by exploring human impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and their feedback on climate change, including those in agricultural ecosystems. It will cover the world's and the UK's major ecosystems, considering fundamental processes operating in the present and the past. In doing so, it will consider the interacting roles of energy, carbon cycling, climate, soils, nutrients, fire and biodiversity. Teaching methods include lectures, alongside a field excursion and interactive practical sessions that develop skills in the ecological analysis of plants and soils, and will reinforce some of the key concepts taught in lectures.

20 credits

Who Gets What? Social Justice and the Environment

Environmental issues continue to be a key area of contemporary public concern and current political debate. They raise fundamental questions about the relationship between society and environment, and the politics and equity of that relationship. This module provides a geographical introduction to these issues and debates with examples from a range of scales from the global to the local. It also considers the role of stakeholders and how they benefit or are disadvantaged by policy that seeks to address issues to do with the environment-society relationship. The module then develops these core ideas through inter-related sections covering debates focused on different empirical themes.

Particular skills will be achieved including: policy analysis, ethical awareness, positive mindset, global awareness and self-awareness.

20 credits

Unlocking Past Environmental Changes

The landscape we live in is a dynamic place and has been in the past as well. Huge changes at a global, regional and local scale have occurred in the last 2.6 million years of the earth's history (Quaternary period). These changes are ongoing with implications for both present and future environments. Methods and techniques to investigate past environmental changes are outlined and illustrated. The module also looks at how environments have responded to past climate changes thereby putting a context for present day climate changes and predicting future changes.

This module will help improve your academic writing, study, numeracy and data handling skills. It will also help you to be able to critically evaluate issues and problems as well as think about sustainability.

20 credits

Glacial Processes and Hazards

On this module students are introduced to how glaciers and ice sheets work and the connection of many glacial processes to hazards experienced by communities in polar and high altitude environments. We examine how glaciers and ice sheets come into existence through an understanding of climate and the concept of glacier mass balance. We then consider how glacier systems function, covering topics that include the processes of ice flow, the drainage of glacial melt, and the behaviour of ice streams and ice shelves. We then examine how glaciers modify landscape through processes of erosion and sediment transport and deposition. Hazards are explored in relation to each key area of glacier system function, from localised flood events associated with glacier-lake drainages to global sea level changes arising from past and potential future ice sheet instability.

20 credits

Core modules:

Professional Skills for Environmental Science

Environmental science graduates require an appreciation of the big contemporary environmental issues and the needs of professional statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs). These graduate employers appreciate the study and several transferable skills developed at university but want graduates who understand the tools used by environmental science practitioners. This module guides students through producing an environmental consultancy report using a site investigation and lab work. The module also aims to develop skills to help identify contemporary environmental issues and to develop communications skills of them via presentations. The mode of teaching is through lectures, workshops, field and lab work and presentations, along with independent learning.

20 credits

Dissertation for Geography and Environmental Science

This module requires the student to prepare, organise, research and report a piece of original work on a geographical topic under guidance by a staff mentor. The student will decide on the topic and will either be expected to collect original material in order to investigate it, or to perform secondary analysis on information drawn from existing sources. The finished product is presented in the style, and at the length, associated with academic journal articles.

40 credits

Optional modules

Environmental Justice at a Time of Crisis

This module works with critical debates and approaches in Environmental Geographies to help understand a range of environmental crises (climate change, sustainability, waste and pollution, biodiversity loss/conservation, extinction) in front of us. The module will examine histories, causes and solutions for these environmental crises while drawing connections between global South and North. 

We will cover a range of scales and actors from individual behaviours to community actions, and work of local bodies and global organisations and negotiations.

The module will leverage conceptual and political tools provided by environmental geographies to ask how we could tackle these multiple and co-constituted crises in socially just ways.

20 credits

Conservation Issues and Management

This module will provide the opportunity for students to develop: (i) their knowledge of topical issues in conservation; (ii) their ability to identify potential solutions to real-world conservation problems and assess the likely effectiveness of these; (iii) their skills in accessing, interpreting, and synthesising the primary scientific literature in the field of conservation; and (iv) their ability to think independently. This will be achieved by introducing students, through lectures and independent reading, to a range of topical issues in conservation science, by showing how research can inform understanding of these issues and how applied measures can mitigate these conservation problems. Students will then apply their learning by developing an essay spanning conservation problems and cutting-edge solutions. This is a lecture-based teaching module assessed by an exam essay.

10 credits

Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems

This module highlights the threats to global sustainability, with a particular focus on food production and ecosystem functioning, being caused by human impacts on the environment. The module considers how we have got into the present unsustainable mess: of poor land and natural resource management, under valuing of farmers, life-threatening soil degradation causing flooding, pollution of fresh water and soil insecurity, as well as large numbers of people overconsuming and wasting food whilst others don't have enough. It shows that how we sustainably manage agro-ecosystems now, and in the immediate future, will determine the fate of humanity. Soils are the foundations of terrestrial ecosystems, food and biofuel production, but are amongst the most badly abused and damaged components of the ecosphere. Climate change, agricultural intensification, biofuels and unsustainable use of fertilizers and fossil fuels pose critical threats to global food production and sustainable agro-ecosystems - and their impacts on soil ecosystems are central to these threats. The module considers soil ecosystems function in nature and the lessons that we can then apply to develop more sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management.

10 credits

Our Melting Planet

Glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking in our warming world. This poses two major societal challenges: 1) sea level rise; and 2) loss of water resources. In this research-led module, you will fain an understanding of glacier and ice sheet loss, methods for projecting future changes, and debates around mitigating them. The module will cover the following themes:* The mechanisms behind and ways of monitoring mass loss from the ice sheets and glaciers* Projecting sea level rise* Changes to mountain water resources due to glacier retreat* Adapting to and communicating glacier changeThe module is delivered through a series of activity-based seminars and practical classes.

20 credits

The Planets

This module introduces the student to the fascinating discipline of planetary geoscience and exploration. By using the principles of Physical Geography to study unfamiliar environments, we will explore problems that touch upon themes from climate, tectonics, geomorphology, hydrology, and life. The module begins with the Solar System but soon focuses on planetary-scale matters, using the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) as main examples because of an explosion of knowledge gathered from their observation. We will consider the new perspectives that such knowledge offers on the Earth's dynamic systems.

20 credits

Geoscientific Data Analysis using MATLAB

Matlab® is a computing environment and programming language with over one million users worldwide. It is used to process, analyse and visualise geoscientific data, but also has many less scientific uses; it can be used to edit digital photos and listen to online music.  This module will introduce students to Matlab® by way of specific real-world examples taken from Geoscience topics using freely-available data.  Initially the module will introduce students to the basics of using Matlab® before focussing on five broad topics relevant to Geoscience.  At each stage, theory will be accompanied by easy to understand practical problem solving examples, with the code used for the examples made available to students.  Assessment will comprise computer practicals and a data analysis project; the focus of which will be chosen by each student from a range of topics, but which must use Matlab® to analyse and present data.  This module will equip students with a valuable transferable skill - the ability to use a programming language to obtain/generate, analyse and present geoscientific data thus improving their digital fluency and capability.

20 credits

Advanced Geospatial Analysis

This module will give students the opportunity to extend their knowledge of geospatial systems and software through detailed instruction and targeted case studies. The course will be taught in three parts, and will involve a mixture of lab-work and lectures. The three key themes are: (a) Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Structure from Motion (SfM) Photogrammetry, (b) Mapping of glacial bedforms from DTM data. Lab sessions will enhance software, coding and quantitative skills. Where possible, sessions will include student-led components and formative peer-peer assessment elements which will provide the opportunity to develop a range of generic analytical skills.
In taking this module you will further develop your problem solving skills and develop further resilience through tackling a specific practical application of geospatial analysis that is relevant to research and industry.

20 credits

The Changing Climate System

Climate change and global warming are accelerating at unprecedented rates.  This affects different aspects of human lives, livelihoods, the built and natural environment, posing significant challenges to global sustainable development.   In this research-led module, students will gain understanding of how climate change is not just manifesting through rising temperatures, but also how it is changing global circulations in complex ways with far-reaching impacts. They will do this through exploring the following typical themes:

- Fundamentals of the changing climate including the Earth's energy balance, causes of climate change and the greenhouse effect.

-  how the global circulation works to form the climate as we experience on earth.

- how climate change has changed, and is projected to change these important circulations and the impacts on regional climate over key geographical regions.



This module will provide students with a strong understanding of current and likely future global and regional changes to the climate system.  They will also be introduced to the tools and data used by scientists to understand and project these changes.

20 credits

Human Planet

This course examines the historical, social, cultural and political dimensions of sustainability, focusing on food production and natural resource management on the land and in the oceans. Students will learn how key historical developments led to sustainability issues, how geopolitics perpetuates these in the modern world, and how an understanding of these issues can help us to develop more sustainable ways to live in future. Learning will be achieved through lectures and videos, independent study and classroom discussion sessions.

10 credits

Topics in Modern Ecology

This module provides students with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of topical issues in modern ecology. Students will be introduced, through lectures, independent reading, discussion and problem solving to a core set of topical questions in pure and/or applied ecology, and they will explore how data and theory combine to inform our understanding of these topics. Students will apply their learning by developing and critically evaluating research or management proposals that will address for specific real world ecological questions and problems.

10 credits

Coastal Systems: Processes and Management

This module will explore the processes occurring within coastal environments both off-shore and on-shore including aspects of societal interaction with these environments and responses to climate change. The topics typically covered  include tides, estuaries, coastal dune systems,cliff erosion and off-shore energy production. It also includes practical elements of data and field based analysis designed to understand coastal processes and monitor changes.  Field work comprises an integral element of this module. The aim of the module is to give you an appreciation of the variety and multidisciplinarity of the physical geography associated with coastal environments. It will give you the chance to translate new knowledge and new research field and digital skills to problem solve, critically think and suggest sustainable solutions to real world problems.

20 credits

Applied Volcanology

Volcanoes are an enigmatic force of nature. Understanding the way they behave and how they are monitored is a key aspect in hazard assessment. The module will cover a range of topics related to volcano monitoring, underpinned by an overview of the current state-of-the-art in volcanic science. In particular, the module will combine a theoretical basis of understanding for ground-based and satellite-based volcano monitoring capabilities with practical applications. Via lectures, lab practicals, and field-based activities, students will benefit from hands-on operation of monitoring equipment through to processing and interpretation.

20 credits