Eroding Landscapes: Mountains, Hills and Rivers (U04202)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : GEO-3-LANDSCAPE

Hills and mountains are continuously being denuded and dissected by erosional processes. In non-glaciated landscapes sediment is produced on hillslopes, delivered to channels, and eventually transported to basins. In this course, students will be introduced to the processes that sculpt these upland regions. The processes and their feedbacks will be analysed at different scales, from particles to mountain ranges and from single transport events (e.g. landslide, flood) to geological time scales. Theoretical, experimental (analogical and numerical) and field studies constitute the basis of this course. Lectures, practicals, numerical modelling exercises and field work will allow students to understand and quantify hillslope and fluvial processes and to gain knowledge on the interactions between these processes and on their relative importance in driving landscape evolution.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Geography, (School of GeoSciences, Schedule N)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
15/01/2009	14:00	15:50	Room 2.05, Old Infirmary (Geography)	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Thursday	14:00	15:50	Central
Laboratory	Thursday	16:10	18:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

This course aims to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of the physics and dynamics of erosion and landscape evolution in non-glaciated landscapes. At the end of the course students should have acquired the following:
Subject specific learning objectives
- An understanding of the physical processes involved in fluvial and hillslope erosion.
- An understanding of how local erosional processes act and interact to sculpt landscapes at catchment, mountain range, and continental scales.
- An ability to quantify both fluvial and hillslope processes in terms of mass conservation, and use this ability to make predictions about future behavior of landscapes.
- A knowledge of the tools that modern geomorphologists use to analyze these processes (e.g., topographic analysis, numerical modeling).

Transferable skill-learning objectives
- Have developed their skills of critical analysis.
- Have further developed their ability to produce a written report based on field measurements, applied models, and library research.
- Have acquired the ability to apply theoretical and numerical techniques to real world research questions.