Postgraduate Course: Human dimensions of environmental change and sustainability (PGGE11130)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgraduate Courses (School of GeoSciences) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course will provide an introduction to a range of important environmental change issues from a human and societal perspective. This will provide the necessary background to understanding the policies, politics, governance and ethics, and the human decision processes that underpin environmental change. The course will cover issues such as climate change, ecosystem services, food, water and urbanisation.
The topics will provide the context for an exploration of the sustainability issues that surround different challenges for society. Case studies will be used as much as possible. Analysis will include international policy agreements and organisations; regional policy; and examples of policy and practice at national and local levels. Student led work will explore and develop themes, such as resilience, political power and trade offs, that cut across the main topics.
Each week the course will explore and illustrate different aspects of the "Human Dimensions of Environmental Change and Sustainability", within the broader, cross-cutting domains of: sustainability, ecosystem services, resource use and governance.
Within these topics the course will cover:
- How human activity is changing the environment;
- The impact of those changes on humankind;
- Policies and practice to reverse or ameliorate that environmental change.
The course will be founded on a series of lectures/seminars given by experts in each environmental change issue drawn from across the School of Geosciences and the University of Edinburgh, along with selected external experts. Students will gain insights and knowledge from reviewing literature, working together in small discussion groups and communicate their findings to others through poster presentations.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
- Insight into real world environmental change issues.
- Ability to critically appraise the arguments surrounding such issues and be able to communicate to others the reasons for and against a particular course of action in response to different environmental problems.
- Ability to use library and other desk-based sources of information in understanding these issues and in supporting their arguments.
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Assessment Information
Critical Summaries (max 500 words each) (5 x 6%)
Group Poster Presentation (30%)
Exam (40%) |
Special Arrangements
This course is often over-subscribed. Students for whom it is a core course will have first priority. A waiting list arrangement will be set up for other students with those in the School of GeoSciences and School of Engineering given priority over other students. Please notify the course secretary (natasa.honeybone@ed.ac.uk) during induction week if you wish to take this course.
Students will not be permitted to audit (sit-in) on this course. |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Week 1: Introduction: Course overview & process, Sustainability Principles
Readings & facilitated discussion process
Week 2: Climate Change 1
Week 3: Ecosystem Services
Week 4: Climate Change 2
Week 5: Food
Week 6: Social Change
Week 7: Water
Week 8: Poster Preparation
Week 9: Sustainability
Week 10: Poster Presentations
Week 11: Exam Preparation
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
The following papers will be summarised by students (Policy Briefs ¿ assessed) and subsequently be discussed in groups by students.
Paper 1: UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) The UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis of the Key Findings. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge.
Paper 2: Summary of: Foresight. The Future of Food and Farming (2011) Final Project Report. The Government Office for Science, London
Paper 3: 2030 Water Resources Group (2009) Charting our Water Future, Economic frameworks to inform decision making
General course reading:
McNeill, J. (2001). Something new under the sun : an environmental history of the world in the 20th century, Penguin
Middleton, N. (2003). The Global Casino: An Introduction to Environmental Issues. 3rd Edition, Arnold, London. ISBN: 0340809493
Urry, J. (2011). Climate Change and Society, John Wiley & Sons, 2011
Additional readings will be suggested by lecturers.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | PGGE11130 Environment, climate change, sustainability, politics, ethics, society |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Osbert Lancaster
Tel: (0131 6)51 4548
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Natasa Honeybone
Tel: (0131 6)50 9975
Email: |
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