This module examines current topics in environmental and engineering geology – the practical application of geoscience principles in the solving of environmental and engineering problems. Through a mix of lecture, discussion and practical sessions, you will cover various aspects of environmental geochemistry and radioactivity, hydrology/hydrogeology, and engineering geology and show how the interconnections between these and other academic areas (oceanography, biology, geography, geomorphology, civil engineering etc.) allow the better understanding and management of major and complex contemporary issues such as Nuclear Decommissioning, Water Resource, Offshore Renewable Energy Development, Carbon Capture and Storage, Urban Regeneration, Waste Management, Public Health and Environmental Protection. The module develops a range of wider skills relevant to employers, including numeracy and analysis skills, problem solving and group working.
There is now an overwhelming scientific and political consensus that climate change is occurring as a result of human activity and that there is an urgent need for action to address the causes and effects of this. This module will consider the place of film, television, and digital media in this global crisis and ask what we, as film students and scholars, can contribute to ongoing debates and initiatives. Cinema is inextricably linked with the exploitation of fossil fuels, the modernity they supported, and the resulting environmental impact. While fossil fuels had been consumed for hundreds of years before the arrival of moving image technology, the twentieth century saw an exponential growth in energy consumption, and especially the turn towards petroleum usage. Like any industry, cinema and television consume resources in its production and consumption. Yet cinema has also shaped our understanding and use of natural resources. Nature programmes construct our idea of what the environment is. Advertising promotes consumption. Narrative fictions can likewise glamourise products, lifestyles and behaviours, or depict the catastrophic effects of climate change. Cinema is used as a tool within many industries for scientific and educational purposes. New media have also been adopted by activists and politicians to enact change. This module will provide an opportunity to examine these myriad relationships and impacts between cinematic media and the environment. It will look at familiar narrative feature films from this new perspective and introduce new examples and types of moving image practice and their aesthetic models. It will encourage students to explore interdisciplinary understandings of media and their role in the world.
This module is designed to provide you with hands-on experience of a wide range of contemporary environmental issues and techniques, and an understanding of how we make use of data to answer environment related research questions. The module is primarily delivered during a residential field trip (prevailing circumstances permitting). During the first part of the trip, you will visit different environments and learn key data collection strategies. The second part of the trip will involve undertaking a group research project, which offers you the opportunity to put into practice the skills learnt across the core Environmental Science curriculum from your first year.
The module explores the concept of environmental justice and looks at the role of law in both aggravating and addressing environmental injustices. In an age of climate and biodiversity crises, the idea of environmental justice is at the heart of many of the most contentious and urgent debates in environmental law, at both the domestic and international level. In this module, students will have the opportunity to discuss and research a wide range of environmental law themes and issues (including access to clean water, mining and extraction, climate change, biodiversity and extinctions, plastic and pollution, animal rights, fisheries and the ocean, among others) and gain an understanding of the social, economic, political and environmental justice dimensions of each of these themes. In each class, students will learn about and discuss important case studies and case law, and in this way gain an expansive understanding of how law responds to (and creates) environmental problems, and how those affected by environmental injustice use the law to resist environmental harm.
This module will enable students to apply their understanding of environmental problems and assess potential solutions through the application of law, policy, and management. The lecture sessions will introduce and analyse the theoretical development and structure of a legislative and management theme, followed up with an assessment of the application the law and management through practical exercises and discussion of case studies. There will be a focus on what the legislation, policy and environmental management will mean to students when they are working with businesses, government (national and local), and the public after graduation. The over-riding philosophy of the module is to explore how the application of environmental management and enforcement of legislation can lead to positive environmental changes in the commercial and domestic sectors. The emphasis in this class will be on discussion and group exercises. Students will be encouraged to participate in debates at every opportunity as opposed to traditional lecture-based classes. Students from outside the School of Geography and Environmental Science wishing to take this module should contact the module lead to discuss their academic background and determine if this module is suitable.
This module will enable students to apply their understanding of environmental problems in business and practice, and assess potential solutions through the application of law, policy, and management. The lecture sessions will introduce and analyse the theoretical development and structure of a legislative theme, followed up with an assessment of the application and management of the law through discussion of case studies. There will be a focus on what the legislation, regulation, and policy will mean to students when they are working with businesses, government (national and local), and the public after graduation. The over-riding philosophy of the module is to explore how the application and enforcement of legislation and regulation can lead to positive environmental changes in the industrial, commercial and political sectors. The emphasis in this class will be on discussion and group exercises. Students will be encouraged to participate in debates at every opportunity as opposed to traditional lecture based classes.
See aims and learning outcomes
This module focuses on environmental issues across a range of themes and provides a focal point for the first year of the undergraduate Environmental Science programmes, in terms of knowledge and understanding, and study skills. The module considers knowledge and understanding of the environment in an inter- and multi-disciplinary basis. The summative coursework assignment works towards combining and analysing information to enable prediction of change and response to interventions. The seminars demonstrate the wide variety of information which is available about the environment, and the ways in which information can be drawn together to understand environmental processes and to inform decisions regarding the environment. Good practice and efficiency in study are introduced via elements of lectures and tutorials. Approaches to developing and reinforcing the generic and subject specific skills needed to be an effective environmental scientist are also provided. Lecture sessions are used as a means to present and consider contemporary environmental issues, and to augment academic and employability skills. Lecture sessions on key skills are aligned with and complementary to tutorials. Tutorial activities and tasks have two main purposes: (1) to reinforce and develop further the academic skills introduced in lectures (e.g. via guided self-study exercises), and (2) encourage student-centred learning via formative assessments focusing on contemporary environmental topics or themes.
This course seeks to make use of innovative and cutting edge technologies in the field of Earth surface process monitoring to address the real world challenges encountered by commercial and/or governmental organisations. Students on this module will tackle a real world geomorphological challenge using novel monitoring and processing techniques. The nature of the challenge set will vary between cohorts depending upon the evolving needs of the client or organisation involved, but examples include flood monitoring, high resolution monitoring of coastal environments and management/monitoring of nationally protected eco-geomorphic environments. Students will gain a scientific understanding of the geomorphological system of interest which will underpin their approach to how best to tackle the problem in hand. The module will make use of technology such as Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles, Terrestrial Laser Scanners, differential Global Positioning Systems and other survey techniques, alongside state of the art processing methods such as Structure from Motion and 3D point cloud processing. Students will work in teams to analyse the challenge, devise a theoretical solution and ultimately field test it. Teams will work with an awareness of budgetary constraints set by the client (for development and for the overall operational cost of the proposed solution). Teams will maintain a blog outlining the thought process behind the development of a solution.
This module introduces students to the main concepts involved in epidemiological analyses. The main epidemiological study designs are introduced and two lectures focus on methods used to analyse case-control studies whilst another two focus on cohort studies; a further lecture explores the issues around ecological studies and meta-analysis. Throughout the course students are encouraged to think about the important issues of bias and confounding and how they might influence the results of epidemiological analyses. The issue of causality is also emphasised and students are taught about causal thinking and using Directed Acyclic Graphs. More interactive lectures help students to consider how they would design an epidemiological study and how to weigh the evidence from the results of an analysis.
This module offers an opportunity to explore globalisation in health and healthcare from the perspective of individuals, communities and populations. You will apply epidemiological approaches to analyse and evaluate contemporary public health issues, enhancing your understanding of disease patterns, risk factors and the effectiveness of health interventions in diverse populations. As part of this module, you will develop an understanding of the connection between human health and the health of our planet’s natural systems. You will consider the nurse's role in addressing health inequalities, promoting sustainable healthy lifestyles, preventing disease and addressing determinants of health.
Epistemology is dedicated to questions about the nature and structure of knowledge and justified belief. Some central questions in epistemology include: - What is knowledge? Why is it valuable? - To gain knowledge from a reliable source, does one need to know that the source is reliable, or is it enough for the source simply to be reliable? - What is justified belief? Is evidence necessary for justified belief, or can some beliefs be justified without evidence? - Is the justification of a person's beliefs determined just by the person's mental states, or might factors external to the mind play an essential role? - Where, if at all, do sceptical arguments go astray? While epistemology has traditionally focused on individual knowers, the field has recently taken an interpersonal turn, examining new questions concerning the social dimensions of knowledge. The course will cover some of this new work in social epistemology in addition to classics in individual epistemology.
