|
 Academic Year:
| 2012/3 |
| Owning Department/School:
| Programmes in Natural Sciences |
| Credits:
| 6 |
| Level:
| Certificate (FHEQ level 4) |
| Period: |
Semester 2 |
| Assessment:
| EX100 |
| Supplementary Assessment: | Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations) |
| Requisites:
| Before taking this unit you must take XX10085 |
| Description:
| Aims: To enable study of the impact of human populations on the global environment, focusing specially on human population growth, use of common resources and urbanisation. Learning Outcomes: After taking this Unit students should be able to demonstrate that they: * Have knowledge of a range of scientific and technical problems concerning the current state of the global environment, and the evidential basis for such knowledge; * Understand historic and current impacts on the global environment of human population growth and technological advance; * Can access and analyse web-based governmental and NGO public databases of global environmental information; * Appreciate the importance of detailed accounting of environmental indices in appraising global situation; * Can evaluate the worth of predictive models of future environmental change, and their implications for Homo sapiens and the biosphere; * Are aware of historic and current proposals to limit human population and economic growth and their scientific, technological, philosophical and political implications. Skills: Learning and studying (T/F/A), Information handling and retrieval (T/F/A), Written communication (T/F/A), Working independently (T/F). Content: 1. Drivers of environmental change: population growth; urbanisation (urbanisation prospects, city as a system, sustainable cities), economic growth (production, consumption, material use; frameworks for integrated environmental assessment). 2. Global issues: current states of the following global indices: Soils and food security; Biodiversity and the natural world; Fisheries and the oceans; Freshwater resources; Energy reserves; Air quality and pollution; Climate change) and their measure (ecological footprint) 3. Regional problems: environmental challenges in Africa, Asia & Pacific, Europe and Polar region 4. Pollution on a global scale: Persistent organic pollutants, Emerging contaminants (endocrine disruptors and other contaminants) 5. Measuring the State of the Planet: remote sensing, ground measurements, historical data and computer models 6. The revolution of satellite remote sensing: tools and applications 7. Monitoring the oceans: from space and underwater. From radar to acoustics. |
| Programme availability: |
XX10212 is Optional on the following programmes:Programmes in Natural Sciences
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