Geography

You take a weekly one hour tutorial with a member of academic staff in a group of 6-8 students. The module develops your academic skills and helps you develop your personal and professional skills for study and for work. You will work on a range of geographical/environmental management problems linked to the core first year modules The tutorials involve discussion, debate, and problem-solving, and provide you with a regular forum for monitoring your progress.

You will examine sustainability at local, national and global scales and explore a range of case studies. Sustainability is a concept that cuts across disciplines and provides a framework for managing environmental issues. Project work will allow you apply your knowledge of the principles of sustainable development to assess and classify real-world problems and suggest solutions.

This module provides a broad introduction to the physical processes that take place within the geosphere and biosphere, focusing on those linked to the nature of landforms, global ecosystems and environmental change. You will develop a sound understanding of the inter-relationships between physical environmental processes and human activity, including natural hazards, climate change and biodiversity.

This module examines the role of people in shaping the human environment and focuses on key concepts such as place, power, scale and networks. You will learn about how the shape and form of cities is influenced by social and political issues, and how new technologies are changing the nature of human interactions in cities, states and across the world.

Environmental resources include food, energy and water, and spatial and temporal variation in the availability of these resources is arguably the most important issue for society in the twenty first century. This module introduces energy and water resources as fundamental concepts and examines current problems related to climate change, food security and pollution.

The first part of this module provides you with the applied skills to manage and analyse data using descriptive statistics, inference, graphs, hypothesis testing, and correlation and regression. It also introduces information searching and retrieving skills, data presentation and report writing. The second part of the module involves a residential field course in the UK where you will collect, analyse and present data to put into practice what you have learned.

This innovative module supports the development of personal and professional skills. You will carry out a group-based project for an external client and learn about team work, project planning and time management. You will work with an academic advisor to write a project plan, allocate tasks to the team, carry out an investigation, and report the results to a client.

This module introduces the theory and practice of acquiring environmental data using global positioning systems, aerial photography and satellite remote sensing. It develops practical skills in the use of geographical information systems (GIS) that can be deployed in projects, dissertations and work. The module promotes hands-on learning, using state-of-the-art mapping software and mapping technologies.

Providing you with a range of research skills relevant to further study and the workplace, this module will prepare you for your final year dissertation. Through international fieldwork in an environment relevant to thematic areas being studied, and supported by a number of small group tutorials with a member of academic staff, you will learn about the research process, the nature of scientific writing, research design, risk assessment and ethical considerations, and how to write a research proposal.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to critically evaluate applied environmental science concepts, practical methodologies and complex scientific issues using a range of primary and secondary information sources.      

This module introduces the concepts and theories that underpin fluvial and glacial systems including hill slope processes, fluvial network development and glacial teleconnections. You will explore the stability characteristics of fluvial systems in UK-based fieldwork and the hydrological and geochemical properties of rivers in Alpine environments in the Fieldwork module.

Courses are available in: Arabic, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

The Dissertation is a key feature of the course providing you with an opportunity to undertake a challenging independent research project with guidance of a member of academic staff. Your research topic is defined in second year and in third year you focus on data analysis, data interpretation and report writing. The module fine-tunes your research skills and provides you with a wide range of skills that may deployed in further study or the workplace.

This module will develop your understanding of the principles of remote sensing and the issues associated with applying remote sensing data to solve real-world problems. It will expose you to a range of remotely sensed data and help you to develop a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of methodologies that employ such data.

In the first part of the module, we will critically engage with the evolution of development theories and approaches and their relationship with wider global phenomena such as colonialism and globalisation. In the second part, we will understand the concept of sustainable development and investigate a range of global challenges such as food security, poverty, inequality, migration, water supply, energy security and climate change. The module will draw upon a range of diverse case studies from the global south and the global north and will allow you to focus more in depth in the study of one of the indicated global challenges.  

This module is designed to develop your skills in understanding and creating models of the environment. The module will introduce the concepts about how models of the environment are created, the different types of models that exist and how they are formulated. You will also learn how to create models using a range of programming and coding techniques (including R, Python and Matlab). The module will start from first principles, so there is no requirement to have any prior knowledge of programming.

Courses are available in: Arabic, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

You will develop a detailed understanding of the scientific principles underlying how changing climate has an effect on the natural world, urban environments and society. Through this knowledge you will be able to appreciate the implications of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystems and society, and identify what adaptations can be made to mitigate climate change.