Unit information: Environmental Risks, Management and Policy in 2018/19

Unit name	Environmental Risks, Management and Policy
Unit code	GEOG30015
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Jo House
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None. This course is suitable to both physical and human geographers.
Co-requisites	None.
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This is an interdisciplinary unit, aiming to equip students to combine evidence from both physical and social sciences to assess and apply them to responding to real world problems of the risks of environmental change. This will include detection of environmental risks and attribution to different drivers; management of risk through adaptation and mitigation including disaster risk management; and application of environmental policy from national through to international scales. Many of these issues represent a complex mix between natural science and the social sciences, requiring the combination of evidence of the physical causes and consequences or change, the effects of socio-economic status and condition on vulnerability to change, as well as the legal, economic political and institutional responses.

The course is a mixture of practical skills (such as assessing risk under deep uncertainty and writing a policy briefing) and taught material. It includes guest lectures from practitioners in government and other agencies (e.g. UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), UK Environment Agency).

The aims and learning outcomes will be demonstrated and achieved through exploring different environmental change topics such as climate change, air/water quality and flood disaster risk management.

The following transferable skills are developed in this Unit:

• Analytical skills and problem solving;
• Critical evaluation of literary sources;
• Synthesis of scientific evidence;
• Communication to a non-expert audience.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this Unit students should be able to:

1. interpret and apply methods for assessing evidence, uncertainty and risk for various environmental issues such as climate change, flooding and air/water quality;
2. outline and evaluate risk assessment methods under present day conditions and future changes;
3. identify and discuss approaches to mitigation, adaptation and risk transfer for various environmental issues such as climate change, flooding and air/water quality;
4. assess the role of national and international policy and management practices in environmental risk mitigation and adaptation;
5. identify key scientific information that is of relevance to policy or practice;
6. identify policies and practices for which scientific evidence is of relevance;
7. have developed skills to synthesise and communicate scientific information and policy context in an effective and appropriate written manner to a non-scientific audience.

Teaching Information

Lectures & practical sessions

Assessment Information

Final Exam (50%) [ILOs 1-6]

Policy Briefing Report, 4 pages (30%) [ILOs 3-7]

Practical Report on risk assessment, 2 pages (20%) [ILOs 1-2]

Reading and References

Recommended Reading

• IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
• IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
• IPCC (2012), Summary for Policymakers. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation Rep., Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA.
• Bell, McGillivray and Pedersen, (2013) Environmental Law, Oxford University Press.
• Keith, D. W.: When is it appropriate to combine expert judgments?, Clim. Change, 33, 139-143, 1996.

Plus other references as provided by course tutors.