Environmental Management and Sustainable Development

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module explores contemporary debates on environmental management and sustainable development from a perspective that bridges physical and human geography. It examines the development of core scientific and social theories and discourses that underpin contemporary management of the environment and sustainable development. In particular it explores the trade offs between the three different pillars of sustainability; economics, environment and society. These trade offs are explored in relation to a range of real world problems, including climate change, biodiversity loss and energy use. The module explicitly deals at a range of geographical scales, from the global to the local, as well as considering different approaches to the management of natural resources.

Environmental Risks and Hazards

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

This module introduces the risks and hazards associated with the Earth's natural environments. It considers the timescales, magnitudes and frequencies of the associated processes, and the assessment and management of resultant risks and hazards. These are illustrated from a number of case studies, which may include hazards arising from tectonic, mass movement, climate, ice and snow, atmospheric and sea-level processes. A particular focus of the module will be on hazards and risks in cold regions, where environmental change is particularly rapid and where there are growing pressures from resource exploration and extraction.

Quantitative and Analytical Skills

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

This module provides you with essential skills in quantitative and analytical methods, enabling you to evaluate different types of numerical data in human and physical geography. Topics include essential maths, trigonometry, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, least squares regression, mechanics and modelling.

Each week a generic lecture introduces a particular topic and this is supported by practical-based workshops in which you gain experience in these skills. The workshops are based on exercises related to the substantive content of the modules of Geographies of Development and Inequality (for BA Geographers) and The Natural World 2 (for BSc Geographers). To provide intellectual coherence, you will be placed in workshop groups based upon your degree programme.

Study Skills in Geography and Ecology

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module provides you with training in basic study skills for degree-level work. Topics include organisation, data resources, critical writing, referencing, critical thinking and reading, presentations, visual representation of data, GIS and maps, remote sensing.

Each week a generic lecture introduces a particular study skill and this is supported by practical-based workshops in which you gain experience in these skills. The workshops are based on exercises related to the substantive content of the modules of Place, Space and Landscape (for BA Geographers) and The Natural World 1 (for BSc Geographers). To provide intellectual coherence, you will be placed  in workshop groups based upon your degree programme. A residential fieldtrip also takes place, currently in the village of Alfriston, in the South Downs.

The Natural World 1

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This interdisciplinary module provides you with a foundation for studying physical geography and ecology. After introducing systems theory and major evolutionary and ecological questions, it considers geology (Earth structure and composition, continental drift, plate tectonics, geological time), setting a framework for studying macro-evolution (patterns and processes, history of life, major extinctions and radiations, historical biogeography). This is followed by an introduction to earth system science, focusing on the hydrosphere and biosphere, and leads into macro-ecology, where we discuss local to global patterns of biodiversity, factors controlling species distribution and abundance, biogeography.

The Natural World 2

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

This module follows directly on from the Natural World 1. Continuing the theme of earth system science, it discusses the atmosphere and cryosphere and their links, through global biogeochemical cycles, to other earth systems. Environmental processes and change (e.g. climate forcings and feedback) lead into a consideration of population ecology (population growth, regulation, conservation and species interactions), community ecology (trophic structures and food webs, biodiversity, ecosystem services) and applied ecology (harvesting, conservation biology, habitat fragmentation and ecological restoration).

Evolution of Biodiversity

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

Most biologists specialise in some aspect of either molecular or organismal biology. Evolution unites these approaches, emphasising their inter-relation.

Firstly, much of molecular biology only makes sense in the light of organismal biology (i.e. behaviour, ecology, etc.). Secondly, many problems in organismal biology can only be solved by understanding Molecular Biology. Hence Theodosius Dobzhansky's boast that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution".

This module covers the ideas you need for later modules and encourages you to critically assess evidence for yourself. You might even agree with Dobzhansky when he says that "I am a creationist and an evolutionist!"

Genetics and Ecology

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

A striking feature of biodiversity is its nested hierarchical structure, including  genes, cells, organisms, groups, populations, communities, ecosystems, biosphere and Gaia. Each level in the hierarchy can be described by its lower levels, but also has emergent properties. This raises a question: at which level does selection act (i.e. produce adaptations)? Often this produces a Necker's cube situation: e.g. is some feature best viewed from the gene's point of view or the whole organism's? This module concentrate on levels of life's hierarchy above single cells, culminating in the Gaia hypothesis: organisms and their inorganic surroundings form a complex system maintaining Earth for life.

Geographies of Development and Inequality

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 1

The module examines the geography of development and the processes producing development and inequality from a global perspective. It looks at globalisation and the global integration of economies and societies, the geography of the creation and distribution of wealth and income and the processes that drive them at a global scale and in developed (Europe) and developing (East Asia and China) parts of the world. It examines the theories that geographers have developed to explain the changing map of development and considers the impact of public policies at a range of scales. It also aims to examine the linkages between places that compose a complex mosaic of development and inequality around the world.

Place, Space and Landscape

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 1

This module provides you with a grounding in the history, traditions and approaches that have shaped contemporary human geography. These include the fields of regional geography, radical geography and Marxism, urban and rural geography, economic geography, social and cultural geography, and political and historical geography. It concludes with a consideration of contemporary approaches to society and space.

Environmental Research Skills (BSc Geog)

15 credits
Autumn & spring teaching, Year 2

This module aims to equip students with the skills needed to carry out their final-year Geography Thesis. It provides experience in obtaining primary scientific data using a range of fieldwork, laboratory analytical and ICT methods to help them to address specific research questions. These methods will be placed in a wider research context by embedding them in a series of lectures and workshops about topographic mapping, microclimate, invertebrates, freshwater ecology, population estimation, plant ecology and soils. This preparation includes an introduction to the scientific method, how best to collect samples, and how to use statistics to analyse your data. Some of your field and laboratory work will be based around a single study site on campus in order to elucidate the coupling amongst numerous environmental parameters and processes.

Geography Overseas Field Class

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

In year 2 all students studying at Sussex go on a field class, either overseas or a non-residential one in Sussex. We offer an extensive ¿ and unrivalled ¿ set of international field class options for those who wish to choose them. In 2013, we will be taking trips to the US (Los Angeles), China and Vietnam. Students will carry out data collection for a period of about 10 days. Analysis and writing up of a learning diary will take place upon their return. The field class presents an opportunity for faculty to familiarise students with a location in which they themselves may conduct research and gives students the experience of carrying out their own research in that location.

Global Climate Change

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

This module takes an interdisciplinary view on the scientific basis of claims of global climate change, the human responsibility and the future implications of the change. In doing so it is largely based around theoretical and evidence based elements of climate science. Half of the module is dedicated to providing a sound basis for undergraduate level critical understanding of the science of contemporary climate change for the present-day and in the future. The other half provides the foundations for a critical understanding of the basis of future climate impacts.

Global Landscape Dynamics

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

Global Landscape Dynamics focuses on the geomorphological processes that underpin landscape sensitivity and vulnerability to changing environmental conditions whether natural or human-induced. Geomorphologists study the world's most visually appealing landscapes and this module introduces key theoretical concepts that inform environmental management on engineering timescales. The behaviour of landscape components and their response to dynamic forcing factors are examined under a variety of climatic conditions, from hot to cold and hyperarid to wet extremes. You are introduced to the properties of earth surface materials, how they are shaped and how they interact with hydrology and ecology via climatic controls. These themes form the basis for examining the dynamics of slopes, rivers, coasts, glaciers, permafrost and deserts, as well as landscapes developed in particular rock types such as limestone and granite. In the context of global environmental change this module provides the intellectual framework for understanding the impact of natural and human forcing factors on the world's landscapes.

Conservation Biology 1

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

After an introduction to the major threats to global biodiversity, the module will explore a series of broad conservation themes. The first half will focus on the species level, exploring some of the particular threats faced, why species become rare and endangered, and what measures can be taken to halt or reverse population declines and how populations of threatened species can be restored. The module then adopts a habitat and ecosystem focus, working up from a consideration of specific habitats and their management to a landscape approach and exploring methods for repairing damaged habitats and ecosystems.

Conservation Biology II

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

The module follows logically from the Conservation Biology I module taught in Term 1. It starts with an in-depth consideration of the major threats to world biodiversity that were first introduced in Conservation Biology I. It then considers the national, European and international system of conservation designations and their associated legal framework. After a consideration of how modern molecule genetics can be used to clarify and address various conservation issues, the module finishes with considering how people and wildlife interact, both positively and negatively, and how emergent conflicts can be resolved.

Environmental Perspectives on Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

The module explores development with an explicit focus on environmental issues. You will look at the relationships between development and the environment: the consequences of development on the environment, environmental constraints to development, and problems of development in marginal environments. You will examine how the environment and issues around sustainability have been considered (or ignored) in relation to development and how this has changed over time. The module includes historical perspectives on environment and development, illustrating continuities and changes in policies related to environment and development. It also explores core issues around environmental management and development in relation to key resources, such as wildlife, forests and water.

Geographical Information Systems

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

This module is designed to introduce you to the various components that constitute a Geographical Information System (GIS), while providing you with practical skills in using these tools. Using leading GIS software, you will gain direct experience of a range of data collection and input, database, analytical and visualisation techniques. These will include:

• georeferencing
• vector/raster integration
• and data classification.

This methodology will be illustrated through a range of social and environmental applications, emphasising its decision-assisting potential and looking at some real world examples from the fields of disaster management and development.

Globalisation and Empire

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

This module examines the key social, political, economic and cultural shifts that shaped the modern European empires, placing particular emphasis on Victorian Britain and its Empire during the 19th century. You will consider the British metropole and the colonial world within a single analytical framework, focusing on the trans­-imperial connections that laid the foundations of modern globalisation. You also explore the postcolonial traces of Empire in British, Australasian, Indian and North American contexts.

Ice Age Earth

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

This module examines the ways in which the earth's environmental and climatic processes have changed during the recent Ice Ages, approximately the last 2.6 million years. You explore the physical, biological and chemical evidence for these past changes using a range of different records (including ocean sediments, ice cores, stable isotopes and fossil plants and insects) and couple this with an assessment of natural forcing mechanisms, geological dating techniques and earth-surface processes. This broad, interdisciplinary approach provides a valuable `palaeo' perspective from which to evaluate the evidence for 21st century global warming and associated environmental change and will be attractive to you if you are studying physical geography or the environmental and biological sciences.

Introduction to Sustainable Development

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 2

This module aims to provide an understanding of the principles of sustainable development and, in particular, an introduction to the role of science and technology in contributing to key sustainable development challenges. We explore the origins of the concept of sustainable development and the core ideas that underpin it. We examine the ways in which sustainable development is interpreted by different interest groups, along with the assumptions made and the contradictions that arise. These ideas are illustrated through a series of contemporary case studies, which highlight efforts to address sustainable development challenges from the local to international, and examine the role of science and technology within these contexts.

Resource Management

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 2

This module provides an introduction to the principles of the management of natural resources in the industrialised and developing world. It helps students to understand and describe major components of resource management problems and how to use this knowledge to explore practical resource management issues. It analyses competing priorities and value judgments in natural resource management and human pressures on resources due to population, social and economic demands. It explores the economics of major resource problems in land use, agriculture, forestry, recreation, conservation, and in fresh and salt waters, and examines the role of the ecology alongside other disciplines in addressing the key resource management challenges.

Work Placement (Geography)

60 credits
Autumn & spring teaching, Year 2

Geography Thesis

30 credits
Autumn & spring teaching, Year 3

During your final year, you are required to prepare a study to illustrate their ability to design and implement an empirical investigation in geography. The Geography Project entails the collection and analysis of primary data. You will have been given instruction in specific techniques of collecting and handling data and primary source material as well as advice on the presentational format required in the Level 2 module Research Skills, and will be given individual supervision in the design, conduct and writing up of your project throughout your final year.

Advances in Climate Sciences

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 3

This module is an introduction to climate science with particular focus on climate feedbacks, climate observations, climate variability and climate analyses. The module will highlight the major challenges in climate sciences (e.g. global carbon cycles and aerosols), and significant climate phenomena, such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Practical sessions will enable you to gain hands-on experience in creating climate analysis and statistical plots using real-life data from climate observatories and outputs from existing climate models.

Animal-Plant Interactions

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 3

This module examines the impact of social, economic and technological transformations on people, the environment and ecology in the Tropics. A wide temporal perspective will be adopted incorporating historical perspectives, present day impacts and future scenarios. The module will also compare local and international perspectives on wildlife, ecotourism and environmental protection. You will cover, amongst other topics:

• the continuing impact of colonisation
• sustainability in marginal environments
• the roles of indigenous environmental knowledge
• intellectual property rights
• and biotechnology.

Climate Change Policy

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module provides you with a stimulating and critical introduction to contemporary national and international approaches to climate change policy. You will gain a sound knowledge of core principles from the discipline of environmental economics, which underpins the majority of existing climate change policy mechanisms, such as green taxes and tradable emissions permits. This understanding is then built upon to engage in a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary climate policy approaches and the ethical issues they raise, including problems of inter-generational equity and the tensions between countries at differing stages of development. Throughout the module the theory and ideas covered are applied to real world examples of contemporary climate change policy problems, leaving you with an in depth understanding of contemporary climate policy debates and the tools required to critically engage with them.

Climate Change Policy

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 3

This module provides you with a stimulating and critical introduction to contemporary national and international approaches to climate change policy. You will gain a sound knowledge of core principles from the discipline of environmental economics, which underpins the majority of existing climate change policy mechanisms, such as green taxes and tradable emissions permits. This understanding is then built upon to engage in a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary climate policy approaches and the ethical issues they raise, including problems of inter-generational equity and the tensions between countries at differing stages of development. Throughout the module the theory and ideas covered are applied to real world examples of contemporary climate change policy problems, leaving you with an in depth understanding of contemporary climate policy debates and the tools required to critically engage with them.

Coastal Processes and Coastal Management

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module introduces you to the range of coastal processes and explores corresponding coastal management strategies. Coastal processes studied include:

• waves,tides and sea level rise
• sediment sources and dynamics
• and the geomorphology and ecology of the world's soft and hard coastlines.

The module also examines global strategies for shoreline management, including:

• coastal hazards and their mitigation
• coastal engineering
• planning for rising sea levels
• and managing human use and occupancy of coastal environments.

Cultures of Colonialism

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module introduces you to the colonial practices, discourses and cultures across the nineteenth century British Empire and their legacies. It examines the British metropole and its colonies within a single analytical framework, tracking the exchange of people, ideas and objects along the networks that connected them. Initially you will cover the main approaches to the study of British colonialism, including traditional imperial history and postcolonialism. The latter part of the module investigates cultural, social and political impacts of British colonialism at specific sites across the empire, including India, North America and New Zealand.

Environment, Ecology and Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module examines the impact of social and economic transformations, trade and technological development on people, environment and ecology in the tropics. The analysis includes a historical perspective, present-day impacts and future scenarios. Topics include problems of water and energy supply and their health and environmental consequences; indigenous environmental knowledge; intellectual property rights and biotechnology; local and national perspectives on wildlife, ecotourism and environmental protection.

Environmental History - Landscape and Archaeology

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

We live in a world which has been shaped by human hands. This module will start with an introduction to the techniques of environmental reconstruction and environmental archaeology and then look in detail at the development of the British landscape over the last 10,000 years. Where appropriate, information from other temperate areas will be considered, such as: Western Europe, North America and the Atlantic islands.

Geographies of Rising and Declining Powers: China and Europe

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module examines the relative economic performance of the main world regions, focusing particularly on comparative economic performance and political dynamics in China and Europe. The module draws on geographic and political economic theories to explain geographies of wealth, poverty and power and explores the social, political and cultural foundations of economic life. You will study the main drivers of change, situating this within a wider context of globalisation, environmental and technological change and increasing economic and political interdependence.

Geographies of Social Movements and Social Conflict

30 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 3

Global Land Change

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module examines the development of land change studies and the theoretical and methodological challenges to linking biophysical, socio-economic, and remote sensing/GIS analysis. You will gain a good knowledge of both physical and socio-economic factors. The central themes of land change science include: detection and monitoring of land cover change processes; understanding the driving forces of land change; and finally measuring the environmental impacts and consequences of those changes. As such, you will analyse the various methods used in land change science with a particular focus on remote sensing. You will look at specific changes in land, such as desertification, agricultural expansion/intensification and urbanisation as well as looking into the impacts of land change on humans, climate change, biodiversity, and the hydrological cycle.

Globalisation and Geopolitics

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

Labour Geographies and Work Migration

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This interdisciplinary module will appeal to you if you are interested in the impact of globalisation on employment relations and the related power inequalities. It focuses in particular on approaches to work migration which emphasise the agency of migrant workers in shifting the terms of employment, thus challenging the conventional wisdom on labour-capital relations. It incorporates social, cultural and political economic analysis and is concerned with labour geographies in both the global north and the global south, and their interconnectedness. The module will set changes in macro-level environments against grounded narratives of individual working lives and collective histories, including global and local perspectives.

Landscape, Nature and Representation

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module focuses upon the representation of landscapes and nature, and considers the ways in which representations are sites through which ideas, visions and imaginations are set to work. You will assess the production and impact of such representations, critically analysing a range of textual sources from a variety of origins which claim to represent landscape and natures. This will incorporate art, literature, music, the media and cartography.

Past Lives

15 credits
Autumn teaching, Year 3

This module examines how extinct species of animals made their living, how they moved, what they ate and what ate them and what sort of social lives they may have led. To do this, the module brings together techniques for environmental reconstruction, the use of comparative evidence from living organisms plus a good dose of controlled imagination. After an introduction to the relevant techniques, the module will use a case study approach to selected species from the Mesozoic to the end of the Pleistocene, including:

• T. rex and other dinosaurs
• Mammoths
• sabre-toothed cats
• and some hominins, but not any members of Genus Homo.

Permafrost and Environmental Change

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

The module examines aspects of polar regions from an interdisciplinary perspective, linking elements of physical geography, geology, permafrost science and glaciology. The aim is to provide you with a framework of knowledge and understanding of polar regions and processes from which you can summarise and critically evaluate some of the methods, hypothesis, theories and data about polar regions. You will develop knowledge of spatial variation of physical phenomena in the polar regions and understand how environmental change operating on a range of timescales affects the region.

Political Geography

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

Population and Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module examines the relationship between population issues and economic, social and environmental aspects of development. It introduces theoretical frameworks for analysing population change and assesses the consequences of population growth for food supplies and the environment at both global and local levels. It goes on to examine factors affecting the components of population change including fertility and mortality decline, changing sex ratios, the growth of megacities and international migration. Policies on health, family planning and migration are also discussed.

Rural Livelihoods in the Global South

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module considers the varied nature of rural livelihood systems in developing countries. You consider changes in livelihoods through livelihood diversification and migration, and the interconnectedness of the global and the local in causing change in rural societies. The module explores the impact of different agents of change on livelihoods. This will include the role of non-governmental organisations, the impact of modern biotechnology and the effects of trade on livelihoods, amongst other important examples. The module draws primarily (though by no means exclusively) on evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Transnationalism and Identity

30 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

This module explores the complex and multiple effects of transnational migration on everyday geographies of home, identification and belonging. The focus will be on the diverse ways in which social and cultural identities are performed in a mobile context. Particular attention will be given to the spatialisation of such identities at a variety of scales (e.g. body, home, community) and the relations between them. Theoretical and empirical research drawn upon in the module will reflect the heterogeneity within and across diasporic groups in terms of class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. You will learn that migrant identities are contingent on historical and geographical context and will situate discussions of the negotiation of belonging within debates on postcolonialism, multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism.

Tropical Rainforests: Biogeography and Conservation

15 credits
Spring teaching, Year 3

The module aims to develop an understanding of tropical rainforest (trf) ecosystems and the consequences of their great antiquity, present rapid destruction and uncertain future. You will examine and evaluate the many hypotheses attempting to explain the astonishing species richness of trfs and explore their complex ecological organization. Sustainable use of trfs is contrasted with their ever-increasing destruction by peasant farmers, timber companies, cattle ranchers and other commercial interests. You will learn about the impact of trf destruction on world climates, global biodiversity, and natural resources. Future prospects for conservation and management are assessed, including less damaging methods of timber harvesting, ecotourism, the potential of a new 'carbon market' (REDD++) and the role and contribution of scientist and international conservation organisations. The coursework and seminar series associated with the module will introduce skills of practical use to you if you decide to follow a career within conservation - the main focus being the development of an original grant proposal to the Royal Geographical Society.