• 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.

• 15 credits
• Spring 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.

• 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.

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1

It has been said that 'nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution' (Dobhansky, 1973). Understanding the principles of how the diversity of life has evolved is essential for any biologist. This module will introduce the basic theories and priciples in evolutionary biology including the mechanisms by which it works. The module will also introduce you to the diveristy of life and how it is classified using selected taxonomic groups of organisms as examples to teach the core principles.

• 15 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1

This module provides a broad introduction to the main principles of ecology and conservation. Topics to be covered include population ecology (population growth, regulation, species interactions - competition, predation, mutualisms), community ecology (trophic structures and food webs, biodiversity, ecosystem services).

We then move on to macro-ecology, where we discuss local global patterns of biodiversity, factors controlling speicies distribution, abundance and biogeography. Finally we move on to consider applied issues in ecology and conservation, including habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, harvesting and ecological restoration.

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 2

This module aims to equip you with the skills needed to carry out your final-year Geography dissertation. It provides experience in obtaining primary scientific data using a range of fieldwork, laboratory analytical and ICT methods to help you 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.

• 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.

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 2

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.

• 30 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 previous years, students have gone on 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.

• 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.

• 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 that highlight efforts to address sustainable development challenges from the local to international, and examine the role of science and technology within these contexts.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 students of Physical Geography and the Environmental, as well as Biological sciences.

• 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.

• 15 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 2

The Southeast England Field Class introduces you to a particular field destination in SE England usually including the local Sussex region. After a series of preparatory lectures you will carry out data collection in situ for a period of about 10-14 days. Analysis and the writing up of a research report will take place upon your return. The module presents an opportunity for faculty to familiarise you with a location in which you conduct research and gives you the experience of carrying out your own research in that location.

• 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.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

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.

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

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.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

In this module, you look at the connections between disasters, the environment and development. 

The negative impacts of environmental and climatic change and environmentally-related disasters threaten to roll back decades of development gains. Building resilient and sustainable societies means addressing climate and disaster risks, understanding the links between these issues and integrating these risks, as well as potential opportunities, into development planning and budgeting. 

The module is split into three parts:

• concepts, exploring similarities and differences in concepts and frameworks and terminology used in these different areas
• problems, looking at issues of droughts, floods and food security, complex disasters, environmental migration, trapped populations and resource wars
• solutions, examining the possible avenues that may help address these problems, including remittance bonds, serious games, blended knowledge and science for humanitarian emergencies and resilience.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

Conflict and violence are major components of social process, transformation and change – locally, nationally and internationally. This module gives you an overview of how geographers (and other social scientists) have thought about, studied, and explained, violence and conflict. For example, whether violence and conflict are considered an exceptional situation or a ‘normal’ aspect of societal change.

The module highlights the multiple scales at which conflict and violence occur, from domestic violence to international war. Nevertheless, emphasis will be placed on how violence and conflict affect people (and groups of people) at the micro-level of personal experience rather than simply looking at macro-level aggregate patterns. You will be encouraged to examine the differences between diverse forms of violence. For example, does it make sense to consider structural violence (eg racism, sexism) in the same way as physical (or direct) violence?

The first third of the module will focus on the theories and concepts through which violence and conflict have been explained. The second two-thirds will apply these theories and concepts to a range of diverse examples (such as resource wars, undocumented migration, war games and toy guns, counter-insurgency and urban policing).

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

Earth surface processes and natural hazards pose significant challenges to society and infrastructure.

The expansion of global population and urbanisation, coupled with the potential impacts of climate change on natural processes, are anticipated to result in more frequent natural disasters and an increase in their associated risks.

An understanding of geohazards can be used to evaluate the opportunities for sustainable development and engineering through cost effective mitigation of natural hazards and risk.

The module integrates academic and commercial training with real case work. The course structure and content is based on real-world problems and will be taught by leading practitioners and academic experts in the discipline.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

You explore the meaning of home and how this is represented in literature and film. 

Workshops focus on domestic practices of home in terms of:  

• consumption
• display and identification
• the inhabitation of the embodied and sensuous home space
• family
• heteronormativity and gendered practices of home (un)making
• the lifecourse and home as a site of childhood and ageing
• the politics of housing and home, including displacement, domicide and homelessness
• migration, belonging and transnational home-making.

Our studies of the representation of home in literature and film will be complemented by a trip to the Geffrye Museum of Home.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

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.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 3

The module aims to:

• familiarise students with the management practices required to maintain key habitats in western Europe, and with conservation issues concerning specific groups of organisms in those habitats
• examine issues in practical conservation at the level of NGOs, governments and society in general
• introduce students to professionals currently working in conservation, in order to give them a realistic idea of what the work involves, as well as an indication of employment opportunities.

The module will consist of a combination of lectures, seminars by internal and external guest speakers and field visits to local nature reserves for demonstrations of practical conservation management and survey techniques.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 4

Environmental change has become a central global issue with serious implications for the social and natural world. There is a need to monitor the earth's signs of change, especially where ground information is spatially limited, filled with error, or unavailable. Remote sensing datasets are vital in monitoring local, regional and global changes.

This module enables you to understand and use remote-sensing datasets to answer fundamental questions about our changing planet. This will involve:

• understanding the nature of remote sensing
• the different instruments and techniques and processing and manipulation of raw signals
• applying it to different fields within the earth and environmental sciences (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere).

Remote Sensing in the atmosphere is used for weather monitoring, greenhouse gas detection, and pollution. Remote sensing in the cryosphere is used in determining the presence, absence and change of ice cover over the earth's surface. Remote sensing in the hydrosphere monitors the oceans, organic and inorganic ocean constituents, sea surface temperatures, el nino events, land water fluxes, and flooding events. Remote Sensing in the biosphere monitors the component of the earth that supports life, and is sensitive to changes in climate, such as vegetation structure, composition, land cover types, soil moisture, leaf chemical components, phenology, change detection, plant stress and photosynthesis, transpiration and surface temperatures.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 3

Achieving food security for 10 billion people while reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture is a major challenge of the next century.

In this module, we will discuss papers on the multiple dimensions of this challenge, including the biophysical, economic, nutritional, socio-political, and institutional.

We will take a global perspective on the issues, drawing upon both global-scale research as well as case studies from different regions of the world to understand the geography of agricultural production, its environmental footprint, and of malnutrition.

Key topics include:

• global change and sustainable agriculture
• what is food security?
• globalisation: the economics, finance and trade of food
• impact of climate change: mitigation and adaptation potential of agriculture
• farm management: soil-water-fertilizers
• livestock
• emerging issues in food security: biofuels, GMOs, labels, diets, urban agriculture, organic agriculture, permaculture.

• 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. You also explore the impact of different agents of change on livelihoods. This will include:

• the role of non-governmental organisations
• the impact of modern biotechnology
• 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.

• 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.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

No other discipline in the environmental and earth sciences could claim the diversity of research themes and practices as Physical Geography.

From the highly technical, the applied and policy-orientated, to the theoretically rich and philosophical, and from the past through the present to the future, physical geography research – including at Sussex – embraces all possible worlds.

Through a series of reading-led seminars, this module will introduce the student to some of the debates at the critical cutting edge of physical geographical scholarship pertinent to ongoing research in the ‘Climate Science and Society’ and ‘Applied Geomorphology’ research clusters, as well as exploring natural research syntheses with other disciplines and sub-fields (for example, sustainability, biogeography and development).

Each week a different member of faculty will lead discussion on their area of research, introducing questions of literature review, methodology, application and epistemology.

Alongside reading foundational texts and/or work in progress, discussions will focus on exploring how theory and evidence combine in critical geographical research.

In the second half of the term, you will be given the opportunity to read and critically review a set of real grant proposals and take part in a mock grant review panel. This will not only provide a hands-on appreciation of the assessment and grading process associated with research bids, but also help to develop critical appraisal skills in an environment where you will also learn directly from your peers.

The final weeks of term will be devoted to research project formulation workshops. In so doing, the module will expose you to geographical debates, profile the diversity of research processes and practices at Sussex, and begin the process of project formulation for the extended research project in the final term.

• 60 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 4

In this module, you complete an extended piece of research on a topic relevant to your course. You are given one-on-one supervision and learn relevant research methodologies.

The project is 12,000 words in length and will involve either desk-based or original empirical study.

You will also give a 20-minute presentation in the style of an academic paper, detailing your research question, methodology and initial analysis and conclusions, and will be given both verbal and written feedback.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

This module explores a series of environmental issues and challenges through the lens of different political economy approaches. Early sessions survey different ways of thinking about the environment in political economy terms of who wins, who loses, how and why from the prevailing distribution of benefits and burdens of resource use and allocation. Concepts from political economy, political ecology and ecological economics among others are then drawn upon to make sense of the actors, institutions and decision-making procedures at work in a range of key issue areas such as climate change, forests, energy, food and water. We explore key contemporary debates within each of these areas and encourage you to develop your own critical thinking on these issues.

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

Taught by Professor David Norbury, author of Soil and Rock Description, this module provides an introduction to methods of site investigation, logging of soil and rock core, sedimentology, stratigraphy, structure, and soil and rock testing. The latest standards and codes of practice, including Health and Safety, CDM and EC7 will be covered. The module is taught in the field and laboratory, where you get to log borehole cores donated to the lab.  Project work will comprise demonstration of soil and rock description in the field and laboratory, soil characterisation and testing, and preparation of factual reports.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

• report, review and evaluate the methodologies and problems of describing soils and rocks and carrying out site investigations, in accordance with Eurocodes.
• collect, analyse and interpret primary data on soil and rock properties obtained from specific site investigations.
• recognise and interpret the geological and geomorphological context of soils and rocks.                                                     
• appraise the geomorphological processes that have affected or may affect in the future specific examples of soils and rocks examined in a site investigation

• 15 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

Visualisation, interpretation and synthesis of spatial datasets is an essential requirement of geological and geomorphological assessment. This module will review the various sources of remote sensing and digital mapping data, software and interpretation methods, and thematic map outputs typically required of commercial projects. Project work will comprise collation, processing and terrain analysis for a site of choice, including terrestrial and subsea terrain.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

• visualise, interpret and synthesise spatial datasets depicting terrain conditions.
• summarise and evaluate the methods, problems and applicability of terrain analysis and digital mapping techniques.     
• interpret the geomorphological processes that have shaped terrains and deposited sediments on it at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.
• assess specific examples of terrain conditions through mapping and report writing.   

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 4

This course introduces you to the physical science basis of climate change, recognising that the audience is comprised substantially of non-climate specialists.

The course provides you with an overview of how the global climate system operates. This includes explanation of the different components of the climate system and how they interact; the radiation budget and the concept of radiative forcing which is the main driver of climate change; the composition of the atmosphere, how heat is transferred around the planet through the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean; how the concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is regulated by bio-geochemical cycles on land and ocean. You then consider the natural and human influences on the radiation budget over recent millennia and how we can attribute observed climate changes to these. You conclude by evaluating projections of the future climate and associated uncertainty.

There is strong emphasis on how climate influences society and livelihoods, for exemplify through extreme climate and weather events. Throughout, you will gain an understanding of the methods and tools used in studying climate, notably climate datasets and climate models. You will document the history of climate change science, and exemplify the structures which steer science including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The course is specifically designed to be accessible for students from a range of academic and professional backgrounds.