Geography BSc

This module introduces the general principles of physical geography. You will be able to develop a holistic understanding of how the Earth functions as a system across a range of spatial scales, focusing in particular on the functioning of key elements of this system - notably the operation of the geosphere, atmosphere, and cryosphere - and how these elements interact to influence the evolution of the system as a whole. Your assessment for this module will develop your skills in communicating and explaining complex scientific concepts.

This module establishes a foundation in the core academic skills required for critical scholarship. You will participate in small group tutorials focusing on refining your research and writing skills. Lectures explore fundamental concepts and theories within the fields of geography and environmental science, alongside essential principles of academic integrity, including proper referencing techniques. You will gain an understanding of the relationship between academic skills and their application in future careers.

The complex nature of global challenges illuminates the intricate connections between social justice and environmental change, revealing how these forces shape our world. This module goes beyond identifying problems, delving into how different stakeholders are actively developing solutions and driving positive transformation. The wider impact of our research varies from the local to the global, with benefits to the economy, society, culture, policy, health, the environment and quality of life. From revitalizing local communities to reducing risk to life, you will gain insights into how research can help shape more sustainable and equitable futures. This module takes a  case study approach to explore different opportunities aimed at addressing complex global challenges across research and practice.

Fieldwork is an integral part of geographers' and environmental scientists' skillsets. The ability to design and carry out effective field research is a useful and transferable skill. This module will provide you with valuable hands-on training in key field methods, focusing on the local area

Geographers and Environmental Scientists are well-known for having a versatile set of practical and transferable skills. This module guides you to develop key research and software methods from across the discipline, in a lecture and practical format. Lectures introduce you to research methods and skills, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Earth Observation (EO), statistics, and surveys. Practical sessions provide you with the exposure to industry-standard software, enabling you to develop sought after geographical and environmental employability skills.

This module provides an introduction to key principles, relations and processes that contribute to a diverse array of social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of human geography.  You will have the opportunity to learn about spatial patterns of power, inequality and interdependence produced by economic and cultural globalisation; how we experience these at the local scale; and how they have changed over time.  Through lectures and seminars you will be guided through key concepts and current debates shaping how human geographers approach these issues, illustrated by drawing on examples from around the world and at a variety of geographical scales.  It highlights the value of a geographical perspective on the world we live in.

This module will introduce you to a wide range of critical environmental issues facing the world today from physical science and social science perspectives. Drawing on a range of examples, you will critically explore the physical causes, consequences, management and solutions to environmental issues and learn how to question assumptions about environmental processes.

This module builds on Earth Observation (EO), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data analysis, crucial tools to understand our changing environment. In our digital world, data are everywhere, so it is important for us to understand how such data are generated, what data we can trust, and how we can analyse and visualise data to tell us more about the world. Vital aspects of this include our knowledge of data processing, handling, and spatial, statistical or mathematical analysis. This module will provide you with a theoretical framework and hands-on experience of using EO, GIS, and statistical software, thus improving your digital fluency and capability.

This module looks at the relationship between physical processes and Earth surface landforms and landscapes at a variety of scales in space and time. Through this, you will be able to examine the influence of tectonic and environmental processes on the Earth's surface. The module will enable you to expand your understanding of key landscape development processes, concepts, and frameworks, including field and analytical approaches.

In this module you are introduced to how glaciers and ice sheets work and the connection of many glacial processes to hazards experienced by communities in polar and high-altitude environments. We examine how glaciers and ice sheets come into existence through an understanding of climate and the concept of glacier mass balance. We then consider how glacier systems function, covering topics that include the processes of ice flow, the drainage of glacial melt, and the behaviour of ice streams and ice shelves. We then examine how glaciers modify landscape through processes of erosion and sediment transport and deposition. Hazards      are explored in relation to each key area of glacier system function, from localised flood events associated with glacier-lake drainages to global sea level changes arising from past and potential future ice sheet instability.

The ability to design, conduct, analyse and present meaningful findings from fieldwork is an essential part of degree-level Physical Geography, and enhances employability. This module builds on your learning from 'Physical Geography and Environmental Science in the Field' in the first year, addressing the philosophical background to, and the process of, designing and conducting fieldwork. You will be able to learn about the principles of research design and develop skills through practical experience of fieldwork. Through this, the module facilitates your immersive learning and engagement with earth surface processes. The module is delivered through lectures, tutorials, problem solving sessions and a residential fieldclass. Assessments provide ongoing feedback linked to the experience of designing, conducting and reflecting upon the research journey, culminating in a dissertation proposal.

Development in the Global South is a major issue of international concern in the 21st century. This module guides you to explore contemporary development issues and examine the contribution that geographers, and geographical thought, can make towards understanding inequality, poverty and socio-economic change. Definitions of 'development', 'poverty' and 'the poor' shift and are invested with political meaning which reflect specific geographies and ways of seeing the world: you will be able to develop critical understandings of such terminology and the power dynamics implicit within them. This module addresses diverse theories, paradigms and contemporary critiques of development, and explores some of the central issues affecting processes of development. Case examples are drawn from Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia.

In order to understand global climate change, one first has to understand how the climate system works. This module will give students a strong understanding of the global climate system, focusing on the atmospheres, the oceans, and their interaction. The first part of the module will consider the main characteristics of, and processes behind, climate from the global to the local scale. The second part of the module will examine the physical characteristics of the oceans and their geographical variation, and the role of the oceans in the climate system.

This research-led module introduces you to the cutting edge of Social and Cultural Geography. The module illustrates the diversity and vitality of contemporary social and cultural geography including some of the philosophical concepts and theoretical debates that have shaped the subject.  The module aims to deepen and enrich the ways in which you are able to think about geographical issues. It does this through helping you to develop a critical understanding of concepts and approaches that underpin the substance and methods of contemporary human geography. The module team works with you to help you to develop your own 'photo essays'  - which bring the ideas of the module to your experiences from everyday life.

Environmental issues continue to be a key area of contemporary public concern and current political debate. They raise fundamental questions about the relationship between society and environment, and the politics and equity of that relationship. This module provides a geographical introduction to these issues and debates with examples from a range of scales, from the global to the local. You will be able to learn and understand core ideas, further developing understanding through inter-related explorations covering debates focused on  different real world themes and their potential solutions.

This module introduces you to contemporary debates within political geography. You will be able to develop a detailed understanding of political processes at a variety of spatial scales, from the international to the local, from collective politics to individual political behaviour. You will be guided to explore questions of power, efficacy and conflict, with an emphasis on the spatial and place-specific aspects of politics. The focus will be on issues such as: geopolitics and international relations; the state and territoriality; the politics of nationalism and citizenship; civic activism; and individual political participation.

Cities are sites of social conflict and cultural production.  The links between these two facets of modern urban experience have long fascinated scholars seeking to understand the cultural history of the urban imagination.  In this module you will be able to explore different ways artists, intellectuals, political activists, ordinary people and other thinkers have sought to understand and explain various experiences of and conflicts over urban life.  You will get to learn to situate the relationships between sensory perceptions, aesthetic judgments and power relations in their own place and time.  This module draws from historical, cultural, social, and political geographies as well as other disciplines to engage with the shifting nature and spatiality of these relationships through case studies of selected cities, the particular changes in urban culture they occasioned, contemporary responses to those changes, and the theoretical debates they inspired.  Key topics will include, for example, urban form and architecture, cultural difference and social inequality, representational practices and bodily experiences, and the overall consciousness of change in cities over the past two centuries.

The landscape we live in is a dynamic place and has been in the past as well. Huge changes at a global, regional and local scale have occurred in the last 2.6 million years of the earth's history (Quaternary period). These changes are ongoing with implications for both present and future environments. You will be able to learn about methods and techniques to investigate past environmental changes, and these are illustrated using real-world examples.  You will also look at how environments have responded to past climate changes, thereby putting a context for present day climate changes and predicting future changes. Through this module you will be able to develop your academic writing, study, numeracy and data handling skills. It will also help you to be able to critically evaluate issues and problems as well as think about sustainability.

In this  module you will be able to gain experience in leading and managing a research project. You will be expected to prepare, organise, research and report a piece of original work on a topic of your choice, under guidance by a staff mentor. You will decide on the topic and will either be expected to collect original material in order to investigate it, or to perform secondary analysis on information drawn from existing sources. The finished product is presented in the style, and at the length, associated with academic journal articles.

This module works with critical debates and approaches in Environmental Geographies to help understand a range of environmental crises (such as climate change, sustainability, waste and pollution, biodiversity loss/conservation, extinction) in front of us. You will be able to examine histories, causes and solutions for these environmental crises while drawing connections between global South and North.  The module will cover a range of scales and actors from individual behaviours to community actions, and you will be able to examine the work of local bodies and global organisations and negotiations.The module will leverage conceptual and political tools provided by environmental geographies to ask how we could tackle these multiple and co-constituted crises in socially just ways.

This module enables you to consolidate and apply the skills gained through your Geography or Environmental Science degree to real-world challenges.  These challenges, based around themes of sustainability and social justice, will be identified by stakeholders within the University.  You will work as a team to: scope the issues; identify solutions, and communicate them to the stakeholders.  As well as consolidating your subject skills, this module gives you the opportunity to further develop key employability skills in collaboration, project planning, problem solving and communication skills.  Through reflection and employability-related exercises embedded throughout the module you will also be able to improve your self-awareness, identify your skills and attributes, and be able to confidently articulate these to employers and further study providers.

Glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking in our warming world. This poses two major societal challenges: i) sea level rise; and ii) loss of water resources. In this research-led module, you will gain an understanding of glacier and ice sheet loss, methods for projecting future changes, and debates around mitigating them. The module will cover important themes, such as:·        The mechanisms behind and ways of monitoring mass loss from the ice sheets and glaciers·        Projecting sea level rise·        Changes to mountain water resources due to glacier retreat·        Adapting to and communicating glacier changeThe module is delivered through a series of activity-based seminars and practical classes.

This module introduces you to the fascinating discipline of planetary geoscience and exploration.  By using the principles of Physical Geography to study unfamiliar environments, we will explore problems that touch upon themes from climate, tectonics, geomorphology, hydrology, and life.  The module begins with the Solar System but soon focuses on planetary-scale matters, using the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) as main examples because of an explosion of knowledge gathered from their observation.  We will consider the new perspectives that such knowledge offers on the Earth's dynamic systems.

Matlab® is a computing environment and programming language with over one million users worldwide. It is used to process, analyse and visualise geoscientific data, but also has many less scientific uses; it can be used to edit digital photos and listen to online music.  This module introduces you to Matlab® by way of specific real-world examples taken from Geoscience topics using freely-available data.  Initially the module introduces you to the basics of using Matlab® before focussing on broad topics important to Geoscience.  At each stage, theory is illustrated by easy to understand practical problem solving examples, with the code used for the examples made available.  Assessment focuses on computer practicals and a data analysis project; the focus of which will be chosen by you from a range of topics, but which must use Matlab® to analyse and present data.  This module provides you with the opportunity to develop a valuable transferable skill - the ability to use a programming language to obtain/generate, analyse and present geoscientific data, thus improving your digital fluency and capability.

This module will give you the opportunity to extend your knowledge of geospatial systems and software through detailed instruction and targeted case studies. The module is taught in three parts, involving a mixture of lab-work and lectures. The two key themes are:  (a) Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Structure from Motion (SfM) Photogrammetry, (b) Mapping of glacial bedforms from DTM data. Lab sessions will enhance software, coding and quantitative skills. Where possible, lab sessions will include student-led components and formative peer-peer assessment elements. In taking this module you will be able to further develop your problem solving skills and develop further resilience through tackling a specific practical application of geospatial analysis that is relevant to research and industry.

Climate change and global warming are accelerating at unprecedented rates.  This affects different aspects of human lives, livelihoods, and the built and natural environment, posing significant challenges to global sustainable development.   In this research-led module, you will gain understanding of how climate change is not just manifesting through rising temperatures, but also how it is changing global circulations in complex ways with far-reaching impacts. You will explore important themes, such as:- Fundamentals of the changing climate including the Earth's energy balance, causes of climate change and the greenhouse effect.-  how the global circulation works to form the climate as we experience on earth.- how climate change has changed, and is projected to change these important circulations and the impacts on regional climate over key geographical regions.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to develop a strong understanding of current and likely future global and regional changes to the climate system.  You will also be introduced to the tools and data used by scientists to understand and project these changes.

This module explores how a geographical approach helps us to analyse issues such as controversial election results, divisive immigration policies, and contentious social activism. You will be able to learn how the two key concepts of democracy and citizenship can be used to engage with contemporary debates and theories to draw out the links between geography, policy and society, and the ways in which these are shaped and responded to by citizens, communities, civil society, and political parties. The module emphasises the critical appraisal and interpretation of a variety of perspectives - including our own. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which these interactions are played out across and through multiple scales, from the global to our everyday lives.

Volcanoes are an enigmatic force of nature. Understanding the way they behave and how they are monitored is a key aspect in hazard assessment. This module will cover a range of topics related to volcano monitoring, underpinned by an overview of the current state-of-the-art in volcanic science. In particular, the module will combine a theoretical basis of understanding for ground-based and satellite-based volcano monitoring capabilities with practical applications. Via lectures, lab practicals, and field-based activities, you will benefit from hands-on operation of monitoring equipment through to processing and interpretation.

The aim of this module is to critically examine the development process within a global context, drawing on examples from developed and developing nations, to understand the local global nexus. You will be able to learn about the different ways in which 'sustainable development' is defined, and how we can decolonise development reflecting more critically on our position, and the power relations within this process.  Drawing on debates within development geography, and other disciplines, the module is structured around two themes: current global crises and how these affect us all but differently across the globe; and development interventions which aim to tackle global crises globally and locally.  Topics covered may include: neoliberalism and its relation to the financial crises, the environmental crises and its root causes, populism and the rise of inequalities, sustainable development and the sustainable development goals, alternatives to development, the pros and cons of the use of technology.

Coasts are settings in which natural processes and human activities are dynamically linked.  Whilst they  only represent a small fraction of the physical space on our planet, they are exceptionally important places due to so much societal activity being associated with them. This module explores a variety of coastal environments and associated uses of coastal space. We will focus on processes occurring within coastal environments both off-shore and on-shore and how they have and are responding to climate change. Through this, you will be able to explore how coastal change is affecting coastal societies as well as how these same societies are impacting on coastlines in terms of their processes, resilience and sustainability.  We will cover debates surrounding coastal flood protection, coastal management and coastal energy production and its security, highlighting often diverse perspectives from individuals, communities, local authorities and national and global organisations.