Global Environmental Sustainability MSc

The combined climate and biodiversity crises alongside continued exploitation of resources and uneven development influences our lives from the local to global scales. This module utilises critical discussions from geography and beyond to help you gain a solid footing in key definitions and fundamental concepts within sustainability debates.

Using the three pillars of sustainability – social, environment, and economic – as a framework, you will examine how and why the principles of sustainability have developed, different governance structures within and for sustainable development, and examine practical examples of applying sustainable strategies and transformations.

This module will give you ways to critically think about and engage with the interdisciplinary aspects of systems thinking and sustainability. You will develop an awareness of the interrelated facets of sustainability debates and implementation, alongside the skills to examine the interrelated roles of people and planet for our future.

This module examines the complex interactions between environmental, social, economic and political factors that shape sustainable development. Adopting a team-taught approach, you will explore how barriers to meeting sustainability targets are being addressed and overcome in a range of local, national and global case studies.

Key themes include sustainable water resource management, climate change adaptation, and food security. The module considers different scales of sustainable development from individual behaviour and household practices to global agreements, and investigates how knowledges can be translated to deliver action.

This module will introduce you to a breadth of techniques relevant to addressing practical environmental sustainability challenges. These techniques relate to human and physical components of environmental sustainability problems and engage with quantitative and qualitative data. You will be required to integrate these methods and address a real-world environment sustainability challenge

This module will also incorporate:

• methods for designing and implementing studies to assess environmental impacts of human activity
• stakeholder mapping and engagement
• methods for aiding decision-making under uncertainty
• common statistical techniques for analysing environmental data
• displaying data clearly to communicate to diverse audiences
• extracting information from various textual sources
• spatial representation of environmental information

This module will develop skills in project design and project management for environmental settings and incorporate preparation for the Project. Students will work on scoping their project aims and designing their project with supervisors, and will develop practical skills in project management. This module is taught by seminars and supervision meetings with a project supervisor.

This module will require you to research an environmental, sustainability and/or climate change issue under the supervision of an appropriate member of staff and to report your findings in the form of a written report (12,000 words) or other relevant format as approved by the module convenor. Key skills developed include those of independent study, critical analysis, problem articulation, solution design and report writing.

The module will encourage the analysis of a topical issue from an interdisciplinary perspective. You will be expected to link up and explore several areas of study covered during your MSc Global Environmental Sustainability.

This module aims to introduce students to river and catchment processes, the links between river habitats and the ecosystems they support, their need for management in light of anthropogenic impacts, and common techniques (i.e. in-situ monitoring and GIS/remote sensing) for providing the evidence needed for effective river/catchment management.

The module covers past mismanagement of river environments and explains how changes in our understanding of catchments (and the waterbodies they support) and the increasing adoption of modern management strategies and technologies are advancing our ability to manage rivers and catchments in a sustainable manner.

In this module, you will learn:

• Key river and catchment processes
• Impacts of anthropogenic (ie climate, land-use) change on rivers and catchments
• Current and historic river/catchment management practises
• Interactions between physical habitats of rivers and the ecosystems they support
• Tools and techniques for monitoring and mapping rivers and catchments
• Modelling rivers and catchments to test management scenarios 

This module will cover issues around the management of uncertainty and trade-offs, enhancing co-benefits between mitigation and adaptation, adapting to multiple risks in complex systems, understanding climate governance and notions of climate justice.

This module will present key concepts to understand ecosystem function and processes, humans' place in natural systems, and basic tools and goals for ecosystem management and conservation. Specific themes include:

• Introduction to biodiversity and ecosystem function and processes
• Ecosystem services – how humans depend on ecological systems
• Human impacts on biodiversity and ecological systems 
• Consequences of the conservation crisis 
• Ecosystem management and conservation – goals and tools for sustainability and conservation of biodiversity and ecological systems
• In-depth case studies of management and conservation

This module will provide an introduction to the central issues facing people and the environment in the Anthropocene. The first half of the module will explore key themes and approaches for understanding these environmental issues. These may include Environmental Knowledge(s), Risk perception, Ecosystem services, Environmental Governance, Gender issues, and legal perspectives. The second half of the module will engage with these concepts in the context of current environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, biodiversity, urbanisation, and water management.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to key global environmental issues at the nexus of people and the environment. The module will explore critical approaches to these environmental problems, and their impact on society.

In this module, you will examine the complex and shifting relationships between humans and animals, nature, and culture. The module will examine the history of animal geographies and explore the ethical, moral, and cultural issues embedded in human-animal relationships. Working through both historical and contemporary examples the module explores how animals shape and are shaped by our ideas about place and identity.

You will study how animals’ figure in human society and culture in multiple ways, while frequently being marginalized or reduced to commodities, production units, symbols, and tools. You will be introduced to the theories used to explore the complex entangling of human-animal relations with space, place, location, environment, and landscape.

This module investigates key linkages between development, livelihood and environmental issues in the global South, with particular reference to competition and conflict over environmental resources. Attention is placed on exploring these from the perspectives of different income, gender and community groups and contrasting their everyday realities with key development concepts and aggregate statistics.

Major themes include:

• linkages between poverty, environmental quality and livelihoods 
• integration of environmental issues into development thinking and practice 
• debates about overpopulation versus overconsumption 
• urban environmental issues, slums and informality
• water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and livelihoods 
• industry-related environment, development and livelihood issues
• competition and conflict in agrarian environments 
• forest-based development and livelihood issues

This module covers a range of issues relating to the geographies of fashion and food. Topics covered include:

• Commodity chains and global networks of supply
• Governing and regulating food and fashion
• Commodity biographies and origins
• Slow and fast fashion and food
• Theorising value and quality
• Transforming and industrialising food
• City fashionscapes and foodscapes
• Doing food and fashion 'differently', spatially and temporally
• Contentious commodities