Geography BSc

This is a 10,000 word individual project based on a geographical topic involving fieldwork and/or secondary data, and agreed by the candidate with their tutor and a specialist supervisor. 

This module introduces basic physical principles of remote sensing, key remote sensing platforms/sensors and their applications within geography and the environment. It covers the theory behind remote sensing, provides hands-on practical experience of remote sensing data processing and insights into recent and cutting-edge uses of remote sensing for responding to socio-environmental challenges facing the globe. Students will gain knowledge of cutting-edge developments in remote sensing via exposure to recent advances from the research community.

This module provides a general introduction to the subject of earth observation. This involves analysing remotely sensed images, typically acquired from instruments on board satellites or aircraft, to investigate spatial phenomena on the Earth's surface.

Example topics include the use of global image data sets to investigate climate change, analysis of satellite sensor imagery to identify wildlife habitats and conservation concerns, and urban land use mapping from detailed aerial photography. Theoretical lectures cover the concepts underpinning remote sensing, including the physical principles determining image creation, fundamental image characteristics, methods of image analysis and uses or applications of earth observation.

There is also a strong practical component to the module, with regular practical exercises on various forms of digital image analysis.

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

The module introduces current practices, technologies and ideas at the forefront of environmental modelling. It covers several major research areas from an environmental modelling perspective and provides hands-on experience of using the types of models that are applied by scientists around the world to aid decision- and policy-making on important issues that affect society and the natural environment.

This module covers:

• the historical development of the city of Berlin, to be visited on a field excursion (full costs will be supplied nearer the time of the trip)
• a critical approach to the cultural, historical, social and economic geography of Berlin
• a wide range of methodologies for conducting urban field work

Small group teaching is integral to the module. You are assigned into a group of three or four for the purposes of conducting small group project work while in Berlin. Frequent meetings are held between teaching staff and the small groups before, during and after the field course to support preparation for and the carrying out of research while in Berlin, as well as the writing-up of individual reports.

Successful and sustainable management of freshwaters is fundamental to human survival; the development of human civilisation is inextricably linked to our changing management of freshwater resources. This module considers human attempts to manage and restore freshwater environments. It considers changes in the fluvial system that occur in response to river management and engineering and examines approaches to restoring the natural functions of rivers that have been heavily degraded by human impacts. The module examines some of the main stressors on freshwaters, and approaches for their management.  

This module explores the economic geographies of money and of contemporary processes of financialisation. Competing theories of money, and the changing landscapes of finance and the financial services industry are explored at a variety of spatial scales.

Spaces examined include the global financial system, the UK retail financial market, the City of London and the emergence of local currency systems. More specifically, the following core topics are covered:

• Financial crisis
• The history and theory of money
• Financial services and financial intermediation
• Globalisation and the international financial system
• The City of London as international financial centre
• Landscapes of retail financial services
• Alternative and imagined landscapes of money

This module considers the role of political violence in creating the human geographies of Europe, the Americas and Asia in the past and the present. Several different forms of systemic violence are investigating, including inter-state warfare, intra-state civil warfare, colonialism and terrorism. The module traces of the geographical impact of violence through its materiality and technologies, and by reference to historical evolution, geopolitical imaginaries, and rhetorical and epistemological categories. Students will engage with theoretical, moral and legal debates in different regional contexts, and will critically interpret contemporary media reports and debates about the nature and legitimacy of violence within and between nation states.

The module covers the following:

• A review of modern climate systems and forcings
• Climate modelling, projections of future climate change and their uncertainty
• Controversies around climate change, the argument between believers and sceptics and the ways in which climate change is communicated to and perceived by the public 
• The impact of climate change on the world's physical and built environments, water and food resources, and human health
• Mitigation and adaptation to future climate change including the role played by policy markers and NGOs

Grounded in the sub-discipline of health geography, and drawing on relevant interdisciplinary perspectives and critical social theories, this module explores the relationships between health and place. A range of historical and contemporary examples are used to consider how health is constructed at various scales and how health inequities are produced. Material emphasizes critical conceptual and empirical work that advances understandings of health as socially and contextually situated, in counterpoint to approaches that see health as largely individually determined by lifestyle ‘choices.'

The concept of justice courses through much critical geographical scholarship. Critical geographies respond directly to injustice and seek to contribute to a broader political agenda which (re)produces new geographical knowledges to build more just futures. In this optional module, students will be introduced to four areas of critical geography to unpack their key ideas and politics and gain a critical understanding of the ways these geographical knowledges contribute and inform wider debates of justice in the social world.

The module brings together cultural and political geography to examine the connections of politics, culture and landscape. The focus is on England, where landscape has long been central to questions of power and identity, whether at local, regional, national, international or imperial scales. Relations of power shape landscapes, and the identities of those who inhabit them and move through them. From the agricultural and industrial ‘revolutions’ and the empire of trade in the 18th century, down to the political and cultural upheavals of the 21st century, landscape has played a key role in shaping national identity, in England as elsewhere.

The module traces the history of landscape, culture and politics in England, and shows how legacies of the past shape debates today. From political disputes over the UK’s relationship to Europe, to anxieties over our relationship to land and environment, to the ways in which legacies of empire and slavery inform landscape and recast English identity, the module shows how cultural, historical and political geography helps to make sense of a transforming world.

This module considers the quaternary evolution, environmental and settlement history of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, building explicitly on material covered in Environmental Change. The focus of the course will be evolution of the present climate and environment of the lowland tropics and the interaction between the natural environment and human societies.

The module is based on a 10 day residential field trip to the Yucatan and project work associated with this. Full costs of the field trip will be advised nearer the time of the visit. The main elements are:

• an overview of climate dynamics in the tropics, with particular emphasis on changes in the monsoon, the impact of sea level change and drivers of change from mid-latitudes
• critical review of methods of environmental reconstruction, dating techniques and sampling methods (waters, soils, sediments)
• archives of change relevant to the study area, primarily lakes and cave systems
• quaternary history of the Yucatan
• mesoamerican archaeology and cultural change in the Yucatan
• exploration of the possible role of climate in driving societal change

This field-based module examines river processes and dynamics within the context of human efforts to manage and restore dynamic river systems. The module is taught during a 12-day field course to the Mt St. Helens National Monument in Washington State, USA and a four-week river change detection and visualisation project that will run through the remainder of the autumn semester.

The post-1980 eruption landscape of Mt St. Helens and its wider region is one of the world's most important natural laboratories for the study of severely disrupted rivers. You will enjoy a unique opportunity to gain hands-on, practical skills in river management by working in this exciting and demanding environment. The module is structured around two core questions:

• What are the likely impacts of the Mt St. Helens eruption on the region's river systems, riparian settlements and environments over the next 50 years?
• What are the practical, management options that should be considered for mitigating these impacts?