Geography BSc

This module explores some of the key parts of the Earth’s dynamic physical environment. This typically includes issues connected with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and land surface. You’ll develop an understanding of global physical systems and how they affect people and the environment. You’ll consider topics such as:

• key processes such as hydrological cycles
• principles of Earth and geomorphological systems
• fluvial geomorphology and biogeomorphology
• biogeography and biodiversity

You will critically examine the complex relations between people and places through key concepts in human geography.

Themes include:

• cultural
• historical
• medical
• environmental
• economics
• development

The key themes may vary from year to year. This module provides a foundation for more specialised human geography modules at levels two and three.

This four-day residential field trip to the Lake District focuses on the rationale and techniques of field study in both human and physical geography. An emphasis is placed on the design, practice and analysis of research projects based on geographical issues.

Small-group teaching is central to this module. Students work in small groups and much of the teaching involves direct interaction between staff and students. 

This module prepares you for the other field trips and techniques modules that take place in years two and three. 

This module provides the basic statistical concepts and techniques required for the study of geography. Topics include:

• spreadsheets and statistical packages
• introduction to statistical concepts
• descriptive statistics and distributions
• exploratory data analysis
• parametric and non-parametric tests
• correlation and regression
• ANOVA

Learn how to conduct basic spatial analysis by using a contemporary Geographic Information System (GIS).

You’ll cover:

• What is GIS?
• Applications of GIS
• Spatial data models
• Fundamental spatial analysis
• Cartographic principles behind GIS
• Presenting and sharing the results of GIS analysis

The module will be delivered through theory lectures and practical sessions, and you’ll be provided with associated textbook resources.

Small group tutorials during the autumn and spring semesters will include discussion, essay writing and seminar presentations based on topics from your first-year modules. The classes will develop your skills in problem-solving, communication and reasoning. 

This module will be delivered by the school’s Careers Advisor and academics from the School of Geography.

You’ll cover:

• self-marketing and CVs
• preparing for interviews and assessment
• careers for geographers
• career planning
• postgraduate study (masters and PhD)
• guest lectures (for example, Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers)

You will be introduced to and encouraged to make regular use of the Careers and Employability Service to assist with your progress during the module, and to identify opportunities to further your career development.

This module introduces you to geographical research on place, conveying current research in the field, including that carried out within the School of Geography. You will gain knowledge of key concepts and methodological approaches, with understanding developed through the examination of place-based case studies.

Lectures will outline developments in the geographical study of place in recent decades, and explore key themes such as place and memory, place and knowledge, and place and identity. The challenges and opportunities offered by the digital exploration of place will be outlined, using case studies of digital mapping and the public display of geographical information. Regional case studies will show how the research themes presented in the module can be brought together around the study of specific places and landscapes.

Throughout the module, staff will draw upon their own research as well as wider academic literature, giving students a sense of the possibilities of geographical research exploring place.

This module introduces you to contemporary and historical approaches to understanding economic globalisation and its spatial unevenness. You will develop knowledge relating to globalisation as a set of discourses and practices using case studies relating to key themes of relevance.

Lectures will outline the key debates relating to globalisation as a phenomenon and will interrogate the relevance of the concept through an examination of commodities, labour and work, governance and money and finance.

You will also explore the spatial unevenness of globalisation, and develop understanding of the ways in which globalisation has contributed to an increasingly unequal and differentiated society at a variety of scales. Alternatives to globalisation will also be discussed, focusing upon various counter-globalisation strategies in the forms of localism, activism and protest.

Throughout the module, staff will draw upon their own research as well as wider academic literature, giving you a sense of the complexity, and importance, of globalisation as a set of theories and a set of sited realities.

On Earth and Life explores the deep historical co-evolution of Earth and Life, and emphasises uniqueness of place and historical contingency. The module leads on from and complements Physical Landscapes of Britain in exploring geological, plate tectonic and palaeoenvironmental ideas and research, but at the global scale.

It emphasises the role of life in creating past and present planetary environments, and conversely the role of environment and environmental change in the evolution and geography of life. The module also serves to prepare the ground for and contextualise several second and third year geography modules, especially Environmental Change and Patterns of Life.

This module provides an understanding of the history and origins of the Earth and its life and landforms through consideration of the following topics:

• Development of life over geological time
• Environmental changes over geological time
• Field trip to the Peak District (full costs will be supplied nearer the time of the trip)

This module will cover the breadth of world-leading research being carried out in the School of Geography and is reflected in the school's research themes:

• Cultural and Historical Geography
• Economic Worlds
• Environment and Society
• Geosciences

For students taking Geography with Business or Environmental Sciences, content of tutorials will be restricted to meet the aims of these courses.

This module is taught by formal lectures, scheduled preliminary fieldwork, and supervision meetings with your dissertation tutor. It covers the following:

• Introduction to the dissertation process and procedures 
• What is a dissertation? 
• Ethics, risk and safety implications when conducting geographical research 
• Preparing a dissertation proposal 
• Writing and presenting a dissertation
• Evaluation of past dissertations

This module presents the opportunity for hands-on experience of laboratory, field and surveying techniques in physical geography appropriate to the domain of interest of the participants. To achieve these aims all students participate in field projects on a residential field course, some of which are completed in the laboratory back in Nottingham, leading to an individual project.

In addition, you choose further laboratory techniques to investigate in the second semester. The ethical, safety and fieldwork limitations of geographical work are also considered.

This module considers the mechanisms for, and evidence of, global environmental change during the timescale of the Quaternary period. You will evaluate the nature, causes and impacts of change in the context of the available evidence within a range of natural and human environments. Teaching includes lectures, seminars, practicals and computing. 

This module focuses on patterns in the distribution of organisms in space and time, and the theories proposed to explain these patterns. Themes you will explore include biodiversity patterns; island biogeography and nature conservation theory; ecological succession; biological invasions; extinction and mass extinctions, plus more. 

This module:

• introduces the water and sediment processes that operate in rivers
• describes the characteristic forms of alluvial channels and the links between river processes and channel dynamics
• uses laboratory practicals and a field trip to deliver kinaesthetic, student-centred learning and add value to teaching and learning during lectures

Topics covered include:

• catchments and longitudinal patterns
• river planforms: braided, meandering and straight
• timescales of river change and morphological adjustments
• complex response in the fluvial system
• flow resistance, sediment transport and bank erosion
• an introduction to biogeomorphology and aquatic ecology

The aim of this module is to introduce you to sedimentology/sedimentary geology (the study of sediments such as sand, silt and clay and the processes that result in their deposition) and palaeontology (the study of fossils, both animal and plant, and both macroscopic and microscopic).

You will be given a comprehensive course on these subjects and how they are used scientifically and industrially together with their impact on human society and the natural environment.

This module introduces you to cultural and historical geography, including the:

• development of cultural and historical geography as sub-disciplines
• key thematic areas of contemporary cultural and historical geography, including landscape, identity, culture, power and knowledge 
• theoretical underpinnings of cultural and historical geography 
• links between cultural and historical geography and other fields of enquiry in the humanities and social sciences 
• methods and sources used in cultural and historical geographical research, including archives, texts and images, and field study 
• work of key figures from the sub-disciplines past and present

This module will cover the following topics:

• Changing economic geographies of the world economy during the 20th and 21st centuries 
• Global cities, financial geographies and advanced producer services 
• Alternative economies and labour resistance 
• Economic geographies of the Global South
• Economic geographies of forced labour and migration
• Feminist economic geography

This module explores a range of rural environmental issues in the global South and modern Britain from the perspective of a range of different stakeholders. Particular attention is placed on how environmental use and management varies over time and space and in relation to socio-economic status, gender and community. Key topics examined are:

• the growth of environmentalist and conservationist thinking
• the evolution of development thinking
• the impacts of colonial policy-making on rural environments in the global South
• agrarian change, the green revolution and sustainable agriculture
• different types of environmental knowledge, including indigenous and certified expertise
• gender, environmental use and management
• participatory appraisal approaches in the global South
• the ways in which policy has shaped the British countryside since the post-World War II period
• the rise of agri-environmentalism
• rural sustainable development
• rural resource conservation
• the prospects for future landscape change in Britain

This module introduces you to urban geography, including the:

• historical development of urban geography as a sub-discipline
• key thematic areas of contemporary urban geography, including research in the social, economic and cultural and historical geographies of cities
• theoretical underpinnings of approaches to urban geography
• importance of cities in understanding social difference, cultural landscapes and economic development in the Global North and South
• work of key figures from the sub-disciplines past and present

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 offers a comprehensive overview of the sub-field of political geography, including its history, key concepts and recent developments. It also investigates how geographical approaches can help explain the complexities of political life, more broadly defined. To do so, the module draws from self-titled political geography literature, whilst also exploring how political questions have come to animate the wider field of human geography.

Themes covered in the module include:

• nationalism
• internationalism
• empire and the state
• geopolitics
• war and violence
• neoliberalism and political economy
• identity politics (e.g. race, class, gender, sexuality)

This module provides a consideration of the following:

• Introduction to GI science/systems/studies/services 
• Spatial data types and sources 
• Vector processing algorithms 
• Raster processing algorithms
• Spatial analysis and decision making 
• Professional training in ArcGIS 

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.

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 will engage you in current issues and problems related to biogeography and environmental change, including both 'blue skies' and applied research, reflecting the active research areas of the module staff.

Focus will be placed on linking theory and applied questions, and gathering and evaluating evidence to inform debate and reach scientifically valid conclusions. Topics may change yearly in response to emerging research advances, but example topics include: 

• Carbon sequestration and forest ecology
• Ecosystem services and conflicts between conservation and resource use
• Species’ endemism and its conservation
• Thermal vulnerability of organisms to climate and land use change 

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 will expose you to current practices, technologies and ideas existing at the forefront of environmental modelling. The module offers an opportunity for you to experience the theory and practice associated with key developments that are occurring in major modelling domains and the most recent advances from the research community. 

The module will comprise four parts:

1. Introduction 
2. Modelling the impacts of climate change 
3. Modelling biogeography 
4. Hydrology and hydroinformatics

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.

This module considers human attempts to manage and restore freshwater environments, specifically rivers, lakes and wetlands. 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 lakes and wetlands, and approaches for their management using an ecosystem-scale approach. The principles by which restoration practice is guided will be considered, and criteria for selection between alternative strategies will be introduced. The module will consider water quality and legislative requirements for freshwater bodies.

The module includes a field trip where you will visit a local nature reserve and develop a management plan with input from management practitioners and land-owners. You will also be able to engage with river management practitioners in a series of guest lectures.

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

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 will cover:

• political, historical, and cultural geographies of war 
• spaces of internal violence and non-violence relating to colonialism, anti-colonialism, religious nationalism, and decolonisation/partition 
• spaces of terrorism and the war against terror 
• case studies from a variety of national and international contexts

A geo hazard is a natural process or phenomenon that has the potential to adversely affect humanity by endangering life or property. A geo resource is a substance or commodity that can be extracted from the subsurface for use by humanity. This module will spend one semester focussing on these two important issues for environment and society.

This module focuses on the uptake of digital geographic information across a wide range of applications in society and the research agenda that is underpinning these developments. We will explore the use of location-aware mobile devices and techniques for geo-visualisation that are visually immersive and interactive. Content is organised as follows:

Part I: Digital Geographic Information in the public domain
Here we consider how a convergence of technologies (positioning, communication and processing) has allowed digital geographic information to make an impact 'beyond the desktop' at both a global scale through the web, and at a personal scale via the mobile device. This includes virtual globes, 'open' and 'linked' geographic information, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), location-based services, and mobile geospatial apps.

Part II: Virtual Geographic Environments
Here we look at the role and impact of multi-dimensional geographic visualisation to support decision making, environmental impact assessment, and the communication of spatial context. This includes animation and 3D graphics, advances in data capture, urban and rural landscape visualisation, interaction design and immersion, augmented and virtual realities.

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

This module explores the relationships between health and place. The module is organised thematically in two broad sections. The first section considers the historical growth of institutions such as the asylum and the hospital, as well as the development of sanitary science and the public health movement. It uses these to consider who is responsible for health.

The second section is devoted to critical health geographies, with a focus on topics such as gender, physical activity and obesity. It examines the role of power and place relationships in shaping health outcomes and the experience of health.

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