Global Environmental Change and Planetary Health MSc (formerly Global Environmental Change MSc)

• Professor Neil Harris

Human activity is accelerating consumption of natural resources and emissions of pollutants into the environment, destabilising planetary life support systems. This module will introduce you to these processes, identifying the drivers, pressures, changes in state, and impacts on the environment, as well as examining potential responses and solutions. It will cover the physical science-based understanding of our planetary systems, how humankind is modifying these systems, and examine current and future efforts to address these key challenges through science, technology, and policy.

• Planetary systems and the Gaia hypothesis,
• The Anthropocene,
• Dynamics of resource consumption, pollution emissions, population.
• Safe operating space,
• Effects of anthropogenic activities on planetary and human systems including climate change (past, present and future), ecology and biodiversity, natural disasters, air pollution, waste, agriculture, food security, sea level rise and coastal change, water quality and supply, planetary health and societal impacts,
• Response options for sustainable environmental change including policy options, sustainable development goals, concepts of net biodiversity gain, net environmental gain, renewable technologies, doughnut economics, natural capital, ecosystem services, and valuation.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Analyse key global environmental challenges and evaluate their underlying drivers of change,
• Evaluate the consequences of global environmental change for planetary systems and human society,
• Identify and critically appraise response options that aim to tackle the challenges presented by global environmental change,
• Critically evaluate the importance of interdisciplinary solutions in resolving global environmental challenges.

• Dr Alice Johnston

The module introduces the context of environmental decision making, providing both a conceptual overview and practical tools for addressing environmental management problems. It aims to promote an understanding of weight-of-evidence approaches used to inform real-world problems by research, industry, and government. Central to this is an understanding of the strengths and limitations of different approaches and aspects of decision science, the social, economic, and environmental trade-offs made during decision-making, and how real-world complexity and future uncertainty is accounted for. Students will learn how to apply systems thinking to evaluate different courses of action in response to environmental challenges related to land, water, and/or energy. 

• Key environmental challenges and the need for decision support tools.
• Different stakeholders in environmental decisions.
• Weighing the evidence for different courses of action.
• Big data; data analytical approaches; mathematical modelling; statistical inference; machine learning; information systems; spatial data science approaches. 
• Environmental, economic, and social trade-offs in decisions. 
• Accounting for real-world complexity and future uncertainty in decisions

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of decision science approaches for practical environmental management problems.
• Conceptualise complex environmental issues using systems thinking to weigh-up different courses of action.
• Critically appraise the need for stakeholders to trade-off environmental, economic and social concerns, and the limitations of decision science approaches in accounting for real-world complexity and future uncertainty.

• Dr Simon Jude

Aim A critical application of environmental risk management is in the development and appraisal of policy in central government and business. Policies are developed to manage environmental risks and selection of policy options must be informed by risk-based tools and techniques. Doing so demands a comprehension of the technical, organisational, and human elements of governing environmental risks and developing environmental policy. This module draws these themes together by introducing core concepts and then illustrating these concepts with case studies spanning business and government, and finally application via a group exercise. Core lectures are supported by multiple case studies and module assignment.

Attitudes towards risk based on psychological, cultural and other dimensions.
• The role of various societal groups (e.g. the media, NGOs) in risk issues.
• Environmental risk analysis, communication and management
• Risk governance.
• Delivering organisational change, including implementation challenges and opportunities.
• Environmental policy development and appraisal.
• Policy instruments and co-design
• Evidence-based decision-making. 
• Communicating risk messages to individuals, groups, and society at large and errors in communication

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Dr May Sule

Applied scientific and green engineering principles are required to address the global and national environmental crises driven by climate change, land use change, pollution emissions, and population growth. This diverse module aims to develop an understanding of the interconnected environmental, social and health crises from a local to global scale, and the management, mitigation and adaptation strategies to address them from a planetary health perspective. As the module progresses, learners will be required to develop an advanced interdisciplinary understanding of exposure pathways and the interconnections between the natural environment, ecosystems, human health and wellbeing. Learners will be provided with the necessary systems thinking skills to assess the complexity and impact connecting environmental issues and human health in the Anthropocene and provide solutions; and to also appraise the reliance of human populations on healthy ecosystems, including the highly complex socio-ecological feedback mechanisms involved in interactions between humans and nature.

• Interdisciplinary understanding of water, land and air interconnections of human health and wellbeing
• Environment, health, and equity
• Pathways to exposure
• Systems thinking and holistic understanding of complexities
• Enablers and inhibitors
• Upstream causes and downstream effects 
• Fundamental concepts of structural, attitudinal and transactional (SAT) analysis
• Case studies 
• Management solutions 
• Application of Vensim software for causal loop diagrams

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

Interpret interactions and interconnections between natural environment, human health and wellbeing.

Critically evaluate complex systems and the social and ecological approach to health promotion and disease prevention and control, ranging from individual to population level determinants of human and ecosystem health.

Critically appraise the rights of humans and the rights of nature, giving all human populations and ecosystems, present and future, the opportunity to attain their full vitality.

Characterise the linkages between environmental changes and human health at different geospatial and temporal scales. Synthesise diverse information to provide diverse solutions for planetary health challenges.

• Dr Andrea Momblanch

This module aims to introduce you to the real world environmental solutions that are being developed and in use already, to enable them to enter a number of sectors with up to date knowledge of current approaches. The module will provide you with an overview of the international climate and environmental policy landscape in which countries, sectors and industries are operating, and the scale of action required in order to fulfil current policy goals. You will work on case studies of sustainable solutions (e.g. in aviation, agriculture, transport, waste, etc) and evaluate the potential in these solutions to contribute to global climate or other environmental goals.

• Environmental Policy – national and international, including climate, water, air, biodiversity, the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. How to assess potential solutions towards achievement of policy goals,
• Series of lectures with relevant experts to focus on sustainable environmental solutions in a range of sectors, for example: nature based solutions for water and climate; agriculture and food; transport; supply chains; energy systems; sustainable technology entrepreneurship; plastic; biodiversity; LivingLab,
• Individual reports on sustainable climate solutions for a sector or sub-sector, based on appropriate metrics for the policy goal(s), including consideration of co-benefits and trade-offs with other environmental goals.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically analyse environmental solutions based on appropriate metrics and tools in the context of policy goals,
• Evaluate data and evidence on potential solutions to environmental challenges with colleagues to apply diverse expertise to a real world challenge,
• Critically appraise and synthesise various sources of information in written and verbal form to create coherent arguments that provide effective solutions to global environmental challenges from technical, political, and social perspectives.

• Dr Gill Drew

Environmental impact assessment and life cycle analysis are important tools for evaluating the sustainability of complex renewable energy technologies and industrial processes or products. The tools and concepts taught in this module will enable you to assess the sustainability of a case study from an environmental standpoint. Analysis of relevant case studies to demonstrate the assessment process, including how to account for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.

This module is 10 credits.

• Environmental impact assessment and sustainability,
• Environmental Impact Assessment,
• Indicator selection and analysis,
• Life cycle analysis, and carbon footprinting,
• Social impact assessment,
• The technique of demand forecasting.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically assess the emissions and waste production throughout the lifecycle of a technology or process,
• Design a framework to ensure compliance of a  process, product or service to support the transition to Net Zero that is  compliant with regulatory and voluntary requirements,
• Evaluate forecasting techniques as one of the fundamental aspects of environmental assessment,
• Critically evaluate different environmental and social appraisal metrics,
• Design and implement a strategy to assess the environmental sustainability of a process or technology, and evaluate the associated uncertainties.

• Dr Lynda Deeks

Natural landscapes and built environments can be engineered to optimise the goods and services delivered to society, including provision of natural resources and the regulation of water and carbon. Technologies that prevent and/or reverse land degradation can be devised and implemented to ensure sustainable use of finite land resources. Environmental engineers and land managers need sound understanding of the environmental properties that determine land capability for any given desired end use, as well as the interrelationships between soil, water, vegetation and built structures. This understanding is grounded in basic soil physics, hydrology, hydraulics, geotechnics and agronomy. With this background, appropriate interventions such as soil erosion control and slope stabilisation can be designed and implemented to improve inherent land quality. The required skills set also informs the management of environmental projects involving land forming, reclamation, restoration and protection, which require selection, design, engineering and maintenance of appropriate structures.

This module is 10 credits.

Site Assessment: Concept of land capability and land quality:

• Criteria used for assessing land capability and its classification - USDA scheme, Canadian Land Inventory, urban land capability scheme.

Land forming, earth moving and landscape modification:

• Earth works design - Defra recommendations, Water retention - ponds.
• Machinery and equipment used (+ visit to Tarmac or similar).

Geotechnics: Slope stability:

• The stability of shallow and deep slope failures.
• Methods of slope stability calculations - Finite slope analysis etc.
• Slope engineering for slope stability - bunds and berms, bioengineering, biotechnical engineering.
• Surface erosion of slope forming materials:
  
  
• Soil erosion processes.
• Soil erosion consequences.
• Surface soil erosion control - terraces, check dams, agronomic techniques (bioengineering),

Vegetation as an engineering material (bioengineering and biotechnical engineering),

Geotextiles.

Top and sub soil management

• Vegetation establishment.
• Site maintenance.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Apply the concept of land capability to site assessment and carry out land capability classifications,
• Explain how to design earthworks and select appropriate land-forming machinery/equipment,
• Calculate the stability of slopes and design of simple support and stabilisation systems,
• Devise strategies for the long-term management of top soil and subsoil in land engineering projects.