Environmental Studies

This course deals with the basic principles of health and environment and their application in specific cases of risk evaluation and assessment. More specifically, the course addresses the following topics: human exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents, and pollutants (e.g. air, water, food); risk assessment of environmental exposures; interaction with the human body, how may the human body respond and cope with these environmental exposures. There are no specific prerequisites for this course but a background in biology, chemistry, or ecotoxicology is recommended.

This course covers the climate system and climate models. Modelling scenarios are used to study global and regional climate change and their potential effects on: hydrology, ecosystems and ecosystem processes, biodiversity, biogeography, extreme events, the cryosphere, atmospheric chemistry, the oceans. Methods of detecting climate change are also covered. The two focus points for the course are: 1) understanding the causal links that can explain variations and changes in climate, both in the past and in the future, with particular attention to greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle and climate feedbacks, and 2) understanding the impact of these variations and changes in climate on other components of the Earth system, at local, regional and global scales. Observational data, climate models, ecosystem models and modelling scenarios are used to practice the critical analysis of e.g. data representativity, modelling assumptions and validation against independent information.

This course introduce a variety of coastal environments and the major processes which control the morphodynamic evolution of these systems. The course offers a unique opportunity of learning the full spectrum of marine sedimentary environments from siliciclastic, temperate, highly urbanized and impacted estuarine ecosystems to carbonate, tropical, pristine and undeveloped/protected coastal and continental margin environments. The course is divided in three sections: Section A covers the basic morphodynamics and processes impacting carbonate-dominated coastal and continental margin environments. The focus is on carbonate reefal and margin systems and their geologic and biologic responses to past, present and future environmental changes; Section B covers the basic morphodynamics of temperate and tropical coasts, including beach morphodynamics and basic knowledge on waves and currents; Section C consolidates all concepts learnt in the previous sections by applying them to numerical modelling. There is a compulsory weekend field trip to the NSW coast to study beach morphodynamics and fieldwork techniques. Depending on the year, there may be a voluntary field trip to a coral reef environment, for example, The University of Sydney One Tree Island Research Station.

The course provides an overview of geology, the science of the earth. An understanding of geology is important to many disciplines, providing information about the physical and chemical processes that determine the distribution of resources, location of hazards, operation of surface processes and the interaction between engineering structures and earth surface materials. The four components of the course begin with consideration of the earth’s structure and the role of plate tectonics, before considering the nature of earth surface materials and the functioning of earth surface systems.

This course is an introduction to the natural history, ecology, and conservation of forest biodiversity with particular focus on vertebrate wildlife from South American temperate ecosystems. It examines the relationships between forests, wildlife, and people on a local, regional, and international scale. This course integrates case studies in order to discuss current research problems.

The course studies the political, economic, and social issues surrounding the development of water systems and regulation. The course focuses on France and examines ways that humans have transformed waterways to make them more useful. The course discusses the two sides of sustainable development by studying a human demographic approach and an earth approach that looks at the transformations taking place on earth, such as global warming. The course also examines the limits of water usage for industrial and agricultural activities and water as a tool that transforms territories.

In this course students explore methods of creating new public domains through designing and constructing small scale architectural interventions in 1:1 in close collaboration with local site and community. A studio is set up away from the university and into sites in transformation that provide students with interesting and relevant contexts to explore and respond to. The focus is on urban areas in transition such as former industrial sites, challenged public or semi-public domains and landscapes that hold potentials for new content. Students examine and reflect on planning issues around the case area that can be investigated form a theoretical and strategic perspective and explore places from a phenomenological and perceptual position by prototyping site-specific urban interventions into an existing spatial situation. Thus, a broad strategic design approach is supplemented by small interventions that can initiate a transformation process. The location provides site-specific context to work into in terms of spatial qualities, planning conditions, historic development, as well as social and cultural character. Through careful site readings, students explore the physical, social and processual conditions of a place. Students analyze site conditions, formulate future scenarios, and construct urban interventions that respond to the current spatial qualities while simultaneously setting out a potential trajectory for the future. The drafting table is complemented by a strong presence on site developing projects in hand-crafted and local customized processes. This approach has important implications for the design process, for the interpretation of the site context and particularly for learning about space through the interaction of analysis and making by hand.

This course covers the methods used to assess the environmental impact of products from a life cycle perspective. The central topic is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a method with which the environmental impacts of products are assessed starting from resource extraction and ending with waste management. The course addresses theoretical foundations of this method and developments in the methodology, including examples and case studies. Students learn LCA principles, the methods used, and recent developments in LCA methodology. Students apply LCA with computer tools and using LCI databases. They conclude their own LCAs and critically review existing LCA studies.