Geography

This course is a study of countryside planning and the contemporary issues, functions, and conflicts of different landscapes, ranging from traditional rural to peri-urban settings. The course examines cultural landscapes, local, national and international policy, planning processes, governance, actor analysis, EU physical planning approaches, landscape analysis and multifunctional landscapes, nature and water management, recreation, cultural heritage, national parks, rural development programs, agricultural diversification and social farming, peri-urban agriculture, counter-urbanization, and rural-urban relationships.

Climate change is one of the most important challenges we face. The effects of climate change vary over time and space, and are rooted in the operation and sensitivity of the climate system itself. This course first gives students a fundamental understanding of Earth’s climate system and then investigates the history of climate on Earth and how (and why) climate changes over time. Students explore historical records of climate before turning their focus to future climate projections, including how models predict future climate scenarios.
Students also evaluate what implications future climate projections may have for communities both locally and globally. 

This course critically explores the history and current state of political geography and geopolitics and examines empirical issues from the vantage point of the spatiality and materiality of politics and power. The course develops the complementary insights that politics and power are fundamentally spatial, that geographical phenomena have political dimensions and implications, and that geographic space is infused with both power and political potential.

This course examines the relationship between science, policy and society. It explores how different knowledge traditions – the scientific method, post-positivist science, Indigenous and local knowledges, citizen science, and the knowledge-industrial complex – converge or collide in real policy arenas. It focuses on translation and impact: how evidence informs legislation, markets and multilateral agreements; how scientists and communities communicate more effectively with policymakers; and how non-expert knowledge can reframe agendas. Learning is interactive, combining lectures, class discussions and practical activities to critique “truth” claims and better understand evidence-informed action.

This course examines a physics and geomorphology based understanding of the formation and dynamics of rivers and deltas.

This course discusses major categories and sources of air pollution, dangers of some air and water pollutants, dangers of stratospheric ozone depletion and radon in indoor air, types and effects of water pollution, thermal pollution and thermal shocks, damages of air pollution, control and monitoring of pollution, acid rain and deposition, air pollution control, status of water quality in developed and developing countries, groundwater problems, and human waste disposal.