Physical Geography BSc (Hons)

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

This module is designed to support you in independently pursuing an original piece of research on a geographical or environmental topic of your own choice grounded in final year specialist option modules. Dependent upon your programme of study, you will draw upon and develop your research skills in answering research questions/hypothesis on a dissertation topic within the social, humanities, natural and environmental disciplines. You will develop expertise in:

• identifying a suitable topic and in reviewing critically the relevant academic literature;
• formulating research questions/hypotheses and appropriate methods of inquiry;
• collecting your own data and/or using existing data sets and/or engaging in an analysis of the research literature;
• the ability to analyse and interpret your results using appropriate quantitative, statistical and/or qualitative techniques,
• relating the findings to existing and up-to-date literature;
• oral, visual and written presentation of your research project;
• objectively appraising the ethical considerations of conducting research; and
• managing and implementing a large independent project.

In this module you will learn about polar and non-polar cold landscapes. The module will provide you with an understanding of the distinctiveness of mountain and polar cold environments. Furthermore, it will provide you with the physical framework to investigate a wide range of processes which operate in these landscapes. You will learn how to interpret the interaction of physical processes in cold regions and anthropogenic drivers of change in mountainous and polar terrain. You will learn to appreciate the significance of linking diverse disciplines such as meteorology, oceanography, glaciology, hillslopes, rivers, and snow/glacier ice to understand the past, present and future of cold landscapes on earth. Your learning will additionally facilitate an understanding of human interaction with the physical environment.

Specific topics covered may include:
• Glaciology: how do glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets move, how do they interact and shape their environment?
• Mountain Environments: the distinctive nature of mountainous landscapes
• Paraglacial Geomorphology: landscape adjustment after the ice has gone
• Catastrophic Rock Avalanches: can hillslope processes control rivers and glaciers?
• Glacial Hazards: hazards posed by glacier recession and climatic change, and implications for development
• Mountain & polar Meteorology: geographical controls and climatic characteristics of meteorological elements
• Mountain Hydrology: rates, magnitude and routing of runoff from snow, ice and paraglacial areas
• History and politics of polar exploration
• Permafrost and periglacial processes
• Oceanography: Sea ice and the role of the polar oceans in the earth system
• Resources and ecosystems: exploitation, tourism, pollution and environmental sustainability
• Climate change in cold landscapes and it’s impacts on regional to global scales.

On completion of the module you will have developed an improved understanding and appreciation of the interaction between a range cold landscapes and and their connection to anthropogenic activities.

In this module you will learn about a variety of approaches to model environmental systems. Following an overview of fundamental approaches to environmental modelling and a practical introduction to a number of specific models, you will apply one of the models to answer an environmental question as part of an individual study. In parallel with this, you will be introduced to a range of advanced techniques in computer programming which will allow data manipulation, analysis and presentation. As a result, this module will allow you to demonstrate:
- The use of numerical modelling as an important methodological tool in the physical environment.
- The role of modelling in gaining a better understanding of the interaction of processes driving change and in predicting the form and nature of the resulting response in a variety of environmental settings.
- The latest methodological design and application of modelling and the historical context of their development.
- The practice of model design: from conceptualisation of the model by understanding the main physical processes shaping the environment in question, through development of a computational algorithm to approximate environmental response to applied external forcings.
- Critical interpretation of model output.
- The importance of reproducibility in research.
- An appreciation of modelling as an emerging tool in understanding and predicting the impact of human activity upon physical and/or wider environmental processes.
- Computation and data manipulation skills using a wide range of computer packages (e.g. ArcGIS), including high-level technical computing languages (e.g. Matlab).

In this module you will gain the necessary skills and knowledge needed to understand how our environment evolved in the past and how it might change in the future. Particular attention will be paid to the reconstruction and assessment of past human impact on the environment. The module strongly supports the interdisciplinary character of Geography by involving a number of different scientific disciplines such as Geology, Ecology, Palaeobotany, Limnology and Climatology.

The topics of this module include:
• Application of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction techniques (e.g. diatom and pollen analysis, and geochemical analyses)
• Principles of Biogeography and Ecology: Understanding temporal and spatial patterns of plant communities and ecosystems
• Case studies of Late Quaternary climate and vegetation
• Detecting anthropogenic impact in sediment records
• Regional vegetation and climate history of North England

The practicals will include a combination of techniques from the indicative list below::
• Core logging (e.g. description of colour using Munsell Color System, classification of sediment layers, identifying hiatus)
• Total inorganic and organic carbon (TIC/TOC)
• Charcoal particle analysis
• Pollen and spore analysis
• Diatom analysis
• Pollen diagram construction using Tilia/TiliaGraph software
• Multivariate data analyses ( e.g. PCA, cluster and correspondence analysis)

On completion of the module, you will know the theory and application of various palaeoecological and sedimentological proxy methods. You will understand the driving forces and feedbacks in the biotic and abiotic Earth System and learn to critically analyse and synthesise scientific data. In this module you will learn to assess the importance of climate change and human impact for the evolution of our modern landscapes and ecosystems.

You will learn about the design and implementation of geospatial Applications using evidence based practice extending practical knowledge of the techniques and analysis tools gained from level 5 (Second year). This will involve you critically reviewing existing published and adopted practice in topic areas such as:
• environmental planning,
• landcover change,
• resource management and
• risk assessment.
in order to design, cost and implement your own geospatial application. You will be taught advanced concepts of method design and how
to cost and respond to a tender request. You will also learn advanced IT skills on data compilation, download, generation, analysis, interpretation and presentation within the context of ‘fitness of use’ using image processing and GIS software. As you explore evidence based practice you will be asked to design your application with key consideration to the following questions. Can geospatial Applications be:
• value free and what role does positionality and ethics play?,
• simply sticks which powerful groups in decision making processes use to beat smaller groups with?, and
• a key determinant of planning and policy success in an organisational context?

You will learn about public health protection and occupational safety and develop a critical understanding of the nature of communicable diseases and non-communicable occupational and environmental hazards to develop appropriate evidence and risk based approaches. You will build a critical understanding of organisations and approaches responsible for ensuring effective arrangements are in place nationally and locally for preparing, planning and responding to concerns and emergencies, including the future impact of climate change. You will focus on the key aspects including

• Harm from communicable diseases and health impact from environmental and occupational hazards
• Collection, analysis and interpretation of surveillance data
• Planning, investigation and response to incidents, accidents and outbreaks
• Legal and regulatory systems
• Resilience and emergency response
• Workplace health and safety,
• Health and safety risk management
• Principles and theories of health and safety management
• Occupational health and hygiene and occupational psychology

On completion of the module, your improved ability to link theory, practice and application will enhance your employability prospects within a broad environmental health / health, safety and environment job sector.

In this module you will explore the policies and practice of conservation, using examples from around the world. You will find out how the conservation value of a site is assessed in the UK (and in other countries), how climate change is affecting the distribution of species and habitats and the challenges of managing a site for conservation and other conflicting uses. The module combines professional practice focused on careers and challenging contemporary ideas.

Reviews of professionals working in the field of conservation (Ecological Skills: shaping the profession for the 21st Century, IEEM 2011 and CIEEM 2017) identified the need for graduates who can undertake standard ecological surveys of sites and make recommendations for habitat and species management. This module is designed to help you develop these practical and employment related skills.

The teaching will focus on building your practice-based expertise, the confidence to make judgements and how to implement standard methods (UK and international equivalents) that are essential skills for a career in the fields of conservation and environmental management. Topics are based on the research rich expertise of the teaching staff with workshops based on techniques and strategies you need to know to work in the conservation profession. At the heart of the module is the global biodiversity crisis, concepts of biodiversity (genetic biodiversity, species biodiversity, community biodiversity, habitat diversity), and how the conservation profession approach challenges in nature conservation and management. You will explore major causes of biodiversity loss with examples from the UK and beyond. Workshops build expertise and confidence in professional skills and coursework assignments are based on authentic challenges faced by professionals working in nature conservation and management. The overall aim is to equip you with the expertise, skills and confidence to work in nature conservation.

In this module, you will develop a holistic viewpoint on issues surrounding environmental pollution, pollution impacts on human health, and approaches to pollution management and mitigation. You will engage with a range of contemporary issues across air quality management, contaminated land and water pollution; appreciate the wider context of historical pollution; analyse and interpret environmental data using a range of modelling techniques (for example, contaminated land software, atmospheric dispersion modelling software) and evaluate different types of interventions that can be used to alleviate/control the effects/impacts of pollutants;; and develop a good working knowledge of the regulatory systems that exist for air, water and soil pollution control at global, European, national and/or local levels. On completion of the module, your ability to link theory and application will serve to enhance your future employment prospects.

With a strong research focus, the tropical and coastal research module will cover the cutting-edge developments in coastal science. From how to identify seagrass using satellites, to predicting the contents of a rockpool without even looking at it, you will understand the processes that make coastal ecosystems tick.

You will design and undertake two research projects – one using field data that you will collect in North-East England, and another using secondary data from the Tropics that you will analyse during IT practical sessions. In both cases, you will learn that the same overarching concepts, in coastal science and research design, apply equally in these contrasting coastal settings.

Within a group, you will be given a valuable opportunity to plan and execute scientific experiments of your own in the field. This will be a method of your choosing, on a topic of your choice, example topics include microplastics, rockpools, longshore drift, or even footfall at tourist hotspots along the coast. To design your project and discuss your findings, you will engage with cutting-edge literature from the field of coastal science. You will present this research project in an oral presentation.

You will apply these same concepts in coastal science and research design to undertake your individual research project in a tropical coastal environment. To undertake this project, you will engage with secondary data in order to design and undertake your enquiry. You will undertake this work in a series of IT sessions, and present the project in the form of a professional report.

This final year module represents a significant leap in fieldwork expertise, offering a rigorous exploration of the physical environment. Working in diverse environments, students will study complex physical interactions, collect, analyse and present environmental data, and develop advanced research skills. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as the holistic understanding of environmental systems. Through direct field experience, students gain a deep understanding of the complexity and interconnectedness of our natural world. You will engage in data analysis and report writing practices that elevate your employability prospects. Collaborative work will sharpen your problem-solving abilities, preparing you for complex real-world challenges. In addition, you will gain a sense of professional ethics, and learn how to uphold standards and regulations within your field. By synthesizing theoretical knowledge with practical application, you will cultivate a robust and comprehensive perspective on physical geography. This module is designed not only to instil academic excellence, but also to provide you with the tools and confidence to tackle pressing environmental challenges, building on your potential to make real-world impact. Through interactive workshops and intensive field exercises, you will experience the dynamic, challenging, and rewarding aspects of environmental fieldwork. By the end of the module, you will have honed your proficiency in physical geographical research and improved your data collection and interpretation abilities. The fusion of practical and theoretical knowledge will enhance your ability to approach problems with a fresh, nuanced perspective. Fieldwork will not only deepen your knowledge but also provide hands-on experience in the application of various scientific tools and techniques. This, in turn, will refine your analytical skills and capacity for critical evaluation. Your interactions with the environment will foster a deeper sense of stewardship and commitment to the protection of our planet. A greater familiarity with contemporary environmental issues will inevitably lead to a heightened ability to contribute to solutions and navigate the complex terrain of environmental issues. Ultimately, the skills and knowledge you gain from this module will not only benefit your academic journey but also translate into a valuable asset in your future career, including the fields of environmental science and consultancy. The comprehensive nature of this module not only challenges you academically but also nurtures essential life skills such as resilience, teamwork, and adaptability.