Admission requirements
This course is an elective for the MSc Governance of Sustainability and MSc Industrial Ecology. Students from these two masters have priority for this course, if there are spots left, then the course is also open to students of the Biology master programme.
Description
Nitrogen pollution from agriculture, industry, transportation, and energy production is a significant environmental threat, as indicated by the exceedance of Planetary Boundaries. Addressing nitrogen pollution requires a careful balance between economic and ecological considerations. The Netherlands exemplifies the challenges in achieving this balance, particularly highlighted by the nitrogen and sustainability crisis following the Council of State's ruling on the Programmatic Approach to Nitrogen (PAS) in May 2019. This case illustrates the conflicts between economic growth and environmental quality, a relevant issue for many industrialized and agricultural regions worldwide facing similar environmental challenges.
In this course, you will explore the complexity of the nitrogen issue through lectures covering its historical background, legislative and juridical aspects, the roles and interests of various stakeholders, and the influence of politics. Additionally, by utilizing the Nitrogen Footprint model, you will gain insights into how your consumption patterns impact nitrogen emissions into the environment.
Course objectives
After this course you have/are able to:
Evaluate the different aspects and drivers in the nitrogen challenge and quantify the impacts of food and lifestyle choices on sustainability
Weigh the balance between economic benefits and ecological benefits and give concrete examples
Analyze the roles of different stakeholders in nitrogen management and sustainability and its success and failure
Use and evaluate Nitrogen Footprint model
Develop future policies and possible solutions related to sustainability
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
By lectures on the background of the nitrogen issue, invited lectures by different relevant stakeholders, feedback sessions, using the Nitrogen Footprint model and NitroGenius (a serious game to solve the Dutch nitrogen crisis), discussion and self-study. The lectures and the debate at the end of the course are compulsory to attend. It will not be possible to follow the lectures online.
Assessment method
Assignment 1:
Student nitrogen low lifestyle paper. Describe a student nitrogen low lifestyle based on the Nitrogen footprint tool in 2 pages. The 2 pager will be assessed and it weights 25% of the final grade. This assignment will be presented during the first lecture.
Assignment 2:
Stakeholder position paper. Students will individually write a scientific stakeholder position paper with clear arguments supported by facts on how they would see the nitrogen crisis to be solved from the perspective of a stakeholder assigned to them. This assignment is graded and accounts for 50% of the final grade.
Assignment 3:
Stakeholder debate and presentation. In groups of 4-5, students will have a discussion/debate on how to solve the Dutch nitrogen crisis together with all stakeholders. Students will present the outcomes of this stakeholder debate in presentations to the rest of the class. The presentations are graded and account for 25% of the final grade.
The student will pass the course if the overall weighted mark for the three assignments is above 5.5. There will be no exams and it is possible to resubmit a paper that was marked insufficient after one month of the grading of the paper.
Reading list
De Vries, W., Kros, H., Kroeze C., and Seitzinger,S. P., (2013) Assessing planetary and regional nitrogen boundaries related to food security and adverse environmental impacts. Curr. Opin. Env. Sust. 5, 392–402.
Erisman et al. 2015: Nitrogen a vital resource. Scientific brief
Erisman et al. 2021: Set ambitious targets for agriculture
UNEP (2019) Frontiers 2018/19 Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.Sutton et al. 2013
van Grinsven, H. J. M., M. Holland, B. H. Jacobsen, Z. Klimont, M. a. Sutton, and W. Jaap Willems. 2013. Costs and Benefits of Nitrogen for Europe and Implications for Mitigation. Environ Sci Technol 47: 3571-3579
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Coordinator: Prof.dr.ing. J.W. Erisman
Teachers: Joran Lammers and Berent Baris.
Other involved teachers: invited guest lectures by external speakers
Remarks
This course is an elective for the MSc Governance of Sustainability and MSc Industrial Ecology. Students from these two masters have priority for this course, if there are spots left, then the course is also open to students of the Biology master programme. The students of these three programmes can register for the course in MyStudyMap
The course focusses on the Dutch nitrogen and sustainability crisis and will be taught in English. However, especially for the second assignment the available literature is mainly in Dutch. This might be a limitation for international students, even though translation options of most of the texts is possible.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.