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
The Netherlands has been experiencing a nitrogen and therewith an economic crisis since the judgment of the Council of State in May 2019 regarding the programmatic approach to nitrogen (PAS). This is a good example of the conflicts of interest between economic growth on one side and nature quality on the other. During this course, you will be introduced to the complexity of the issue through lectures on the historical background of the nitrogen issue, as well as through very engaging guest lectures that represent the stakeholder roles and perspectives, including legislative and legal aspects, the role of politics, NGOs, farmers, and more. One of the key components of the course is to understand the various stakeholder positions in the nitrogen problem. Furthermore, by using the Nitrogen Footprint model, you will learn about the consequences of your consumption patterns for nitrogen losses to the environment, and you will learn how, despite the complexity, you can come up with solutions for the nitrogen problem.
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 of key stakeholders and scientists, feedback sessions, using the Nitrogen Footprint model, 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 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.
Assignment 3:
Stakeholder position paper. Students will individually write a 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.
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
Erisman et al. 2015: Nitrogen a vital resource. Scientific brief: https://science.vu.nl/en/Images/Nitrogen-Report_spread%5B1%5D_tcm296-452193.pdf
(DUTCH) Erisman, Strootman, 2021. Naar een Ontspannen Nederland. https://ontspannennederland.nl/static/naar-een-ontspannen-nederland.pdf
Erisman et al. 2021: Set ambitious targets for agriculture https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.12.007
European Nitrogen Assessment (2011) http://nine-esf.org/node/360/ENA-Book.html
Selnes, T. (2023). The Netherlands Food System Policy Nitrogen Emission Reduction Policy amidst Competing Interests and Struggles for Influence. https://foodsystemeconomics.org/wp-content/uploads/Selnes-2023.pdf
Stokstad, E. (2019). ‘Nitrogen crisis threatens Dutch environment—and economy’. Science, Vol. 366, No. 6470, pp. 1180–1181. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.366.6470.1180.
UNEP (2019) Frontiers 2018/19 Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.Sutton et al. 2013
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
Other involved teachers: invited guest lectures by external speakers
Remarks
This course is an elective module for the MSc Programme on Governance of Sustainability and the MSc Industrial Ecology.
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.