Prospectus

nl en

Energy and Resource Management

Course
2014-2015

Tags

[BSc], EES, S

Admission requirements

None.

Course description

Fossil fuel supplies are declining rapidly. About 60% of Earth’s ecosystem services are being degraded or used unsustainably. Fresh water availability is falling. Species are becoming extinct at a rate that has not been seen since the last global mass-extinction event. Carbon emissions are continuing to increase globally. How can we begin to effectively address these issues? This course will provide an introduction to the field of natural resource management and the concept of sustainable development. Natural resources include both renewable resources (such as water, forests, wildlife) and non-renewable resources (such as fossil fuels). This course adopts a systems framework that will allow us to explore the connections among different elements in the context of global environmental change, human needs and impacts, and the need to reframe and revitalize our current approaches to resource management. We will explore local and global resource and environmental issues such as ethics and conservation, coastal management, air and water pollution, forest governance, the management of protected areas, and our ability to ensure sustainable energy supplies. Throughout the Block, we will investigate practical solutions to address, or begin to address, these issues.

Learning objectives

Upon completing this course students should be able to:

  • Students are able to define the field of natural resource management and the concept of sustainable development.

  • Students can evaluate the importance of various natural resources to human existence, in both a historical and contemporary context

  • Students can identify and analyse the key issues in sustainable resource use in different geographical, cultural, and developmental contexts

  • Students can analyse a natural resource management issue from a local and global perspective

  • Display a capacity to communicate effectively, both orally and in the written form, about energy and resource management issues

Literature

Course materials will be made available upon start of the course.