Admission requirements
This course is a specialization module within the MSc Industrial Ecology (joint degree Leiden University and TU Delft).
To take part in the course, students must be familiar with matrix calculations and basic Python programming. A bachelor-level background in linear algebra and macroeconomics is helpful but not mandatory.
MSc IE students should have attended and successfully completed the course ‘Methods: Analysing Physical Processes (4413MAPPT).
Exchange students can only enroll for this course if their home university has an Exchange agreement with both Leiden University and TU Delft. Exchange students have to ask permission from the study advisor of Industrial Ecology as soon as possible, preferably six months before the start of the course.
Description
In this course, students systematically study Environmentally-extended Input-Output Analysis (EEIOA). EEIOA is a standard methodology for assessing environmental footprints (e.g. carbon footprints) and analyzing the production and consumption structures within one or across economies. Economic and environmental analyses are inherently integrated for EEIOA.
The course is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the fundamental concepts and quantifications of EEIOA, such as the monetary and physical input-output tables and environmental footprint calculations for nations. The second part of the course introduces several advanced EEIOA techniques and illustrates how they have been used for analyzing sustainability issues, such as the socio-economic and environmental effects of international trade and circular economy strategies, the main immediate drivers of changing environmental pressures imposed by human activities (e.g. CO2 emissions), and sustainable waste management from producers, consumers, and systems perspectives.
The course follows a hands-on approach. Each new lecture is accompanied by an individual assignment, in which students do exercises related to the new content and develop and apply python programming skills. As a 10-EC course, the weekly study load is about 10 hours.
Course objectives
After completing this course, students are expected to:
1. Understand the structures and key components of supply-use tables (SUTs), input-output (IO) tables, and main IO datasets.
2. Model, in Python, and analyze the economic and environmental effects of production and consumption activities and potential policies across supply chains.
3. Articulate the state-of-the-art EEIOA methods introduced in the course and their applications in sustainability research and real-world decision-making.
4. Develop and present a quantitative study using EEIOA, interpreting its main results and potential limitations.
Timetable
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of instruction
In most weeks there is a lecture to introduce the week’s new material (i.e. lecturing, 45×2=90 minutes), accompanied by practicals (i.e., teacher-led exercises, 45×2=90 minutes).
Assessment method
50% of the final grade will result from a mid-term exam, corresponding to learning objectives 1&3. The other 50% of the final grade will result from a final group project to be completed at the end of the course, corresponding to learning objectives 2-4. The final assignment consists of a quantitative study in which a set of the EEIOA methods learned during the course are applied to address sustainability-related questions in a meaningful way. The specific format of the assignment is clarified during the course, as it depends on the number of students enrolled.
Reading list
The textbook for the course is ‘Input-output Analysis – Foundations and Extensions’ by Ronald E. Miller and Peter D. Blair. . Reading materials (e.g. sections, chapters from the textbook, and scientific papers) will be assigned for the students to go through before each lecture. The list of reading materials is available in the Manual of the course. Course materials also include lecture slides, IO datasets, and code.
Registration
Because this course is part of a joint degree between Leiden University and TU Delft, students (also guest and exchange) have to be enrolled to both universities.
All students have to enroll for the course via Brightspace (before the start of the course) and for the exam via uSis, Leiden University. For more information see this website.
Students who are not enrolled for the MSc Industrial Ecology have to ask permission from the study advisor of Industrial Ecology to join this course, at least one month before start of the course.
From the academic year 2022-2023 on every student has to register for courses with the new enrollment tool MyStudyMap. There are two registration periods per year: registration for the fall semester opens in July and registration for the spring semester opens in December. Please see this page for more information.
Please note that it is compulsory to both preregister and confirm your participation for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam of the course. Confirming your exam participation is possible until ten days before the exam.
Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.
Exchange students can only enroll for this course if their home university has an Exchange agreement with both Leiden University and TU Delft. Exchange students have to ask permission from the study advisor of Industrial Ecology as soon as possible, preferably six months before the start of the course.
Contact
Coordinator: Dr. R. Wang
Remarks
We strongly recommend using the anaconda package (https://www.anaconda.com/) as the python development environment. It’s freely available for Windows, macOS, and Linux and comes with a code editor (Spyder). Likely you have been using the Anaconda package during the Earth System Science and Analysis course in Q1 of the academic year.