Course overview

There has never been a more important time to increase our understanding of the environment and the effects of human actions upon it. Global warming, rising sea levels, fuel crises, globalisation, poverty, resource depletion and security fears – all major concerns for the twenty-first century and all issues that can be studied within the curriculum of environmental geography.

This course will enable students to understand both the physical and social science behind contemporary environmental issues, as well as develop key geographical skills to identify, monitor and analyse the physical and social causes underlying such issues. As an environmental geography student, you will be engaging and learning about some of the most important issues facing society today. Specifically, you will examine issues of environmental sustainability, change, hazards and monitoring techniques. You will develop an understanding of the theoretical aspects of environmental issues, as well as an applied knowledge of techniques used for environmental assessment.

There are numerous opportunities for fieldwork and these are supported by excellent monitoring and laboratory facilities. We have a specialised team of experienced environmental geographers whose teaching is supported by their research activities.

Course content

Year one

In the first year of your studies, you will be introduced to a wide range of environmental problems and issues. This first year will give you a good understanding of some of the key aspects of environmental geography and help you decide on the areas you wish to specialise in during years two and three. Core units in environmental geography include:

• Environmental Geography Fieldwork
• Geographical Data Analysis
• Population Resources and the Environment
• Global Environmental Management
• Introduction to Environmental Thought
• Introduction to Geographical Information Systems

Fieldwork is in the local area and currently examines issues of coastal resource management. Besides concentrating on environmental geography, your option choices give you the flexibility to specialise in particular areas of the subject. Optional units include:

• Portsmouth: Its History and Regions
• Cities of the World
• Foundations in Human Geography
• Applied Physical Geography units

Year two

The second year allows students to focus upon particular areas of interest, as the units become more specialised. Core units include:

• Environmental Monitoring
• Research Methods
• Sustainable Environmental Management

There is also a European field unit where the environment group has recently visited Cyprus, Zanzibar and Malta. The fieldwork involves organised visits, as well as individual research projects looking at a range of environmental issues. Optional units include:

• Environmental Hazards
• Environmental History
• Geographies of Development
• Changing Cities
• Spatial Data Acquisition
• Fluvial or Coastal Studies
• Introduction to Soils, Ecology and Biogeography

Year three

In the final year of the programme you are able to choose from a selection of specialised units, as well as core units in environmental assessment techniques (such as carbon footprinting and environmental impact assessment) or more theoreticalbased units such as Environment and Society Relations. Your option choices include:

• Applied Fluvial Studies
• Rural Geography
• Applied Coastal Geomorphology
• Quaternary Environmental Change and Reconstruction
• Gender and Development
• Cultural Geography
• Sustainable Urban Living

You will also complete a dissertation during this year, which will reflect your particular environmental interests and draw upon your skills and abilities gained throughout your studies. This is a key element of the degree and is an opportunity to gain valuable research experience. To support this activity you will also have the opportunity to join staff in their field research areas. Recent research expeditions have travelled to Indonesia, Arctic Finland, Iceland, the Rockies in the USA and Malta.

Teaching and assessment

We pride ourselves on our student-centred approach to teaching. As a department we are keen to keep abreast of all the latest developments in teaching and best practice. Our courses are constantly updated to take into account the changing nature of environmental issues. We are also committed to a ‘learning through doing’ approach and therefore incorporate fieldwork into our curriculum whenever we can.

Throughout your time with us, we will provide you with the support, enthusiasm and encouragement that you need to reach your goals. You will be engaged in a number of class-based teaching formats, from the large lecture to student-centred seminars, workshops, group tutorials and one-to-one tuition. All students are assigned a personal tutor, who holds regular individual meetings and small group sessions, which often include discussions of the latest environmental issues. Our tutorial programme runs through all three years of the degree and, in your final year, you will have a dissertation supervisor.

You will be expected to acquire 120 credits each year and by the end of your degree you should have obtained a total of 360 credits. Although these are most often acquired by studying consecutively for three years, the credit structure is flexible and allows you to take a break from your studies at any point.

To obtain your degree classification, you will be assessed in a range of ways, some traditional (such as exams and coursework essays), many less traditional ways (such as portfolios, contributions to electronic discussion forums, webpage design, carbon footprint reports and verbal presentations). Mostly, you will be assessed on your individual work, but sometimes you will be assessed on group work. The breakdown between exams and coursework will depend upon your choice of units. Some subjects may be 100 per cent coursework, but typically many are a 50:50 split.

Career prospects

Employment related to environmental sectors has grown enormously in recent years. The combination of practical and theoretical understanding you will acquire will leave you both highly employable and suited for postgraduate study. The Department has an excellent reputation with a wide range of public and private employers. As a result our graduates are extremely successful in finding good, permanent and rewarding employment in a wide range of vocational situations.

Facilities and features

You will use the department’s excellent support facilities, which include:

• Two specialist Geographical Information Systems (GIS)/remote sensing labs, which have been enhanced with high specification PCs. These labs have an excellent range of hardware and software available for you to use on environmental projects and coursework.
• Primary data instruments for environmental monitoring including differential GPS, laser scanners and total stations.
• Physical labs which contain some of the latest equipment for testing aspects of the environment.
• A wide provision of software including spatial database software, remote sensing and other GIS-based software.

The GIS and physical labs are staffed by full-time experienced technical staff.

In addition, you will have access to high specification computing facilities and to our University Library, which was commended in the 2008 Civic Trust Awards for its £11 million ‘green’ extension. Open from 8am to midnight every day during term-time, it supplies a variety of information to help with study and research. The University has also invested substantially in electronic resources. There are in excess of 10,000 electronic journals available, together with thousands of ebooks, which can be accessed across the University campus, at home or wherever there is an internet connection.

Studying abroad

We have exchange links with a number of universities in Europe and beyond, so you can take up the opportunity to study abroad for a few months. Current links include the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), Universite du Harve, (France), University of Malta and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland).

Overseas fieldwork

Overseas fieldwork is an essential element of this degree. Recent trips within the Geography Department have been to Malta, Cyprus, Iceland and Zanzibar. Currently, the Malta trip looks at sustainable tourism, natural resource use, heritage conservation and attitudes to environmental issues.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for BSc (Hons) Environmental Geography for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).