GG30420 - RIVER SYSTEMS AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

Module Identifier	GG30420
Module Title	RIVER SYSTEMS AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
Academic Year	2002/2003
Co-ordinator	Professor Mark G Macklin
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-Requisite	GG22510
Course delivery	Lecture	20 Hours 10 x 2 hours
	Seminars / Tutorials	2 Hours 5 x 2 hours
Assessment	Semester Exam	2 Hours Written examination.	50%
	Semester Assessment	Essay: 2500 word assessed essay.	30%
	Semester Assessment	Presentation: 10 minute seminar presentation.	10%
	Semester Assessment	Course Work: 500 word seminar report.	10%
	Supplementary Assessment	Resubmission of failed CA component. Resit failed examination.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module students should be able to :-

assess the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic factors responsible for catchment disturbance and river instability in both the Developed and Developing World.

evaluate and forecast the likely impact of changes in climate, land-use, pollution and engineering on rivers and catchment systems.

Aims

This module is designed for students to develop a conceptual, factual and practical knowledge of channel, floodplain and catchment response to environmental change over the last 20,000 years resulting from natural and anthropogenic perturbations.

Content

Drainage basin & river response to the last glacial-interglacial transition (18,000-10,000 BP):
Pleistocene context & inheritance in catchment dynamics

Britain & Northern Europe
Quaternary environmental change in the Mediterranean
Pleistocene river histories in the Mediterranean
Africa

River Environments & Holocene environmental change (10,000-300 BP)

Britain & Northern Europe
The Mediterranean
North America

River environments & recent environmental change (300 BP to present)

Flood histories in Britain in North America
Mountain river systems in the Old & New World
Heavy metals in river systems

Reading Lists

Articles
** Recommended Text
Macklin, M. G. & Lewin, J.. (1997) 'Channel, floodplain and drainage basin response to environmental change'. Pages 14-45 in: Applied Fluvial Geomorphology for River Engineering and Management, Edited by C.R. Thorne, R.D. Hey & M.D.Newson. Chichester & John Wiley & Sons