The Department of Geography currently offers the following postgraduate modules for the MSc
in Geographic Information & Climate Change. The timetable provided is indicative of course
content as the modules available may change from year to year.
Part One
For Part One of the MSc in Geographic Information & Climate Change students are required to
follow and be assessed in six taught modules, totalling 120 credits. On successful completion of
Part One, students may proceed to Part Two, which involves the preparation and submission of
a dissertation, valued at 60 credits. Students registered for the Diploma follow and are assessed
only in the six taught modules of Part One.
The taught modules are delivered through a mixture of lectures, seminars and workshops. In
addition, students are expected to attend tutorial meetings with a personal tutor who provides
ongoing learning and pastoral support. During Part One the personal tutor is the degree scheme
coordinator (Dr John Hiemstra, Room 245, Wallace, email: j.hiemstra@swansea.ac.uk)
In Semester 1 students will take the following compulsory modules:
GEGM04 - Modelling Earth Systems (20 credits). An understanding of the environment is
increasingly important in many areas, e.g., industry, agriculture, conservation, health, science,
and planning. This module introduces computational modelling in a geographical context. It aims
to develop thinking about environmental issues within a modelling framework, and to develop
practical skills in developing and using computational models, and in computer data analysis and
visualisation. Examples are focussed on solving practical scientific problems in environmental
dynamics and climate change, focussing on modelling the terrestrial carbon and hydrological
cycles.
GEGM21 - Climate Change (20 credits). This module will examine the Earth’s climate system,
and the principal natural and anthropogenic forcing mechanisms controlling it. The detection and
nature of recent environmental changes will be discussed within the context of the Earth’s
climate history during the Quaternary period. Using case studies the socio-economic and
ecological consequences of climate change will be discussed in relation to the available
scientific evidence and associated response of the international community (eg IPCC, Kyoto
Protocol, mitigation strategies) and the wider Climate Change debate. The tool and methods
used to measure, predict and study climate changes will be introduced. This will include the
fundamental structure of General Circulation Models and how these techniques may be
employed in conjunction with instrumental and proxy data to study the climate of the past and to
reduce uncertainty in future climate change projections.
GEGM22 - Geographical Information Systems (20 credits). This module will provide students
from a range of disciplines including Geography, Epidemiology and Bioscience, with a
comprehensive understanding of Geographic Information Systems, and key practical skills in the
market-leading GIS software tool, ESRI ArcGIS. At the end of the module students will know
how and where to acquire geospatial data, how to combine and analyse these data for specific
objectives, and how to visualise primary and derived data in the form of maps.
In Semester 2 students will also take the following compulsory module:
GEGM10 - Satellite Remote Sensing (20 credits). This module explains the use of remote
sensing as a tool for gathering and analyzing information about human resources and the
natural environment. It is appropriate for students who would find it valuable to understand how
information about human activity and environmental change is retrieved from images of the
Earth acquired by satellite. Emphasis is placed on the role of ongoing missions in providing
operational information for science and society. Elements of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) appropriate for dealing with spatially-explicit image data are examined. Lecture material is
supported by hands-on experience exploring satellite images in a computer environment.
Plus any optional modules totalling 40 credits:
BIOM22 - Environmental Assessment & Management (20 credits; Semester 2). Students
enrolled in this module will learn to choose suitable environmental management systems to
solve environmental problems in the real world, to apply a variety of techniques to environmental
evaluation, and to make environmental impact assessments and reports.
BIOM25B - Core Science Skills (20 credits; Semester 1). This intensive lecture and practical
based module covers science skills for students wishing to pursue postgraduate studies,
including MSc and PhD degrees. It will teach students how to make good use of library and
internet resources (including Web of Science, Voyager and Blackboard), to design and analyse
their experiments, and to make presentations of their data during conferences and symposia.
BIOM32 - Ecosystems (20 credits; Semester 2). This module introduces students to terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystems, food webs, and the mechanisms by which biota interact and interrelate
with the environment. Students in this module will acquire an understanding for how to conduct
research into free-living behaviour of marine and terrestrial organisms and understand the
debate on anthropogenically driven environmental change, including climate change.
CS-M41 - Programming in Java Credit Points (20 credits; Semester 1). This module
provides a solid introduction to the Java programming language and development process.
Topics covered include an introduction to Java, the object-oriented paradigm - objects, classes
and methods, basic graphical interfaces, exception handling in Java, I/O and files in Java.
GEGM07 - Principles of Environmental Dynamics (20 credits; Semester 1). This module
aims to explain and understand past and present and environment. It provides a broad approach
to environmental processes and dynamics operating on land, in the oceans and in the
atmosphere on a global and regional scale. Emphasis is placed on the evidence available for
reconstructing past environmental dynamics, the implications for present-day processes and
likely impacts.
GEGM26 - Climate Science and Policy (20 credits; Semester 2). This module will develop
critical thinking about the role of science, especially climate science, in society. This role will be
discussed in terms of what is desirable, what is practical and what is the present reality. We will
focus on a few specific areas; how science provides advice to policy-makers (especially through
the activities of bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and the
symbiotic/antagonistic relationship between science and the media. During the module you will
consider the communication of climate science topics to scientists, the general public and to
policy makers. You will choose four or five topics to research in discussion with the course
convener, each to be communicated to one of these constituent groups.
Part Two
GEGM06B - Research Project in Geographical Information & Climatic Change (60
credits). All dissertation topics will be agreed during Semester 2, and supervisors will be
allocated during this time. Formal work on the dissertation will begin in the first week of July,
and in line with university guidelines final deadline for submission of dissertations is 30th
September. Dissertations are to be presented in the form of a scientific paper saved in the
PDF format (8,000 words). The dissertation should be supported by full data and documentary
details and one page summary suitable for an intelligent lay person (an additional 7,000 words,
to make a total of 15,000 words). The supporting data should be sufficient to enable the
interpretations presented in the scientific paper to be assessed.