SLE757 - Environmental Science and Global Change
| Year: | 2025 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Prerequisite: | Nil |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | Nil |
| Study commitment | Students will on average spend 150 hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site. |
| Scheduled learning activities - campus | 1 x 1 hour lecture per week, 1 x 2 hour seminar per week. |
| Scheduled learning activities - online | Online independent and collaborative learning including 1 x 1 hour online lecture per week, 1 x 2 hour online seminar per week. |
Content
Sustainability involves working across a range of different domains such as climate science and climate change; hydrology and water resources; food, agriculture, and land systems; ecology and biodiversity conservation; natural resource economics; health and environment; and pollution and waste management. It also involves working in different environments and contexts such as the tropics, arid regions, temperate regions, coasts and oceans, cities, and river systems. Human actions are profoundly impacting the environment at an unprecedented rate. Knowledge of the dimensions of global change and its impacts on the environment is therefore crucial and urgent. Science-based targets and evidence-based solutions to sustainability issues across different contexts and environments requires a solid scientific foundation. While you don’t need to be an expert in each of these fields, it helps immensely to have a broad understanding of the science underpinning environmental processes and global change dynamics.
Sustainability professionals need to be able to speak the same language as discipline experts and be able to piece together the big picture surrounding complex issues spanning people’s interaction with the environment. This unit draws on the concept of planetary boundaries to provide students with a solid scientific understanding around the existence of ‘tipping points’ and potential planetary thresholds. This enables students to appreciate the key earth system processes, the indicators used to measure their current status, the key human drivers exerting a negative impact on different aspects of the environment, and the solutions that can help humanity stay within environmental limits.
Unit Fee Information
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.