High latitude regions are experiencing some of the most rapidly changing environmental conditions on the planet, impacting global water resources and carbon stores. Within this module you will apply state of the art methods and approaches to examine the behaviour of these high latitude regions, with a specific focus on glacial, permafrost and peatland environments. In addition to developing your theoretical background, you will learn specific technical skills through targeted practical sessions and critically engage with the key debates in the science of high latitude environments. Practical sessions will be conducted to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. You will apply emergent earth observation and geospatial technologies to problems in the cryospheric sciences, in addition to data analysis and numerical modelling approaches to determine the hydrological response that control some of these critical high latitude ecosystems.
This is a hands-on module and a high proportion of your time will be devoted to practicals and working on data. The practicals provide the foundation of the module assessments (100% coursework), in which you will document the findings from the practical work and write a short research article linking this research to different processes within high latitude environments.
By the end of the module you will be able to:
- Demonstrate a good understanding of fundamental concepts and methods used within hydrological sciences and cryospheric sciences.
- Apply selected remote sensing technologies to key questions in the cryospheric sciences.
- Articulate how models represent the environment and be familiar with some of the limitations of model simulations.
- Apply these concepts and methods to represent how high latitude environments are changing in response to changing environmental conditions.