Biennial course.  Offered in 2012; not offered in 2013.

The course applies the core human ecology concepts to the urban environment. The emphasis is on how human activities affect ecological processes and human wellbeing in urban areas and how they affect the health of the hinterlands on which those urban areas depend. Students will study the effect that different human values, institutional arrangements and management strategies have on urban energy and material stocks and flows.

Case studies covered by the course include:
The changes that the urban form places on water, energy and material flows
How urban design and planning processes affect transport and settlement patterns
For each of these topics, different human interventions will be considered, including those aimed at improving governance, harnessing ecosystem services and engaging with the community.

Note: Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but are assessed separately.

On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. apply key concepts in Human Ecology to the urban environment, and communicate these to a range of audiences
2. describe the ecosystem services demanded by modern urban systems and evaluate the capacity of ecosystems to supply those services
3. explain material and energy flows of modern cities, including food and water, and carry out and critically evalute material stocks and flows analyses of specific aspect of the urban environment
4. appraise constraints and opportunities for future sustainable cites

Regular attendance and participation in classwork and fieldtrips is required. Students who fail to submit set work by the due date or fail to participate in classes and field trips may be excluded from examination.

Assessment will be based on:

• Completing a short test on basic concepts (10%; LO 1)
• Contribution to, and facilitation of, student-led seminar activities (10%; LO 1, 2, 3, 4)
• Material Stocks and Flows Research project, involving original reflective-evaluative research into the ecological load of some aspect of students' everyday lives, and recommended strategies to reduce that load, and class presentation. Must include critical evaluation on the strengths and weakness of MSFA (45%; LO 3, 4)
• Reflective field trip report analysing how and why and to what extent ecosystem services are affected by human actiivity and appraise possibility of this continuing. (35%; LO 2, 3, 4)

65 contact hours including lectures, tutorials, workshops and fieldwork.

Bachelor degree; no specific knowledge

Hargroves, K and Smith, M (eds) (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations, London, Earthscan.