CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

Graduate Seminar: Physical Geography

Course Details and Outline: Spring 1993

Professor

Dr. Andrew C. Comrie

Office: Harvill 453B

Phone: 621-1585

Hours: Thursdays, 10:30-11:30am

or by appointment

About the Course

This semester GEOG 696C (Physical Geography Seminar) deals with the broad topic of climate and environment. It is designed for graduate students in geography and other environmental sciences whose research interests involve climatology in some way. We will cover selected issues and methodologies in climatology in relation to a range of environmental topics.

The provisional meeting time is Thursdays, 2:00 to 4:30 pm in 452 Harvill (this time may change, by mutual agreement, if problematic for a significant number of students). The format of the course will be a research seminar with weekly readings, presentations and discussions, emphasizing real research problems. Participation and interaction in class are critical, as you will learn as much from other student's projects and opinions as from the readings. Students are required to lead discussion several times during the semester. Constructive critical thinking (verbal and written) will be rewarded.

I will be quite flexible about the exact nature of each student's written requirements, as I wish to maximise the practical benefits of the course for all concerned. Depending on what stage you are at in your graduate studies, you may choose to do several brief essays, reviews and critiques over the semester, or a research proposal that you intend to submit, or a research paper for a dissertation chapter or journal article, or perhaps some combination. Peer review will be a part of this process.

Basis for Grade

30% Class Participation

70% Written Work (reviews/critiques, research paper/proposal, etc.)

Policies

Absence: Attendance at seminar meetings is expected, and it bears on your ability to participate in class. Also, although attendance is not compulsory, excessive absence means you run the risk of being administratively dropped from the course.

Withdrawal: See the General Catalog.

Written work submitted late may be subject to penalties.

Texts and Readings

There are no required texts for the course. There are, however, numerous required and additional readings from a range of sources that will be available in Harvill 435D (Geography Dept. library and conference room). Students with limited exposure to climatology may wish to consult a general climatology text as necessary during the course. There are many such texts, so check with me about suitability of a particular book. A good example for the non-specialist that gives a fairly comprehensive treatment is Henderson-Sellers and Robinson, 1986, Contemporary Climatology, (Longman/Wiley).

Tentative Outline of Topics

Class will not meet during the week 14-20 March (Spring Break) and during the week 4-10 April (Assoc. Amer. Geographers Meeting, Atlanta). Excluding the introductory and concluding class meetings, this leaves us with 12 meeting times, some of which may be used for presentations. I wish to develop an outline of weekly topics combining some of those listed below with your own areas of interest.

* Conceptual frameworks and nature of climate and environmental research

* Climate variations and variability

* GCMs and empirical observations

* Role of biogeochemical cycles, changes and impacts

* Different approaches to climate impact assessment

* Uses of GIS and Remote Sensing

* Methodologies at different scales (global, synoptic, local)

* Policy, regulation, conservation

* A range of environmental climate issues, from biophysical through social, such as:

Water supply Integrated studies

Drought and desertification Biodiversity

Storms and extreme events Agriculture and forests

Energy - fossil fuel and renewable Political implications

Food supply Etc.

GEOG 696C Physical Geography Seminar Spring 1993

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

Revised Outline of Seminar Topics

Week Date Topic

1. Jan 14 Introduction (course details and outline, student interests)

2. Jan 21 Conceptual frameworks (nature of clim. and environ. res. in geog.)

3. Jan 28 Climate variability (teleconnections, volcanoes, dust)

4. Feb 4 GCMs (uncertainties, regions and scale)

5. Feb 11 Climate impact assessment (methodologies, problems, integration)

* short assignment #1 due Feb 18

6. Feb 18 Air pollution and climate (fossil fuels, global and local effects)

7. Feb 25 Climate-related renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro)

8. Mar 4 Land-cover change and climate (feedback, forests, biodiversity)

* short assignment #2 due Mar 11

9. Mar 11 Climate and agriculture (food supply, crops, population)

10. Mar 18 No class - Spring Break

11. Mar 25 Drought (causes, effects, desertification)

12. Apr 1 Floods and storms (causes, effects, mitigation)

* Draft of short assignment #3 (proposal) and draft research papers due Apr 15

13. Apr 8 No class - AAG meeting, Atlanta

14. Apr 15 Local climates (change, urban effects, development)

15. Apr 22 Climate, politics and society (impacts, issues)

* Final versions of proposals and research papers due Apr 29

16. Apr 29 Concluding session (paper and proposal presentations)