Dryland Environments: Past, Present and Future

GEOG60531 Dryland Environments: Past, Present and Future 15 Semester 1 Postgraduate Taught Level 6 Abigail Stone Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 Deserts, or drylands, cover 47% of the terrestrial land surface and are home to more than 2 billion people. Despite this, there are an often overlooked environment in the public and global imagination and certainly within geographical education and study. This course explores the what, where and whys of drylands, unearthing the diversity of dryland landscapes and processes and exploring what combination of things sets them apart from different to other places on Earth. In learning about these environments, a wider understanding of Earth Surface processes is also achieved. The variations recorded within drylands record a rich history of climatic and environmental change. The interactions between humans today and drylands involve a range of geohazards and environmental challenges such as adequate access to potable drinking water. You will explore case studies within a range of these human-environmental interactions. The course also includes field and laboratory training to training in research design and sample collection. You will also build skills and confidence in data analysis and data presentation. Deserts, or drylands, cover 47 % of the terrestrial land surface and are home to more than 2 billion people. Despite this, there are an often overlooked environment in the public and global imagination and certainly within geographical education and study. Most people have a picture of the desert: hot and dry, a landscape of rolling sand dunes, a herd of camels, or a threatening wave of land degradation that grabbed the imagination of the international community in the 1970s and led to the first effort in 1977 to tackles this through the Plan of Action To Combat Desertification (PACD). The topics you will study through this Optional Course Unit will help you to see beyond these stereotypes and understand the wide variety of conditions that are encapsulated in the dryland environments of the Earth. It may also get you thinking interplanetary and casting your eyes into space towards Mars. You’ll soon add Ralph Alger Bagnold to your list of desert Ralphs (Fiennes, playing a mysterious stranger recovering from a narrow miss with a crashing plane in a desert landscape of north Africa in Minghella’s 1996 dramitisation of The English Patient).The key characteristic of dryland environments from a physical geography point of view is aridity, which is not only a function of the amount of rainfall (and other forms of moisture input) but relates to a deficit in the ‘water balance’, where levels of potential evapotranspiration are often extremely high. Dryland environments have distinctive characteristics in their atmospheric, lithospheric, hydrospheric and biospheric components. As a result there are a set of geomorphological processes and landforms that differ to those found in a glacial environment, or the temperate and drizzly environment of Manchester. However, if sand seas only make up around 38% of dryland regions, then what does the majority of most deserts look like? Drylands are far from homogenous, with a great diversity of landscapes making up this 47 % of the earth’s land surface, and providing home to more than 850 million people. In addition, have the dryland regions of the present time always been this way? Numerous sites of prehistoric occupation and rock paintings depict parts of the Saharan region teeming with elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus and fossils of aquatic fauna record dispersals of animals through a series of lined lakes, rivers and inland deltas across this region more than once over the last 125,000 years.  And what of the relationship between people and dryland environments today? The emphasis on desertification as the perhaps the greatest environmental threat to the planet 40 years ago may have been superseded by other harmful aspects of human activity. But what are the major challenges that people face living in drylands in the 21st Century, in terms of geohazards and resources such as groundwater?In the lectures, discussions, field experience and lab classes of this course, we will explore answers to some of these questions, and consider and generate many other questions. I hope you will discover the diversity of dryland environments beyond an image of a camel against a sand dune backdrop, and like de Saint Exupery’s Little Prince, decide for you ‘what makes the desert beautiful’.  <ol> <li>Highlight the importance, relevance and uniqueness of dryland environments, which cover 47% of the terrestrial Earth surface, are home to over 2 billion people, and will face substantial challenges under future climate change, including far-reaching consequences outside dryland regions.</li> <li>Provide a detailed understanding of the physical characteristics of drylands, in terms of landscape features and processes and the interactions between processes.</li> <li>Outline and explain understand the nature of past environmental change in drylands over long (Quaternary) timescales in response to changing climatic conditions, and have a critical appreciation of methods used in reconstruction.</li> <li>Provide an introduction to the effects that these environments have on human populations and the impact that humans have on dryland environmental processes.</li> <li>Encourage an interest in the window that geomorphology of Earth provides into interplanetary geomorphology, in particular Martian environments.</li> <li>Provide students with confidence in independent learning, as a vital transferable, employability skill, through guidance of key self-led tasks: (i) an introductory blog post, (ii) field and laboratory investigations and (iii) applying principals learned about the operation of drylands to a class-led discussion about people and drylands (geohazards and environmental resource challenges). [Honing these skills will improve your dissertations] </li></ol> <ul> <li>Demonstrate knowledge of the importance, relevance and uniqueness of dryland environments</li> <li>Demonstrate a detailed understanding of the physical characteristics of drylands and how they have changed over Quaternary timescales</li> <li>Demonstrate an emerging knowledge of the effects of these environments on human populations and the impacts humans have on dryland environmental processes</li></ul> <ul> <li>Understand the importance of dryland environments as part of the Earth system and the processes and landforms that are characteristic of these regions.</li> <li>Identify the ways in which humans interact with dryland environments, including geohazards and pressures on natural resources.</li> <li>Demonstrate a working knowledge of the theoretical basis and practical application of the main techniques used to reconstruct past environmental conditions within drylands</li></ul> <ul> <li>Field research design, use of field instruments and sample collection</li> <li>Operation of laboratory analytical equipment</li></ul> <ul> <li>Information collation, critical reading, evaluation and analysis</li> <li>Use of spreadsheets and numeric analytical skills</li> <li>Presentation skills for communicating in front of audiences</li> <li>Teamwork skills</li></ul> Analytical skills Confidence plotting data and performing simple analysis. Group/team working In the field and laboratory, working as a team to complete the planning and collection of data. Innovation/creativity Through the writing tasks (blog post, report and examination) you will hone your creative communication skills. Oral communication Discussions in class, and an informal presentation of a case study will develop your confidence and ability in speaking and presenting. Problem solving The field and laboratory tasks require you to develop how best to collect and analyse data. Research Guided reading and encouragement to find wider sources will make you an independent researcher for life, knowing where to go to find reliable information and how to assess its validity. Written communication You will develop your skills here via examination essays, a report about field and laboratory data and through a less-formal blog post style. <ul> <li>Blackboard Discussion Board Space and/or Google Jamboards to share and discuss information</li> <li>Scheduled office hours for additional drop-ins</li></ul> 0 Other 100% Field and laboratory class write-up based on plotting data and short write-up after the field activities and the first laboratory class.  (~1600 words) [50%]Coursework Essay [50%]Formative components:<ul> <li>Blog Post in week 1 about dryland variability.</li> <li>In-class discussion.</li></ul> <ul> <li>Feedback to students on coursework via Turnitin for coursework.</li> <li>Feedback to students on Blogpost via Blackboard area.</li> <li>Feedback orally to students in class about discussion points and case studies.</li> <li>Feedback from students to students in class and in discussion forum.</li> <li>Feedback from students to staff informally in class with post-it note classroom assessment questions twice in the semester, anonymous box and formally through the end unit questionnaires.</li></ul> MSc Env.Montrng, Modlng & Reco MSc Env.Montrng, Modlng & Reco PGDT Taught Component Optional MSc Env.Montrng, Modlng & Reco MSc Env.Montrng, Modlng & Reco PGDT Taught Component Optional N Core text:Thomas, D. S. G. (ed) (2011) Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, form and change in drylands. Third edition. John Wiley and Son Ltd. Chichester. Cooke, R., Warren, A. and Goudie, A. (1993) Desert Geomorphology. UCL Press.Goudie, A. S. (2002) Great Warm Deserts of the World: Landscapes and Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Parsons, A. J., Abrahams, A. D. (2009) Geomorphology of Desert Environments 2nd Edition. Springer. Dordrecht.Williams, M. (ed) (2014) Climate Change in Deserts: Past, Present and Future. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. Lectures 14 Practical classes & workshops 10 0 126