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| SPAT0027-4 | Climate change and impacts
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| Duration : | 15h Th, 15h Pr |
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| Number of credits : |
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| Lecturer : | Louis François, Guy Munhoven |
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| Coordinator : | Louis François |
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Language(s) of instruction :
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| French language |
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Organisation and examination :
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| All year long |
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Course contents :
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| This course provides a synthesis of ongoing and future climate change and of its impactson the environment and human societies. It is mostly based upon the IPCC report, which is available from the world-wide web. The following themes are covered:
1. Overview of the climate system;
2. Greenhouse effect and radiative forcing;
3. Carbon cycle and greenhouse gas balances;
4. Climate change during the 20th century: data analysis and models;
5. Past climate changes: methods of reconstruction and synthesis of observations (last millennium, Holocene, Pleistocene)
6. Future climate change: SRES socio-econimic scenarios and IPCC climate projections
7. Climate change impacts (sea-level, hydrology, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, human societies). |
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Learning outcomes of the course :
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| This course provides an introduction to the problematics of global climate change. |
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Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :
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| Basic knowledge about how of physical, chemical and biological processes control Earth's evolution. |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
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| By way of tutorials, bibliographic homeworks dealing with subjects related to various themes covered during the lectures will be proposed to students. Each student may chose a subject he/she is interested in. This way, they have the chance to improve on the basics covered by the main lectures. They are expected to make a short oral presentation for the class or for secondary school students. |
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Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
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| The course is organised during the first (Oct 1 to Nov 5) and second (Feb 4 to Feb 25) semester along three modules :
- theory (15 h)
- bibliographic homeworks (10h)
- oral presentation of bibliographic homeworks and debates (5 h)
Schedule 2012-2013: Monday morning 9h00-13h00; 1st lecture 1/10/2012, Room R.46, Building B6a |
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Recommended or required readings :
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| Online IPCC publications (http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm):
(http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm) (http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/index.htm)
- IPCC Fourth Assessment Report - Climate Change 2007;
- IPCC Third Assessment Report - Climate Change 2001;
- Various Special and Technical Reports ...
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| Oral examination.
Written and oral presentation of the bibliographic homework. |
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Work placement(s) :
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Organizational remarks :
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Contacts :
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| Louis François, Lecturer,
Institute of Astrophysics et and Geophysics (B5c build.),
Phone: (+32) (4) 366-9776
e-mail: Louis.Francois@ulg.ac.be
Guy Munhoven, Research Associate F.R.S-FNRS,
Laboratory of Planetary and Atmospheric Physics,
Institute of Astrophysics et and Geophysics (B5c build.),
Phone: (+32) (4) 366-9771
e-mail: Guy.Munhoven@ulg.ac.be
Web: http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/~munhoven |
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