ENVT0881-1 : Environmental degradation and desertification

Study Programmes 2015-2016

ENVT0881-1

Environmental degradation and desertification

Duration :

20h Th

Number of credits :

Master in geography : climatology (120 ECTS)		2

Lecturer :

Pierre Ozer

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the second semester

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Course contents :

Desertification processes: background, context and definitions.

Past and future analysis of the main driving factors of desertification, including climatic variability and anthropogenic pressure, with a focus on the Sahel of West Africa.

Consequences of desertification: poverty, development and health.

How to adapt to climatic variations in arid, semi arid and dry sub humid areas and to their influence on desertification processes?

Costs and perspectives of the fight against desertification...

Learning outcomes of the course :

The lecture will present the desertification processes analysing in detail causes, consequences and ways to prevent land degradation. It will focus on the difficulties to make project to fight against desertification in developing countries, including the uncertainty about forthcoming short and long term rainfall.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills :

None

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

None

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

Based on seven 3-hours lectures, the curses will be given with a Power Point support fully available to the students.