Study Programmes 2015-2016
| SPAT0027-4 | ||||||||
| Climate change and impacts | ||||||||
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Duration :
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| 15h Th, 15h Pr | ||||||||
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Number of credits :
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Lecturer :
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| Louis François, Guy Munhoven | ||||||||
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Coordinator :
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| 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, with partial in January | ||||||||
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Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
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| Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program | ||||||||
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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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Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
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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 semester (Oct-Nov) and the beginning of the second semester (Feb) along three modules :
- theory (15 h)
- bibliographic homeworks (10h)
- oral presentation of bibliographic homeworks and debates (5 h)
Schedule 2015-2016: Wednesday morning 9h00-13h00 during the first semester (Sep 23 to Nov 25) + some lectures during the second semester ; 1st lecture Wednesday September 23rd, 2015, Room R.19, Building B5b |
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Recommended or required readings :
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Online IPCC publications :
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| 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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Items online :
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 | Online notes On-line notes available on UMCCB website |
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