Duration
30h Th, 30h Pr
Number of credits
Lecturer
Coordinator
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
All year long, with partial in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course provides a synthesis of ongoing and future climate change and of its impacts on 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: socio-econimic scenarios and IPCC climate projections
7. Climate change impacts (sea-level, hydrology, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, human societies).
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
This course provides an introduction to the problematics of global climate change.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Basic knowledge about how of physical, chemical and biological processes control Earth's evolution.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
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 produce a written text of three to four pages and to make a short oral presentation for the class or for secondary school students.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Other site(s) used for course materials
- UMCCB (http://www.umccb.ulg.ac.be/Edu/cours_f.php)
Further information:
Other site(s) used for course materials
- UMCCB (http://www.umccb.ulg.ac.be/Edu/cours_f.php)
- LPAP (https://www.astro.uliege.be/~munhoven/fr/cours/index-en.html)
Further information:
Online IPCC publications:
1. Sixth IPCC Assessment Report (AR6, Climate Change 2023):
- Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis;
- Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability;
- Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change;
- Synthesis Report.
The PDF files of the lecture slides are available for the students on the web site of the Unit for Modelling of Climate and Biogeochemical cycles (UMCCB).
The assessment procedure and instructions for preparing personal work are provided in the Assessment Procedure and Vademecum documents available at https://www.astro.uliege.be/~munhoven/fr/cours/chaclim; the Vademecum also provides detailed guidelines for better mastery of the course material.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Additional information:
An oral examination on the theoretical module is organised during the January exam session.
The bibliographic homework (written report and oral presentation) is also evaluated. The notes are weighted as follows:
- oral examination: 50%
- bibliographic homework - written report: 10%
- bibliographic homework - oral presentation: 40%
Work placement(s)
This course does not require any internship.
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The course is organised during the first semester and the beginning of the second semester along three modules:
- theory (20 h)
- bibliographic homeworks (35 h)
- oral presentation of bibliographic homeworks and debates (5 h)
- Tuesday afternoon 1 pm -5 pm during the fall term (Sep 17th to Dec 19th in room Macar (0/71), B11 building)
- some sessions during the spring term (various dates, various rooms, to be announced).
Contacts
Louis François, Professor,
Unit for Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles Modelling (UMCCB),
Institute of Astrophysics et and Geophysics (B5c build.),
Phone: (+32) (4) 366-9776
e-mail: Louis.Francois@uliege.be
Guy Munhoven, Research Associate F.R.S.-FNRS
Laboratoire de Planetary and Atmospheric Physics (LPAP)
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics (B5c build.),
Phone: (+32) (4) 366-9771
e-mail: Guy.Munhoven@uliege.be
Web: http://www.astro.uliege.be/~munhoven
Association of one or more MOOCs
There is no MOOC associated with this course.
Items online
Online notes
On-line notes available on UMCCB website
Lecture slides (Guy Munhoven)
This web page provides the slides for the lectures given by Guy Munhoven.
The material is freely accessible.