Geography, global change (120 ECTS)

Overview

Humans now play a leading role in transforming our planet. These transformations, including climate change, biodiversity loss, urbanization and land-use changes affect our environment at global, regional and local scales. This poses important challenges for our societies, including sea-level rise and coastal retreat, soil erosion and land degradation, increased exposure to natural hazards (floods, landslides, extreme weather conditions), decreased food and water security, as well as population displacement, migration, poverty and political instability.

The magnitude of these changes and their impacts on societies need to be better understood through in-depth study and scientific research, beyond the usual disciplinary divides. For example:

• How can one set a price for carbon if one does not understand the planetary cycle of this chemical element?
• How can one obtain food and water security without considering predicted changes in temperature and rainfall patterns?
• How can we mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gases and design better cities without good insight into the functioning of global and regional climatic systems?
• How can one predict and mitigate natural hazards without understanding their mechanisms and controlling factors?
• How can one address challenges of public health and environmental migration without understanding the environmental, societal and geo-political dimensions of these problems?

The Master aims to address these and other questions by providing a broad, interdisciplinary yet thorough scientific training on the issues linked to global change, their mechanisms at play, their interactions, as well as their implications for the environment and societies.

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