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Monash University

Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Area of Study

All areas of study information should be read in conjunction with the relevant course entry in the Handbook. The units listed for this area of study relate only to the 'Requirements' outlined in the Faculty of Arts component of any bachelors double degrees.

Managing facultyFaculty of Arts
Offered bySchool of Geography and Environmental Science
Campus(es)Clayton, South Africa

Description

The school's research and teaching program adopts an integrative approach for understanding and doing global, regional, and urban sustainability. It can be divided into four main thematic groups that span the traditional disciplinary divides of physical geography, human geography, and environmental management and incorporate analytical techniques such as geographic information systems:

  • Social change and development - investigates the ways in which human communities occupy, use and modify spaces and places, with particular attention to questions of urbanisation, international development, and social justice.
  • Conservation of biological and cultural diversity - based in biogeography, palaeoecology, and archaeology, this stream investigates the distribution and character of the Earth's vegetation and the archaeology of indigenous peoples.
  • Climate change - investigates the functioning of the climate and atmosphere in the past, present, and future through approaches from earth systems science through to environmental policy.
  • Land and water resources management - draws from both scientific investigations in geomorphology, hydrology, and biogeography, and social science approaches to environmental and resource management.

Many geography units offer opportunities for field studies in different landscapes. These include day or weekend trips to study cities, coasts, alpine areas, soils, hydrology, climatology and meteorology, Australian Indigenous archaeology, tourism and environmental management. More extensive and lengthy excursions are also available, in particular on the themes of indigenous archaeology and regional sustainability (to regional Australia, South Africa and Italy). Basic laboratory techniques are also taught in selected physical geography and archaeology units.

Those proceeding into honours have the further opportunity to consolidate their understanding of an area (or areas) of specialisation, while pursuing a research topic under expert supervision.

Units

Clayton

First-year level

Students studying a sequence in geography and environmental science must complete two units (12 points) from the following, including the core unit

Core
  • GES1070 Natural hazards and human vulnerability
Elective
  • GES1020 Australian physical environments: Evolution, status and management
  • GES1050 The global challenge

Second/Third-year level

Students studying a minor or major in geography and environmental science must have completed the first-year sequence. In addition:

  • a minor requires completion of a further two units (12 points) from the units listed below
  • a major requires completion of a further six units (36 points) from the units listed below. A minimum of three units must be taken at third year level.

Available units include:

  • GES2060/GES3060 Archaeology of indigenous Australia
  • GES2080/GES3080 Archaeological field and laboratory method
  • GES2130 Soils, land use and the environment
  • GES2170 Biogeography - the status of Australian vegetation
  • GES2190 Climatology: Surface-atmosphere processes and interactions
  • GES2210/GES3210 Environmental hydrology
  • GES2340/GES3340 Cities and sustainability
  • GES2460 Environmental policy and management
  • GES2660 Power and poverty: Geographies of an uneven development
  • GES2760 Place and the politics of identity
  • GES2860 Climate change and variability (previously GES3860 Climate change and variability)
  • GES2910 Fundamentals of geographical information science
  • GES3050 Field studies in urban sustainability
  • GES3070 Remote sensing of the environment
  • GES3210 Environmental hydrology
  • GES3250 Environmental assessment and decision making
  • GES3270 Research project in geography and environmental science
  • GES3350 Resource evaluation and management
  • GES3360 Soils, landscape and their management
  • GES3370 Urban climate, water and sustainability (previously 'Applied environmental climatology')
  • GES3420 Researching human environments
  • GES3470 Urbanisation and regional development in the Indo-Pacific rims
  • GES3555 Environmental change: Past to future
  • GES3810 Geographical information systems (GIS) for environmental management
  • INT2065/INT3065 International development in a globalising world

Units not offered in 2010

  • GES2160 Coastal geomorphology and management
  • GES2320 Tourism and the environment
  • GES2750 Economic spaces and industrial landscapes
  • GES3220 Tourism and the environment
  • GES3240 Cities and sustainability
  • GES3260 Cultural landscape, environment and sustainability (field study unit in Italy)
  • GES3330 Field studies in regional sustainability (field study unit in South Africa)
  • GES3520 Social space: Urban justice
  • GES3530 Landscape processes (field-based unit in outback Australia)
  • GES3540 Out of Africa: Human evolution, world heritage and museums
  • GES3550 Quaternary environments
  • GES3610 Geographical information systems for business and social science applications
  • GES3750 Sharing prosperity: Geographies of work, regional development and economy
  • GES3820 Geographical information systems (GIS) for environmental management
  • GES3850 The Australian atmospheric environment - a synoptic-scale approach
  • GES3890 Earth system interactions: From biogeochemical cycles to global change

South Africa

First-year level

Students studying a sequence in geography and environmental science must complete two units (12 points) from the following:

  • GES1003 Introduction to human geography
  • GES1030 Introduction to physical geography

Second/Third-year level

Students studying a minor or major in geography and environmental science must have completed the first-year sequence. In addition:

  • a minor requires completion of a further two units (12 points) from the units listed below
  • a major requires completion of a further six units (36 points) from the units listed below. A minimum of three units must be taken at third year level.

Available units include:

Units not offered in 2010

Relevant Courses

Diplomas

  • 2442 Diploma in Arts (Geography and Environmental Science)

Bachelors

Single degrees

  • 0002 Bachelor of Arts
  • 1638 Bachelor of Arts as a Participant in the Dean's Scholars Program
  • 3907 Bachelor of Arts (English Language)
  • 3910 Bachelor of Arts (Global)
  • 1366 Bachelor of Arts (Languages)
  • 1275 Bachelor of Communication
  • 2340 Bachelor of Environmental Science
  • 4042 Bachelor of Journalism
  • 0202 Bachelor of Letters
  • 0821 Bachelor of Music
  • 1144 Bachelor of Performing Arts
  • 0050 Bachelor of Science

Double degrees

  • 3277 Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Bachelor of Arts
  • 0550 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business (Accounting)
  • 0553 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business (Banking and Finance)
  • 0555 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business (Management)
  • 0556 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business (Marketing)
  • 1807 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business and Commerce
  • 3912 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business Information Systems
  • 0542 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce
  • 2672 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Computer Science
  • 0170 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics
  • 1541 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education-primary
  • 1641 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education-secondary
  • 3906 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems
  • 0080 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws
  • 3054 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music
  • 0530 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science
  • 3426 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Social Work
  • 0002b Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology
  • 3779 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Visual Arts
  • 1941 Bachelor of Business and Commerce and Bachelor of Communication
  • 3909 Bachelor of Communication and Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems
  • 1945 Bachelor of Communication and Diploma of Professional Writing
  • 0116 Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Arts
  • 3281 Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering and Bachelor of Arts