Course syllabus - Land system change

Objectives

Land system change is one of the critical planetary boundaries shaping the sustainability of human societies. Agricultural expansion, urbanization, deforestation, and land degradation directly affect biodiversity, climate regulation, water resources, and food security. Understanding these dynamics is essential for training future environmental engineers to design strategies that balance human needs with environmental resilience.

Learning outcomes

1. Define concepts of land system change, such as deforestation, urbanization, habitat destruction, and the carbon sequestration potential.
2. Describe basic concepts in ecology, geology, microbiology, soil biology, organic chemistry, and plant biology within the context of land system change.
3. Discuss the influence of land system changes on global environmental change, such as ecological functions, biodiversity, carbon cycling, water dynamics, climate change, and resource degradation.
4. Classify basic soil parameters, such as pH, organic matter, texture, structure, water holding capacity, and cation exchange capacity, in different land systems (agricultural land systems, forest systems, and urban land systems).
5. Discuss the effects of land system change on soil properties and soil carbon pools.

Course content

In this course, students will explore the processes and drivers of land system change. It introduces key concepts in soil physics and geochemistry to understand soil properties and their interactions with vegetation dynamics and climate change. Topics include mineral weathering, nutrient cycling, and carbon dynamics, and their roles in ecosystem resilience and their impacts on climate change. Students will examine how land use, land management, and global change affect soil functions, biogeochemical cycles, and food production, and will learn methods for assessing and predicting land system responses across different scales.

Requirements

Basic eligibility and Physics 2, Chemistry 1, Mathematics 3c or Mathematics D Or: Physics level 2, Chemistry level 1, Mathematics - Further level 1c

Examination

INL1, Assignment, 4 credits, grade: Excellent (A), Very good (B), Good (C), Satisfactory (D), Sufficient (E), Insufficient, complementary work possible (Fx), Insufficient (F). Learning outcome: 1-5.

SEM1, Seminar, 3,5 credits, grade: Pass (G) or Fail (U). Learning outcome: 1, 3 and 5.

A student who has a certificate from MDU regarding disability study support, can request adaptions for the examination. It is the examiner who takes decisions on any adaptions, based on the certificate and other conditions.

Grade

AF-skala