Land surface processes and landscape dynamics

Course contents

This course will provide you with in-depth and applied knowledge of Earth's landscapes. You will learn about the processes by which landscapes evolve and change in different climate and space scales. The course focuses on:

• the Earth's surface landforms
• the Earths's origin and development
• human impact on the landscape dynamics and lasting changes

You will mainly study Nordic conditions, but tropical and subtropical environments are also treated.

Specific elements involved in the course are:

• landscape and landscape forms
• land formation processes and their links to climate and anthropogenic factors
• the role of geomorphological processes in landscape dynamics
• natural resource planning
• land management
• land degradation and landscape changes in a local, regional and global perspective

Teaching

The course consists of lectures, practicals , field exercises , seminars, group work and project work.

Note that the course includes a longer field trip to a country outside Europe. The last couple of years joint fieldwork has been carried out in Uganda and Rwanda, together with local students.

Literature

• Mc’Knights Physical Geography - A landscape appreciation, av D. Hess, Morgan, R., P., C.: (2005). Soil Erosion and Conservation, 3rdedition. Blackwell Publ. Ltd. Oxford. UK. ISBN 978-1-4051-1781-4
• Sveriges geologi från urtid till nutid, av M. Lindström m.fl.
• Vattnets väg från regn till bäck, av H. Grip och A. Rodhe
• Sveriges Nationalatlas: Atlas över Skåne, av T. Germundsson och P. Schlyter
• Sveriges Nationalatlas: Västra Götaland, av B. Frizell och M. Werner
• Reports and papers distributed during the course