Cities and Climate Change

Overview

This module is weighted at 20 CAT scores. Climate change is a colossal global, national and local challenge for politicians, policy makers and planners. It raises hugely important questions in terms of how we inhabit the Earth, how we organise our economies, how we use natural resources, how we travel, and how we plan our towns, cities and villages. This module is focused on how we, individually and collectively, can meet these challenges that we currently face, and to explore the political, economic, institutional and attitudinal barriers that impede effective responses to them. While many planning policy documents quote sustainable development and climate change as key objectives, the implementation and operationalisation of these concepts is often open to critique. As potential future planners you must therefore know the theory and practice of sustainable development and climate change and be aware of the areas of contestation. Although the scope of the subject is vast, this module aims to help you develop an understanding of the theoretical, political and policy dimensions of planning for climate change.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the module, you are expected to:

• develop an understanding of the sustainability and climate change discourses;
• be aware of the relationship between planning, sustainable development and climate change;
• explain the contribution that planning can make to the built environment, in particular recognise the implications of climate change;
• evaluate different development strategies and the practical application of development finance, and assess the implications for generating added value to the community be familiar with some local sustainability initiatives;
• develop important elements of your intellectual, conceptual and practical skills base.

Skills

You are also expected to develop generic professional skills, such as the ability to:

• identify and summarise core arguments of scholarly texts and government publications;
• assess the arguments of competing positions and present personal opinion;
• identify additional material (books, articles, reports, website) and assess their quality;
• think critically, creatively and writing reports.

Assessment

Students must pass all assessment components.