Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction MSc

Gain practical, analytical and modelling skills for understanding environmental change over a range of timescales.

The course explores how environments evolve over time, and how this knowledge can help us respond to contemporary environmental challenges. You will develop advanced practical expertise in collecting, interpreting and analysing environmental data from both present-day and past environments, while also building the conceptual understanding that underpins these approaches.

You will choose from a wide range of modules from across the department and beyond, allowing you to shape the course around your interests and ambitions. In the first semester, you will build a grounding in applied environmental skills, scientific concepts and theoretical approaches. In the second semester, you can tailor your studies to focus more on environmental monitoring and modelling, or environmental reconstruction.

The year-long Applied Study unit gives you the opportunity to apply your learning through an external placement or an internal research project. You will be supported to identify a suitable project, which may also provide the basis for your dissertation or future employment opportunities. Your dissertation allows you to pursue an original research project on a topic that reflects your own interests, with support from an expert academic adviser.

You will learn how environmental systems interconnect and respond to natural processes and human impacts. Through fieldwork, laboratory work and data analysis, you will build skills in monitoring modern environmental processes, reconstructing past climates and ecosystems, and using environmental models to explore processes such as hydrological change, landscape evolution and ecosystem response. You will also explore scientific approaches to managing and mitigating future climate change and environmental degradation.

The course combines practical assignments with training in environmental data handling, digital data sourcing and specialist software. You will have opportunities to develop professional skills in areas such as programming, GIS, remote sensing and quantitative data analysis and communication. You will also learn how to build and evaluate models to understand environmental processes, and how to produce industry-standard reports that communicate scientific information clearly and effectively.

By combining hands-on experience with a deep understanding of environmental systems, this course equips you with skills relevant to environmental consultancy, environmental management, research and further academic study.

You will be supported throughout the course by academic staff, including a personal tutor who can offer regular guidance and an expert dissertation adviser who will help you design and undertake an original, independent research project. Skills training is also embedded throughout the degree, giving you tools for your studies and future career.