Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The overall aim of the Module is to engage students with the topic of sustainable development and to raise students' awareness of the economic and other approaches that can be used to evaluate projects and policies that impact on the environment. Examples will be used throughout the module allowing students to evaluate ‘real-world’ situations.

Outline Of Syllabus

What are environmental values?
Sustainability and sustainable development in theory and practice
Cost benefit analysis (CBA)
Stated preference methods - Contingent valuation and Choice Experiments
Revealed preference methods - Travel Cost Method and Hedonic Pricing
Deliberative methods

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the Module a successful student will be able to:

1. Outline the development of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discuss various approaches to
assessing sustainability, including a number of commonly used sustainability indicators.
2. Construct a practical working definition of sustainable development.
3. Appreciate the theoretical basis of cost-benefit analysis in economics and its strengths and limitations when
applied to project or policy appraisal in the environment
4. Compare economic and other methods that can be used to evaluate the costs and benefits of projects or
policies that have an impact on the environment, identify appropriate evaluation methods and understand how
to apply them to the appraisal of particular initiatives.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of the Module a successful student will be able to:

5.       Assemble, integrate and critically assess information from natural and social sciences and evaluate
‘real-world’ situations in the light of this information.
6.       Integrate a range of multi- and inter-disciplinary perspectives and draw on appropriate concepts in
arriving at a critical assessment of the information and views obtained.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures provide the basic knowledge framework and appropriate further reading will provide insight into a range of issues of how the environmental impacts associated with policies and projects can be evaluated for appraisal purposes.
Open discussions within lectures will provide an opportunity to articulate and critically evaluate alternative approaches to the evaluation of policies and projects with significant environmental impacts.
This combination of activities allows the intended knowledge outcomes (1-4) to be achieved through the development of the students skills in critical evaluation and discussion of a range of multi-disciplinary materials (intended skills outcomes 5 & 6). Students are given a range of opportunities to critically engage with materials from both the academic and practitioner literature.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Having studied the origins and concept of sustainable development, students will develop an annotated bibliography in support of a working definition of sustainability and sustainable development.

The unseen examination tests individual understanding of the principles of cost benefit analysis, and the ability of students to critically assess the application of commonly used techniques for evaluating projects and policies with significant environmental impacts. The examination will assess individual performance through the application of knowledge and skills (ILO 3, 4, 5, 6).

Study abroad students may request an alternative assessment to be returned via VLE.

General Notes

N/A