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Welcome to the website of the UCUSCIEAR31 Course "Resources and their sustainable management". On this website you will find the most important information about the course proceedings of the second half of the course. You will also find an overview of the course topics, as well as the course assignments, evidently all related to the Earth Sciences part of the course.
In the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia, fishermen prepare their boats surrounded by floating garbage. Picture by Arjan de Leeuw
Human society is currently increasingly faced with major challenges relating to population growth, supply and use of natural resources. Other essential issues include environmental pollution and degradation, the impact of natural disasters on our ever-growing population concentrations. Finally there is the question of global change. Earth and Environmental Sciences occupy a central position in addressing these challenges, and it is with this aspect of the Earth Sciences that the present course is concerned, namely with the relation between "System Earth" and society. The course builds upon an Earth System Science approach. This approach views the Earth as a single dynamic system in which the constituent subsystems, that is the solid Earth, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere and the biosphere with its human inhabitants, continuously interact. The critical environmental geosciences and sustainability issues facing humankind are identified. This involves an analysis of the interplay between resources and the (potential) hazard and risks related to their exploitation. This pertains to interaction between the solid Earth systems (crust/lithosphere) on the one hand and the ocean-atmosphere system and surface Earth systems (the interface between solid Earth, hydrosphere and atmosphere) on the other. Topics covered under these headings include mineral and energy resources, their depletion and management, and the environmental impact of their exploitation. Natural hazards and their mitigation also receive attention. The course also address climatic change, the evidence for global warming, its possible effects and the necessary human response. A more quantitative approach will be adopted throughout the course.