5 ECTS credits
125 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4021673ENR for all students in the 1st semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.
More than ever, in-depth understanding of climate change is needed to inform the public and policy makers for its possibly consequences. This course provides the basic principles required the understand the functioning of the climate system, and how this functioning is changing due to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this course provides master students with an overview of the physical processes in which the Earth’s surface interacts with the climate system, and of the implication this has for future water availability.
Finally, there is currently a high demand for employees with data science skills, i.e. scientists who can effectively organize and analyze large datasets to gain useful insights. The strong emphasis on exercises in this course prepares the students for jobs with an emphasis on data preparation, modeling, validation and visualization.
1a. Earth system dynamics and Climate change: the physical science basis (1 ECTS)
- Concepts and formalisms employed in meteorology and climate science:
* Weather versus climate
* Radiation and the earth’s energy budget
* Atmospheric circulation across scales
* Clouds and precipitation
- Physical science basis underlying current knowledge on climate change:
* Observed climate change
* Drivers of climate change
* Understanding and attributing climate change
* Climate models
- Future projections of climate and climate extremes
1b. Modelling Earth System Dynamics (1 ECTS)
- Running a simple climate model using a point-and-click web interface (The Monash Simple Climate Model).
- Introduction to Linux, CDO and bash scripting, simple exercises on processing large climate data archive (e.g. CORDEX, CMIP5 or ISIMIP data).
- read one or more seminal papers in small groups, write a report about it
2a. Interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere in a changing climate (2 ECTS)
- Land surface controls on historical and future changes in climate
- Cycles in the earth system (energy, water, carbon) and their interactions
- Land-climate interactions (e.g. soil-moisture temperature coupling, surface energy balance, compound events)
- Regional and global impacts of land use and land cover changes on climate (biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects).
- Links between climate, human water management and water scarcity.
- Impacts of climate change across sectors, with a focus on impacts on water resources
- Science supporting the Paris Agreement and ongoing climate negotiations (carbon budget, climate action tracker, transient climate response to cumulative CO2 emissions, land-based mitigation)
2b. Modelling land-climate interactions (1 ECTS)
- Earth system sensitivity to complex feedbacks: the case of daisy world.
- Running global-scale simulations with the Community Land Model (CLM), perform and analyse a sensitivity experiment.
- Programming in your web browser: using the Google Earth Engine, the ESA Earthsytemdatacube or the ECMWF Climate Data Store.
Prerequisites and corequisites:
Students should be experienced in programming in a high-level programming language (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, preferably Python). A non-exhaustive overview of courses teaching this skill is listed hereafter:
- Environmental programming (VUB; B-KUL-I0W00A)
- Introduction to geoprocessing (KUL; B-KUL-G0S73A)
- Geographical Research Methods 3: Numerical Modelling (KUL; B-KUL-G0V87A)
Students who have followed at least three of the following course are highly encouraged to enroll for the course Advanced Land-Climate Dynamics
- Weer- en klimaatkunde (KUL; B-KUL-G0P01B)
- Klimatologie en meteorologie (VUB; 1003956BNR)
- Environmental Change (KUL; B-KUL-G9X30A)
- Atmospheric Modelling (KUL; B-KUL-G0B78A)
At the end of this course, the students will be able to:
- Understand the basic concepts and formalisms employed in meteorology and climate science
- Understand the physical science basis underlying current knowledge on climate change
- Know the future projections of climate and climate extremes, and the land surface controls on these changes
- Be familiar with the different cycles in the earth system (energy, water, carbon) and their interactions
- Have an in-depth understanding of land-climate interactions
- Know the regional and global impacts of land use and land cover changes on climate.
- Understand the links between climate, human water management and water scarcity.
- Be familiar with the impacts of climate change across sectors, with a focus on impacts on water resources
- Understand the science supporting the Paris Agreement and the ongoing climate negotiations
- Work in Linux
- Analyse climate data
- Use a cloud computing infrastructure (e.g. Google Earth Engine)
- Test feedbacks between components of the climate system
- Run (part of) a state-of-the-art global climate model
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Other Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The final grade will be based on the following evaluations:
Oral exam:50%
Written exam: 20%
Report 1: 10%
Report 2: 10%
Cloud application: 10%
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Civil Engineering: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Applied Computer Science: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master in Applied Sciences and Engineering: Applied Computer Science: Standaard traject
Master of Civil Engineering: Standaard traject (BRUFACE)
Master of Sustainable Land Management: Urban Land Engineering