1.1. Course Overview

The course will begin with an overview of how the surface of the planet functions, with introductory lectures on the global carbon cycle, and the source of energy on the planet. Then the course will comprise modules on groundwater pollution, rivers and flooding, ice melting, air pollution, and the physics and chemistry of the oceans and land and specifically the movement of carbon through Earth’s surface environment. We will also cover global climate models. In each module, students will learn about environmental challenges particular to that fluid and that environment, for example groundwater contamination, air pollution, floods and droughts.

In the Easter term, the impact of the Energy Transition on the Environment will be explored, including how energy can be used efficiently and effectively (wind, solar, engineered buildings) and some of the environmental challenges associated with the energy transition (capture of carbon, storage of carbon underground, geoengineering).

The course will consist of 55 lectures, three lectures per week.

There will be problem/example sheets provided for support during weekly supervisions (20 weeks of supervision).

This is rigorous course combining applied mathematics, chemistry and physics to understand our changing planet. Will storms get worse in a changing climate? When does heavy rainfall lead to flooding? How fast will glaciers melt? What limits how fast we can decarbonise the electrical grid?

Through the course you will develop the skills to build analytical and numerical models of the Earth’s key systems: advection-diffusion of contaminants through groundwater, conservation equations describing river flow and flood risk, parameterisations of flow to describe ice sheets, application of thermodynamics and energy balance arguments describe sea ice and the atmosphere, the chemical kinetics and equilibria that govern ocean acidification and air pollution, the construction and analysis of multi-box climate models with feedbacks and tipping points and the application of mathematical, physical and chemical models to the energy transition.

These topics will develop your fluency and skills in differential equations, conservation laws, scaling and dimensional analysis, stability analysis, thermodynamics and kinetics, coding, and computational modelling of environmental data. Through the computational project, and the environmental data analysis and policy paper, students also learn to present data clearly and turn complex scientific evidence into accessible, evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, a skill increasingly prized in research, government, consultancies and industry. Graduates have gone on to summer internships and careers in climate and environmental modelling, data science, engineering and quantitative research, and with the ability to reason rigorously about some of the most consequential problems of the century.

How to use this Website

This website contains summary notes to accompany each lecture of the course. These are divided into thematic blocks, corresponding to the eight lecture blocks of the course.

These notes are intended to complement the lectures; they will not contain all the material you are given in lectures and are not intended as a replacement for the lectures. It is essential to attend the course lectures and complete the practical components of the course if you want to do well.