Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Physical Geography: Landforms and Landscapes

• Unit Code

  GEO3123

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

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Description

An investigation of the interplay between past geological events and present geomorphic processes in shaping the Earth's surface environment, using specific studies from East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The major emphasis is on the mutual interactions between form and process in landform systems, and how people have responded to both the processes and the landforms. Case study of human utilisation of coastal landforms and associated fieldwork.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded GEO2103, GEO3103

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Describe the main processes operating in coastal and near-shore environments.
2. Describe the morphology of coastal dune systems and associated wetlands, estuaries, sandy beaches and rocky shorelines.
3. Develop an ability to collect, collate and analyse geomorphological data from maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and field studies.
4. Develop an understanding of the relationship between the landscape and selected human response patterns.
5. Display a knowledge of the history of ideas in geomorphology.
6. Give evidence that they have reached the required intellectual level by completing a major research essay on an approved topic.
7. Outline a knowledge of soil-forming processes, soil description and analysis of soil profiles.
8. Provide a foundation for an appreciation of landuse conflicts between coastal management practices, shoreline utilisation and natural processes.
9. Relate denudation processes to landforms, with particular emphasis on water as a geomorphic agent in shaping the landscape.
10. Relate their knowledge of plate tectonics to the explanation of major structural features of the earth's surface, with particular reference to Australasian tectonics.

Unit Content

1. Application of geomorphic principles to the explanation of coastal morphology as a function of various dynamic processes.
2. Causes of coastal morphologic patterns and variability.
3. Interpretation of human response patterns to Australasian tectonics.
4. Interpretation of human response patterns to fluvial processes.
5. Morphology of the coastal zone and the dynamic process-form interactions that occur in coastal depositional systems.
6. Project on coastal zone management with a special emphasis on the implications of canals, groynes and marinas.
7. Role of denudation processes in the wearing down and shaping of the land surface: theories and systems of geomorphology (cyclic and non-cyclic landscape development).
8. Role of tectonic processes in the building-up of the earth's surface: plate tectonics theory.
9. Soils, soil-forming processes, and diagnostic horizons.
10. The basic driving mechanisms underlying processes on the beach foreshore and in the near shore zone.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials, workshops and fieldwork.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Ahnert, F. (1998). Introduction to geomorphology. London: Arnold.
• Beresford, Q., Bekle, H., Phillips, H., & Mulcock, J. (2004). The salinity crisis: Landscapes, Communities and politics. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press.
• Conacher, A. & Conacher, J. (2000). Environmental planning and management in Australia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Drury, S.A. (1994). A guide to remote sensing: interpreting images of the earth. New York: Oxford Science.
• Summerfield, M.A. (1995). Global geomorphology: An introduction to the study of landforms. Essex: Longman Scientific and Technical.
• Hay, I. (1998). Communicating in geography and the environmental sciences. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Huggett, R.J. (2002). Fundamentals of geomorphology. Oxon: Routledge.
• Smith, K. (2004). Environmental hazards: Assessing risk and reducing disaster. Oxon: Routledge.
• Haslett, S.K. (2000). Coastal systems. Oxon: Routledge.

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