School: Science

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

    Sustainable Water
  • Unit Code

    SCI2371
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Robyn PAICE

Description

This unit provides students with an understanding of the importance of water for life, and the centrality of water in all ecosystems, in societal structures and cultural settings. It encompasses demand for water by the environment, individuals, communities and different sectors and the processes by which water is managed. It provides students with the capacities to develop and evaluate strategies for water conservation, and to make contributions to water allocation and planning processes. The unit emphasises a sustainable approach to water by focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of water resource management.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded SCI3122

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Describe the importance of water to ecosystems, people and the structures of societies.
  2. Outline the environmental context for water resources, and the cultural, social and economic context of sustainable water.
  3. Describe the drivers of water demand in societies.
  4. Develop personal and institutional strategies for the conservation of water.
  5. Contribute to water allocation and planning processes including methods for monitoring and auditing water use, and water resource management.

Unit Content

  1. Water: the hydrological cycle, water properties and water chemistry.
  2. Water resources and sustainable yield: hydrology and ecosystems.
  3. Water consumption patterns and uses.
  4. Water technologies, water efficiencies and water treatment.
  5. Demand management measures consumer approaches (attitudes and behaviours).
  6. Water and the sectors (health, agriculture, mining and energy).
  7. The centrality of water in life and society, and the need for water.
  8. Water allocation and planning processes.
  9. Demand management measures regulation and institutional approaches (including trading, pricing, education, recycling, reuse).
  10. Case studies in sustainable water.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 213 x 2 hour labNot Offered13 x 3 hour lab
Semester 213 x 2 hour lectureNot Offered13 x 2 hour lecture

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

Recorded or live lectures, tutorials.

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 School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentUnderstanding water resources40%
PresentationGroup presentation to lead tutorial topic20%
ExaminationEnd of semester examination40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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