Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School: Natural Sciences

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 Natural Resource Management

• Unit Code

  SCI3453

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

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Description

This unit examines the concepts of health, well-being and management as they apply to people and natural resources at the mesoscale: in catchments. The unit develops principles for natural resource management in the context of sustainability and applies those principles at the community, agency and governmental level. Specific emphasis for natural resources management is placed on the measurement of ecosystem health and the inter-relationships between social systems and ecosystems.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded SCI3301

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Apply concepts of health, care and well-being, and sustainability to natural resource management.
2. Describe the appropriateness of the mesoscale, or the catchment, as a unit of governance and as a unit of integrated knowledge for natural resource management.
3. Describe the inter-relationships between ecosystems, social systems, economics and public health in the governance arrangements for natural resource management.
4. Describe the spectrum of ways in which individuals in local and regional communities are consulted in, and participate in, natural resource management/catchment health groups and processes.
5. Use systems thinking and holistic approaches to derive principles for natural resource management.

Unit Content

1. Concepts of health, condition, state, care and well-being as they apply to ecosystems.
2. Concepts of place in catchment health and natural resource management: sense of place, place attachment, place identity; quantitative and narrative approaches.
3. Definitions of catchments in regional Australia: water drainage systems; regional political units/electorates; socio-economic systems; regional demographic characteristics; transport systems; climatic systems; bioregions.
4. Definitions of communities; notions of community capacity, social capital, cross-cultural approaches and social resilience in natural resource management.
5. Ecological integrity, ecological resilience, systems theory, adaptive capacity and management as they apply to social ecological systems.
6. Models of integrated management and governance; integrated catchment management; local and regional governance.
7. Models of integration: state of environment reporting; triple bottom line reporting and accounting; ecosystem health; sustainable communities; sustainability assessment.
8. Models of participation in natural resource management in regional Australia (community activism, landcare groups, catchment councils).
9. Natural resources and catchment management; the applicability of the mesoscale in governance, and the catchment unit.
10. The spatial nature of human health; patterns of diseases in space and time; water borne diseases; vector borne diseases; environmental change, ecological condition, and human health; climate change and human health.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, practical workshops, participatory learning, group work, reflective journal, field visits.

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

• Allison, H.E., & Hobbs, R.J. (2006). Science and policy in natural resource management, understanding system complexity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Brown, V., Grootjans, J., Ritchie, J., Townsend, M., & Verrinder, G. (2005). Sustainability and health. Supporting global ecological integrity in public health. Melbourne, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
• Walker, B., & Salt, D. (2006). Resilience thinking. Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. Washington, US: Island Press.
• Lefroy, T., Curtis, A., Jakeman, A., & McKee, J. (2012). Landscape logic. Integrating science for landscape management. Melbourne, Australia: CSIRO Publications.
• Pound, B., Snapp, S., McDougall, C., & Braun, A. (2003). Managing natural resources for sustainable livelihoods: Uniting science and participation. London Sterling, VA. : Earthscan Publications Ltd.
• Charron, D. (2012). Ecohealth research in practice. Innovative applications of an ecosystem approach to health. Ottawa, Canada: IDRC and Springer.

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