GV362: Water Resources

Module code: GV362

Module provider: Geography and Environmental Science; School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science

Credits: 20

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Alan Howard, email: a.howard@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 20 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

The purpose of the module is to engage students with past, current, and future water quality problems to enable critical examination of their impact, particularly on public health, and the effectiveness of water resource management strategies and legislation. Students’ learning will focus on extending knowledge delivered in lectures through research and analysis of peer-review journal articles and books, and relevant published reports and datasets. Through this learning, students will achieve a comprehensive conceptual knowledge and understanding supported by a range of detailed real-world examples. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of why we care about water quality including the historical context and current challenges
2. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of contemporary environmental and public health issues associated with water resources
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the regulatory context and approaches to water resource management
4. Demonstrate critical analysis skills through scrutiny of published research articles and examination of public-domain data

Module content

Four broad topics are covered:

1. Water Industry: Management and Regulation
2. Why we care about water quality
3. Contemporary problems of water pollution and disease risk
4. Water resources and environmental problems

Example content:

1. Water Industry: Management and Regulation

The focus here will be on England and Wales, but comparisons with systems adopted in other countries will be made.

• Evolution of the water industry leading to privatisation
• The regulatory framework, including the importance of EU Directives
• The water price cap mechanism
• Industry problems: sewer overflows, leakage
• International comparisons

2. Why we care about water quality

The focus here will be on why and how we developed systems for managing wastewater, providing improved sanitation, and ensuring access to safe clean drinking water.

• Providing safe clean drinking water and sanitation: 19th century to the present
• Recognition of the importance of sanitation and clean water: the work of William Farr and John Snow in investigating the 19th century cholera epidemics
• Multiple barrier defence system; current water treatment strategies
• When things go wrong: the Camelford incident
• The global context: progress against sustainable development goals

3. Contemporary problems of water pollution and disease risk

The focus here will be on understanding risk of illness from exposure to water contaminated with environmental pathogens.

• Basic descriptive and analytical epidemiological principles and examples
• Contamination of surface waters with Helicobacter pylori, nitrates and other microbiological pathogens and associated disease risk and its regulation
• The development of an evidence-based EC Bathing Waters Directive (2006)

4. Water resources and environmental problems

The focus here will be on examples of environmental problems arising from anthropogenic pollution affecting water resources.

• The basic principles of water quality and limnology
• Eutrophication and the EC Directives
• Cyanobacterial blooms: formation, problems, management, and examples
• The problem of micro-plastics

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

• Weekly in person class including delivery and discussion of core lecture content
• Use of supplementary screencast and other video materials to extend core content
• Setting independent learning tasks to actively engage students with the weekly topic, with follow-up discussion in class
• 1:1 appointments and feedforward and feedback sessions to actively engage students with the assessments

Study hours

At least 20 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Independent learning tasks will be set in most weeks to encourage students to actively engage with the weekly topic. Outcomes will be discussed in class. 

Reassessment

Additional costs