Oscar van Vliet: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2015

Name Dr. Oscar van Vliet
DepartmentEnvironmental Systems Science
RelationshipLecturer

NumberTitleECTSHoursLecturers
701-0660-00LPractical Course Anthroposphere Restricted registration - show details 7 credits14PJ. Lilliestam, A. Patt, O. van Vliet
AbstractThe subject of this course is the analysis of interactions within human-environment systems.The students will learn to develop a simplified global climate model, which can be used to generate climate projections associated with different energy scenarios. They will appraise the relative merits of the different scenarios using a multi-criteria analysis.
ObjectiveIn the practical course Anthroposphere students learn how to analyze the interactions in human-environment-systems with scientific tools. Methods from the natural sciences and social sciences are applied and linked with each other.
ContentMulti-criteria analysis (MCA) is a widely used methodology for providing guidance to decision-makers on problems touching many different aspects of people's lives, where it is impossible or undesirable to reduce all outcomes associated with a particular choice to monetary values. In the MCA problem that forms the heart of this course is the question of climate change. Students will gain practice at writing computer simulation models, ultimately developing a simplified model linking together the global energy system and the climate, in order to quantify the tradeoffs between human energy consumption and climate impacts. Using this model it will be possible to identify a number of different effects on society associated with alternative energy system scenarios. Using data on preferences and values collected via surveys, it will be possible to rank the relative attractiveness of the alternatives.
Lecture notesHandouts will be presented during the course.
LiteratureReferences will be given during the course.
701-1512-00LHES Systems 1 - Individual and Organizational Interactions with Environmental Systems3 credits2VO. van Vliet, A. Patt, K. T. Seeland, M. Siegrist
AbstractThis lecture provides the students with an in depth understanding of different theoretical approaches to understand and influence individual and organizational interactions with the environment. The theories are exemplified using case studies of actual problems in human-environment systems
Objective- Getting an in-depth insight into current theoretical approaches to understand individual and organizational interactions with the environment

- Understanding the advantages and shortcomings of the different approaches as well as their potential synergies and inconsistencies

- Being able to apply these theoretical approaches to better understand actual problems in human environment systems

- Deriving strategic orientations for approaching problems in human environment systems on the basis of the presented theories
ContentStudents who participate in this seminar/lecture learn how to conceptualize and to investigate human-environment systems.

The lecture includes three main parts:

Part 1: An introduction into how to define environment of human systems and how to conceptualize human-environment systems on different levels, namely the individual, the group, the organization (companies, NGO), institutions (states, agencies, ministries), societies (including governments) and supranational systems.

Part 2: The second part deals with an in-depth look into five scientific fields: a) one natural science: biology, b) three social sciences: psychology, sociology and economics, c) one engineering science: industrial ecology, which have to be used when conceptualizing human-environment systems. You will in particularly learn what different rationales are at work at the different hierarchy levels of human-environment systems and what you can learn from different social sciences disciplines.

Part 3: Each student has to design a research plan for an "own research project" (for instance a master thesis) in the domain of environmental and sustainability sciences. The students will learn how to develop and substantiate hypotheses for this research plan referring to salient theories and approaches provided by the disciplines introduced in part 2 of the lecture.
Lecture notesHandouts provided in the lecture