Environment and Development

COURSE CODE	COURSE TITLE	T	P	C
CORE COURSES
ENDV 402	Development Policy Analysis II	3	1	3
ENDV 404	Environment, Industry and Development II	3	1	3
ENDV 406	Political Ecology and Development II	3	1	3
ENDV 400	Project/Dissertation II	0	3	3
Electives:	Select Two Electives From This Section
ENDV 408	Environmental Modelling II	3	1	3
ENDV 410	Environmental Economics	3	1	3
ENDV 412	Population, Environment and Development	3	1	3
ENDV 414	Social Forestry and Development	3	1	3
ENDV 416	Urban Land Use and Development	3	1	3
Total		18	11	18
Total Credits For Year Two		36	23	36

ENDV 402 DEVELOPMENT POLICY ANALYSIS II (3,1,3)

The course aims at guiding students to explore in-depth analysis of social, economic and development policy issues.  It will focus on the following: the concept of a regional policy analysis, development planning models and development plans, institutional and organisational structures for national development and methods of global policy analysis such  EPA, VPA, among others. The role of national to regional policy think thanks in the global scheme of policy analysis discourse will be examined. A field visit to a policy institution in Ghana will be undertaken as part of this course.

 

This follows from the first semester’s course ENDV 403 to ccritically apply the earlier concepts to interpret current environmental changes and conflicts. Aspects to be studies include the drivers of environmental changes caused through deforestation, desertification, agricultural intensification, industrialisation, mining and climate change. This course takes a geographical perspective (based on the subfield of ‘political ecology’. It focuses on power relations, scale, the politics of knowledge production and political economy in order to examine environmental issues in the context of industrialisation and development.   

 

This course is an introduction to the relevance of a theoretical perspective for the explanation of contemporary environmental processes, and political ecological perspective for explanation of contemporary development, at scales from the local to the global. Topics to be covered include: states; geopolitics; empires and national states; citizenship rights, migration and national restrictions; nationalism, territory and identity; representation; democratization; globalization, social development, neo-liberalism and governance in Ghana and Africa.

 

This course is the sequel; to the first semester ENDV 407, which aims to concretise the fundamental concepts and approaches in environmental modelling. The course reiterates the nature and purpose of environmental modelling; the top-down and the bottom-up approaches; typology of environmental models; steps involved in designing and building a model; calibration, verification and validation of models; scale dependency; sensitivity analysis; characteristics, application of   environmental and land use models, as well as basic computer simulation.

 

This course is designed to equip students to understand the role of nature as a provider of raw materials (resources) for economic activity and the impact of such activity on the quality of the natural environment. It applies economic principles to study the management and development of resources, the management of waste flows and the impacts of human activity on the quality of environmental assets. The course seeks to provide through economic analysis understanding about why the natural environment becomes degraded, what the consequences of this are and what can be done to effectively reduce this degradation in order to achieve the highest possible human welfare for current and future generations. Topics covered in this part of the course include:  the nature, scope and basic concepts of environmental economics, the economy and the environment, benefits and costs, economic efficiency and markets, the economics of environmental quality, frameworks of environmental economic analysis, polluter pay principles and other benefit-cost analysis.

 

As a follow up to the basic issues introduced in semester one, students will be made to gain knowledge about world population trends and their interrelationships with social and economic change, with special consideration on the environmental resources carrying capacity. Demographic analysis and techniques of population analysis will be studied. These will include population growth/distribution and resources; regional patterns of population and their relevance for development. The link between population, environment and development will be studies; detailed population studies of special regions (Ghana, Africa etc.) are also considered.

 

The sequel of the ENDV 415, undertakes the analysis and description of forest sector governance, e.g. the roles of the forestry commission and the forest services division; the forest law enforcement governance and trade mechanisms and the voluntary partnership agreement. Timber utilisation contracts (TUCs), and other contractual arrangements in the forestry sector. Also to be examined will be the social and community forestry management 

 

To give students more insight into the nature and drivers of peri-urban and urban land uses dynamics. Occupation characteristics of towns (urban economic functions) will be analysed within basic and non-basic theories and concept; the main sectors of the urban economy; urban land use; urban problems: urban amenities (supply & demand); urban environmental pollution, atmospheric, water and slums; traffic in towns; urban renewal; urban influence on the fringe & hinterland; the role of towns on development; maps and diagrams in urban studies and urbanisation and cities in selected regions in Africa. 

      

Final Year students are expected to conduct research, under supervision, on a given topic in her/his area of specialisation as part of the requirements for the award of the BSc Degree.  The topic, which needs to be approved by the student’s supervisor, must be such that the study is development – oriented.