Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora

This unit covers rationales for biodiversity conservation: moral, aesthetic and utilitarian. Biodiversity and its assessment: measures of biodiversity, survey methods for bacteria, protists, plants and animals, surrogate groups, molecular assessment of biodiversity as genetic information content, rapid assessment methods, endemism, taxonomy and phylogeny. Biodiversity in Australia: continental biogeography, characteristics of Australian ecosystems. Maximising retained biodiversity through optimal reserve selection. Threatening processes. Ecosystem services: relationship to biodiversity. Management of endangered species: status evaluation, life histories, captive maintenance, inbreeding avoidance, reintroduction, population viability analysis, impact of introduced species. Restoration ecology. Use of computer programs for conservation biological analysis: reserve selection, evolutionary distinctiveness, and population viability analysis.

Value: 15
Pre-requisite: Some economics knowledge
Campus: Albury Wodonga

In this unit students will explore the basic relationships between the economy and the environment and learn how to tackle environmental and natural resource degradation issues using economic principles and methods. In particular, students will examine the theoretical framework for the optimal management of natural resources and environmental quality, various analytical tools including benefit-cost analysis and different policy approaches such as command-and-control and incentive-based strategies to address environmental externalities. The concepts of precautionary principle and eco-efficiency, and how these concepts are applied in policy, will also be explored.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

In this unit students will be provided with the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the interrelationship between the physical environment and human health in preparation for public health practice. Content themes include, climate change, biodiversity, population increase, toxicology and land degradation. Students also have the opportunity to study the legal, political, educational and planning frameworks associated with this exciting field.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

In this unit students will examine the political institutions which impact on the delivery of health care, as well as the political and economic perspective's relevant to health issues. The theory and practice of health care policy are explored, including social economic and political influences on health policy development and the relationship between health policy and health status of the population. Also of relevance is the inter- relationship between health care providers and customers. Students will develop the skills necessary to critically evaluate the impact of health policy.

Value: 15
Campus: Albury Wodonga

This unit provides an overview of the legal environmental framework within Australia and studies how these frameworks affect the activities of organisations that deal with environmentally sensitive situations. It examines how statutory frameworks assess the impact of environmental developments.

Value: 15
Pre-requisite: Some biology knowledge
Campus: Bendigo

This unit includes content of natural history, land management, and ecology directly relevant to selected bush environments of south eastern Australia. Students will develop technical expertise of bushwalking to enable safe exploration and promote experiential and interpretative knowledge of bush environments.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

Students will be introduced to the role of nature tourism within the tourism industry and the sustainability issues facing this sector; particularly the social and environmental impacts of nature tourism. Using case studies from Australia and developing countries students will analyse the ways in which sustainable tourism can be achieved, noteably through the development of the special interest sector of ecotourism, but also more widely through mass tourism to natural areas. On a field trip, students will critically examine the role tourism can play in environmental protection. Students will develop practical skills in planning and developing sustainable nature tourism programs. These will focus on providing quality interpretation together with aspects of safety management.

Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora

You will identify the conceptions of nature that underpin modern industrial civilisation and explore their implications for contemporary attitudes to the environment. A range of ecological philosophies that offer biocentric alternatives to the environmental presuppositions of modernity are canvassed. These ecological philosophies - which include deep ecology, ecofeminism, the land ethic, animal ethics, ecophenomenology and bioregionalism - are compared with the nature philosophies emanating from Aboriginal Australia and the Taoist tradition of ancient China. The discussions are general in scope but also contextualised to the Australian environment. This is a core unit for the Environmental Enquiry major.

Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora or Albury Wodonga

Students are introduced to the ways sociological knowledge can be used to understand contemporary environmental issues. In this unit we explore the state of sociological debate about the environment, how it can be used to understand contemporary environmental issues and how it can be used to intervene in existing socio-economic and political relations to develop more socially and ecologically just outcomes. Students are offered a number of specific pathways within the unit to cater for a diversity of interests and applications: environment and development; global political ecology; European environmental issues; Asian environmental issues; environmental problems as social problems.

Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora

In this unit students examine the evolution, biology and ecology of the major groups of Australian animals with a particular emphasis on vertebrates and insects. It will examine the ecology of animals at the level of the individual, the population, the community and the ecosystem, within an evolutionary framework. Topics include ecological methods, predator-prey and host-parasite interactions, the concepts of niche and habitat, over-exploitation of natural populations, competition and disturbance and processes threatening Australian ecosystems. Many of the practical classes are based almost entirely in the field within Reserves managed by the University. They will introduce students to field survey techniques used in terrestrial and aquatic habitats, experimental design and the analysis of data. Each student is expected to make a representative collection of at least 15 different orders of insects.

Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora

Important aspects of biodiversity and its conservation in Australia are covered in this unit and represent an introduction to plant ecology and plant systematics. In the component on plant ecology, the broad topic of the effects of environmental and biotic factors on the distribution of plant species is covered. Topics discussed include the effect of climate and competition on plant species, the nature of plant populations, fire ecology and grazing, and the effects of climate change. In the component on plant systematics, the broad topic of the origin and evolution of the Australian flowering plant flora is covered. Topics discussed include an introduction to plant systematics, the evolution and classification of flowering plants with particular reference to the Australian flora, plant geography of the Australian region and keys and identification of Australian flowering plants.

Value: 15
Campus: Bundoora or Albury

In this unit students will examine the environmental challenges besetting contemporary societies and explore the potential for a multi-disciplinary approach to providing solutions. Students are introduced to the basic principles of the scientific, economic and sociological approaches to the study of the environment and its management. Through a problem-based approach that includes both case studies and field work, students develop a recognition and appreciation of the causes and impacts of climate change and the responses of science, society and business. At the completion of this unit students will demonstrate an awareness of the theoretical and practical tools available to bring advanced decision making to environmental management.

Value: 20
Campus: Bundoora

Ideas and methods necessary for the study of animal, plant and human populations are introduced and cover the following material. The nature and amounts of genetic variation in populations: protein and DNA variation, quantitative characters, mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear genes. The genetic basis of microevolutionary adaptation of organisms to their local environments, the distribution of genes in populations and molecular ecology. The use of DNA to determine evolutionary relationships in animals, plants and humans. Also covered is application of these topics in the areas of plant and animal breeding, conservation biology and forensic science.

Value: 10
Campus: Bundoora

This unit covers the causes and effects of climate changes, particularly during the Quaternary glaciations over the last 2 million years, and discusses the impacts of these changes on the evolution of the Earth's landscape and on the people inhabiting it. The influence of tectonism (earth movements) on the landscape is also considered. Fundamental questions, including the formation and erosion of mountain ranges, the onset of aridity in Australia, and the impact of people on the landscape, are discussed. In addition, the soils and regolith (weathered material) on the Earth's surface are described, along with the chemical and physical processes responsible for their formation, and related to climate history.

Value: 20
Pre-requisite: Some history - negotiate
Campus: Online only

'Gondwana', the ancient super continent, evolved over forty millenia into several continents including Australia. Just two centuries after European settlement, the human impact on the land, massive species extinction, and climate change, pose serious threats to the continent's fragile ecology. Students will consider Australia's early geological history; Indigenous land use; the competing ideas of land and land use among early settlers; and how various forms of land use shaped, and changed the environment. We will explore in turn how the Australian environment shaped humans. Students will study Australia as part of a global environment, by understanding how settlement was an artefact of colonialism and Empire, and how environmental thinking impacted on Australia and shaped its participation in the recent global environmental movement. Students will research environmental history locally and/or globally, to understand Australia's history in the context of calls for a sustainable future.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

In this unit students will examine the political institutions which impact on the delivery of health care, as well as the political and economic perspective's relevant to health issues. The theory and practice of health care policy are explored, including social economic and political influences on health policy development and the relationship between health policy and health status of the population. Also of relevance is the inter- relationship between health care providers and customers. Students will develop the skills necessary to critically evaluate the impact of health policy.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

This unit provides an overview of the legal environmental framework within Australia and studies how these frameworks effect the activities of organisations that deal with environmentally sensitive situations. It examines how statutory frameworks assess the impact of environmental developments.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

Students will learn about the indigenous and European culture origins and characteristics of land tenure and management of both public and private lands in Australia. They will be introduced to the history of our current land management system. Students will engage with ideas related to the cultural construction of nature and the way in which current beliefs and practices about land use are imbedded in cultural accident and history. In exploring the current institutional and legal structures involved in land use, students will be able to understand why differing expectations, regulations and practices apply to a range of land designations.

Value: 15
Pre-requisite: Some biology knowledge
Campus: Bendigo

This unit includes content of natural history, land management, and ecology directly relevant to selected bush environments of south eastern Australia. Students will develop technical expertise of bushwalking to enable safe exploration and promote experiential and interpretative knowledge of bush environments.

Value: 15
Campus: Bendigo

Students will be introduced to the role of nature tourism within the tourism industry and the sustainability issues facing this sector; particularly the social and environmental impacts of nature tourism. Using case studies from Australia and developing countries students will analyse the ways in which sustainable tourism can be achieved, noteably through the development of the special interest sector of ecotourism, but also more widely through mass tourism to natural areas. On a field trip, students will critically examine the role tourism can play in environmental protection. Students will develop practical skills in planning and developing sustainable nature tourism programs. These will focus on providing quality interpretation together with aspects of safety management.

Value: 20
Campus: Albury Wodonga

The aim of this unit is to provide an understanding of ecology, ecological genetics and evolutionary ecology by consideration of a range of topics: the maintenance and distribution of genetic variation, the measurement of inbreeding, the impact of natural selection, the evolutionary history of species' distributions, co-evolutionary processes, speciation and extinction.

Value: 20
Campus: Albury Wodonga

The aim of this unit is develop a strong understanding of physical and chemical processes in natural waters (rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans) and the atmosphere, and the impact of human activities on these systems. Topics covered will include; the hydrology of inland streams, lakes and estuaries, water quality parameters, analytical methods, chemical speciation (complexation, precipitation and adsorption), redox & biogeochemical processes, organic carbon in aquatic systems and energy flow. The unit will also cover the impacts and management of point and diffuse source pollution, discharges to rivers and oceans, storm-water management, water treatment engineering and atmospheric pollution control.

Value: 30
Pre-requisite: enquire with the university
Campus: Albury

This unit aims to provide an understanding of natural resource management within an ecological context, by consideration of the following topics. Conservation biology identification and restoration of threatened ecosystems, management of invading or pest species, design of ecosystem reserves, single species and whole community conservation, managing community change and succession, environmental policy and legislation, the structure of environmental law in Australia and the management of renewable and non- renewable resources.