Monitoring Catchments

Why study with us?

Do you want to learn how to monitor the relationship between people and the environment?

This course focuses on Windermere’s catchment. This is the area around Windermere where water naturally drains into the lake. It encompasses Grasmere, Esthwaite, the Langdale and Troutbeck valleys and the surrounding fells.

You will develop the practical skills and understanding necessary to carry out interdisciplinary surveys, within the framework of catchment management.

You will learn to monitor the relationship between people and the environment through:

• Land Use Surveys – eg path erosion
• Hydrological Surveys
• Biodiversity Surveys

This course is delivered in a one week block in March 2014.

If you love Windermere, come and join us. What can this course lead to?

This course is ideal if you work with or volunteer for one of the many organisations which actively work to improve the Windermere catchment. The issues you learn about are also applicable in many other catchment areas.

This course can also count towards your achievement of the Postgraduate Certificate in Greening Outdoor Practice.

Resources and facilities

We will based in the heart of the Windermere catchment, using the classrooms at University of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus.

Each day will start in the classroom, but after the first day you will be out and about getting to grips with the issues at first hand.

Entry requirements See course specific entry requirements listed below.

More about levels and credits

Credit and UCAS requirements Credit: 20 credits Selection criteria

Applicants should hold a first degree or relevant work/volunteer experience.

Additional contact information

Dr. Lois Mansfield
Principal Lecturer
Email: lois.mansfield@cumbria.ac.uk

UCAS Link

Visit UCAS

Course summary

This module will furnish you with the critical ability to select appropriate monitoring regimes for aspects of catchment management. These monitoring regimes will focus on the relationships between people and the environment within the framework of catchment management.

On successful completion, you will be able to:

• demonstrate the complexities of catchment management– what it entails, how it can work and who is responsible.
• carry out and critically appraise a range of interdisciplinary surveys in a catchment: Biodiversity Surveys eg invertebrate, pollution, pests (eg Himalayan Balsam); Hydrological surveys eg river corridor, river discharge; Land use surveys eg path erosion, pedology, land utilisation, historical land use.
• design appropriate materials for various client groups to complete catchment surveys.