Cities and Climate Change (Summer School)

Academic Study Board of the Faculty of Engineering

Teaching language: English
EKA: T900040102
Censorship: Second examiner: Internal
Grading: 7-point grading scale
Offered in: Odense
Offered in: Summer school (autumn)
Level: Bachelor

Course ID: T900040101
ECTS value: 5

Date of Approval: 12-12-2022


Duration: Intensive course

Version: Archive

Course ID

T900040101

Course Title

Cities and Climate Change (Summer School)

ECTS value

5

Internal Course Code

S-BCCC

Responsible study board

Academic Study Board of the Faculty of Engineering

Date of Approval

12-12-2022

Course Responsible

Name Email Department
Henrik Brøner Jørgensen hebj@iti.sdu.dk SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering
Sasha Isabelle Bisschop saib@tek.sdu.dk TEK Uddannelseskoordinering og -support

Teachers

Name Email Department City
Katarzyna Alicja Wieszczeczynska kawi@iti.sdu.dk SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering
Maria Pizzorni mpiz@iti.sdu.dk SDU Civil Engineering
Nicola Tollin nto@iti.sdu.dk SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering

Programme Secretary

Name Email Department City
Mette Elise Jørgensen mejo@tek.sdu.dk TEK Uddannelseskoordinering og -support

Offered in

Odense

Level

Bachelor

Offered in

Summer school (autumn)

Duration

Intensive course

Mandatory prerequisites

Students with different disciplinary backgrounds in the fields of engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, economic, social sciences, and related fields. Students must have passed no less than 70 ECTS on their bachelor’s or Bachelor of Engineering degree.

Recommended prerequisites

Students should be interested in and have previous basic experience about climate change, disaster risk reduction, urban development and planning, sustainable development, climate adaptation and mitigation.

Learning objectives - Knowledge

  • Climate change and cities fundamentals, including policies
  • Urban resilience fundamentals
  • Strategic, action and master planning for climate change actions
  • Low-carbon development and climate mitigation in cities
  • Disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation in cities
  • Urban resilience best practices globally, including the Global South
  • Cross-sectorial and thematic issues (e.g., water, coastal areas, nature-based solutions)

Learning objectives - Skills

The students will develop skills based on system thinking through a process design methodology for climate change planning in cities, including:
  • System mapping and stakeholders’ analysis
  • Urban climate multi-risk analysis
  • Future scenarios forecasting, visioning and backcasting
  • Strategy and action planning

Learning objectives - Competences

  • Competencies to develop strategies, actions, plans and solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities

Content

Introduction  

Today over 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas. Cities are facing major global challenges such as unsustainable development patterns, rapid and unplanned urbanization, climate change mitigation and adaptation. As a result, cities and their populations are vulnerable and increasingly exposed to rapid and slow on-setting climate and environmental disasters, which frequency and intensity are growing exponentially.

Urban resilience is instrumental in addressing both causes and effects of climate change, rethinking the way in which cities are designed, planned and managed, developing strategies and actions for climate mitigation and adaptation. 

The scientific research on urban resilience has been exponentially growing in the last decade, parallelly a growing number of cities worldwide started developing resilience related plans and actions, following the recommendations and prescriptions national and international policies international policies, as: Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

Course main objective

The summer school aims to expand the students' knowledge of policies, tools, and strategic and action planning for resilient urban transition, responding to the need for systemic change in tackling climate change. The summer school also aims to co-develop students' skills and knowledge in climate mitigation and adaptation planning. 

The students will work in groups using real cities worldwide, including Global South ones, as a case study to develop specific climate change solutions through strategy and action planning.

The summer school aims to bring together multi-disciplinary knowledge and perspectives on climate change in cities from science and practice. The summer school uses process design methodology to build the necessary skills and competencies to respond to a systemic transformation to foster urban climate actions.

URL for Skemaplan

Teaching Method

The course is conceived as a highly engaging activity, where students will work in ingroups on specific cities, using a process design methodology, to develop adequate climate solutions for mitigation and adaptation.

Multiple forms of instruction will involve: 
  • Frontal lectures with invited international policymakers, practitioners and researchers
  • Individual learning based on scientific-grey literature and online resources
  • Group work using process design methodology
  • Peer-to-peer learning sessions based on knowledge exchange among the students 

The lectures will provide an overview of major international policies concerning urban resilience (Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, New Urban Agenda and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction), key practices worldwide, including those developed in the frame of major international organizations (e.g., UNFCCC Secretariat, UNDRR, UNESCO, UN-Habitat City Resilience Profiling Program, ICLEI, WWF), and the latest developments and perspectives for research.

The lectures will also address key cross sectorial and thematic issues, for example: multi-level governance, finance, generation of co-benefits, nature-based solutions, appropriate technology, participatory processes and stakeholder’s involvement, urban metabolism, circular economy, planning and design.

The summer school uses problem-based learning. The students, divided into small groups, will respond to a specific challenge, applying specific tools and methods through a system thinking approach on real cities.

Time of classes:
2 weeks in August 

Number of lessons

hours per week

Teaching language

English

Examination regulations

Exam regulations

Name

Exam regulations

Examination is held

In the end of the course

Tests

Exam

EKA

T900040102

Name

Exam

Description

Examination condition: 
Participating in class (80 %)

Examination:
Examination: The grade is meant to reflect involvement in the course. The evaluation will be based on all the aspects of the course, including understanding the content of e.g., lectures, group work and discussions, individual learning level, and specific groups/individual deliverables.

Form of examination

Portfolio

Censorship

Second examiner: Internal

Grading

7-point grading scale

Identification

Student Identification Card - Date of birth

Language

Normally, the same as teaching language

ECTS value

5

Additional exam information

The form of examination in the re-examination is the same as in the ordinary examination except the requirement of 80% attendance which is removed.

Additional information

Enrollment is limited to 8 students. If more applicants than places, applicants who meet the mandatory requirements are prioritised according to the below selection criteria:
  • Engineering students from Civil Engineering (Bygningsteknik)
  • Engineering students from Mechanical Engineering (maskinteknik)
  • Students from SDU-TEK provided the course is approved as an elective on their study programmes
  • Student from SDU-NAT and SDU-SAM provided the course is approved as an elective on their study programmes
  • Other students from SDU-TEK, SDU-NAT or SDU-SAMF with preapproval of credit transfer
  • Other students from SDU with preapproval of credit transfer 

Note: If further selection criteria are needed this will be based on a first-come-first-served basis. 

Professor mso Nicola Tollin is responsible for the course and can be contacted for professional questions regarding the course at email: nto@iti.sdu.dk. cc Katarzyna Wieszczeczynska email:kawi@iti.sdu.dk)

Please note that registration for this elective course is binding. However, we recommend you apply for de-registration of Summer School courses if you do not pass your exams in June, leaving you to register for re-exams in August. Apply by filling out the form “Application of Exemption from the Deadline for Registration or De-registration for Courses” here: https://spoc.sdu.dk/form/4153/view.

If you need to pass mandatory subjects from the 5th semester of your bachelor's programme, you cannot register for the summer course as a master's elective, as you can only take master's electives once your bachelor's degree has been completed.

Students who have taken this course as part of their bachelor’s degree are not allowed to register for the course as part of their master’s degree.

Courses offered

Offer period Offer type Profile Education Semester

Studieforløb

Profile Education Semester Offer period