General Unit Information

This unit provides an introduction to the monitoring of vegetation, water and soils. It provides hands-on and industry relevant experience in the tools and techniques for conducting a multi-disciplinary environmental assessment. Techniques for the design, implementation and analysis of monitoring programs are examined. To increase the successful implementation of monitoring programs in management protocols, skills in science communication and ways to use science in decision-making are developed. During this unit students will implement an environmental monitoring program by conducting environmental monitoring and analysis to generate a report on the state of the environment at Monash University.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Articulate the purpose for performing environmental monitoring and the importance of good experimental design and quality assurance in these programmes;
2. Describe environmental monitoring techniques and tools for plants, water and soils and demonstrate the ability to implement a multi-disciplinary monitoring program;
3. Use quantitative skills to analyse and interpret data derived from environmental monitoring;
4. Evaluate and integrate theory drawn from several disciplines to describe the results of environmental monitoring programmes to a broad audience.

Specific Unit Information