Pre-arrival reading lists 2021-22 
           
            This document contains pre-arrival reading lists for Postgraduate Taught Programmes where 
            they have been provided by Programme Directors. 
            Please note this document will continue to be updated as more suggestions come in from 
            programme directors. 
           
           
            Contents 
            Useful materials for all programmes ................................................................... 2 
            MSc Applied Environmental Hydrogeology ......................................................... 2 
            MSc Carbon Management .................................................................................. 3 
            MSc Carbon Management Online ....................................................................... 3 
            MSc Earth Observation and Geoinformation Management and MSc 
            Geographical Information Science ...................................................................... 3 
            MSc Ecological Economics................................................................................... 5 
            MSc Energy, Society and Sustainability ............................................................... 6 
            MSc Environment and Development .................................................................. 7 
            MSc Environmental Protection and Management .............................................. 7 
            MSc Environmental Sustainability ....................................................................... 9 
            MSc Food Security .............................................................................................. 9 
            MSc GeoEnergy ................................................................................................... 9 
            MSc Marine Systems and Policies ..................................................................... 10 
            MSc Soils and Sustainability .............................................................................. 10 
             
             
           
           
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              Useful materials for all programmes  
               
              Many of the programmes’ assessments require a high level of writing and critical analysis, 
              so you want to make sure your critical analysis and essay writing skills are at a Master’s level. 
              The University’s Institute for Academic Development has some useful exercises and learning 
              resources:   
                  
                  •   An eWriting online course has been specifically developed for postgraduate students at 
                      the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Glasgow Caledonian. The course covers 
                      many aspects of writing successfully at postgraduate level. It is a self-study course, and 
                      you can complete it at any time. (You must be a registered student at the University of 
                      Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Glasgow Caledonian to enrol) http://ewriting.org.uk/   
                  •   Academic writing: https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/study-
                      hub/learning-resources/writing  
                  •   Critical thinking: https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/study-
                      hub/learning-resources/critical   
               
                 All students would benefit from practicing engaging with the academic literature. This 
                 means practicing finding, reading, taking notes from, identifying the arguments within, and 
                 critically appraising articles published in the a scientific journal. Some of these are behind a 
                 paywall, but many are available open-access. 
               
                 As a part of this practice, students should also read various websites’ suggestions for how to 
                 approach the task of reading a scientific paper. There are different approaches that work for 
                 different people. If you find an approach you like, you will be in a good position for the start 
                 of semester 1. The lack of a system for dealing with journal articles efficiently is a frequent 
                 obstacle for students in semester 1. Here is a starting 
                 point: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper 
                  
              MSc Applied Environmental Hydrogeology  
               
              Pre-arrival courses  
               
              Maths doesn’t really change, at least the stuff we need for the Applied Environmental 
              Hydrogeology Course, at the University of Edinburgh. The below documents were prepared 
              during my early postgraduate days for Masters students entering hydrogeology, with a desire to 
              refresh their knowledge, catch up where necessary and fill in the blanks. Particularly this course 
              has proved a constant source of reliable rapid relevant look up and training for me. With the 
              permission of the authors, Professor Rudolf Liedl and Professor Peter Dietrich, we can provide 
              the same course material to yourselves to help you get up to speed where you need.  
               
                  •   Mathematical Methods, Rudolf Liedl and Peter Dietrich 
                      https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/aeh_mm.pdf  
               
                  •   Mathematics Introductory Course, Lecture Notes and Exercises 
                      https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/aeh_mic.pdf  
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              MSc Carbon Management 
               
                 A suggested text reading list 
                     •   The Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) 
                         provides a good overview of the state of knowledge concerning the science of 
                         climate change: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/ 
                     •   IPCC Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5°C, Summary for 
                         Policymakers: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ 
                     •   Stern Review, Executive 
                         Summary https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.hm- 
                         treasury.gov.uk/media/4/3/executive_summary.pdf 
               
                 Some other good resources to familiarise yourself with: 
                     •   Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/ 
                     •   Bloomberg Green: https://www.bloomberg.com/green 
                     •   Ask NASA Climate: https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/ 
               
                 Some inspiring podcasts and Twitter feeds: 
                     •   Mothers of Invention: https://www.mothersofinvention.online/ 
                     •   BBC’s ‘Costing the Earth’: 
                     •   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4wn/episodes/downloads 
                     •   The Beam Magazine: https://twitter.com/TheBeamMagazine 
                     •   UN Climate Change: https://twitter.com/UNFCCC 
               
               
                 MSc Carbon Management Online 
               
                 The IPCC sections are a great place to start. The synthesis documents in particular would be 
                 very useful to read before starting (e.g., https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment- 
                 report-cycle/ ) 
               
                 MSc Earth Observation and Geoinformation Management and MSc 
                 Geographical Information Science 
               
                 Whilst we don’t assume extensive experience with GIS OR with computer programming, 
                 students who have familiarised themselves with the resources below may find the transition 
                 onto the programme easier. 
               
                 There are lots of great online resources which you might find helpful for learning the basics 
                 of ArcGIS, QGIS, Python, R and SQL. Below are a few links to online coding and GIS courses 
                 which may be useful: 
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                 DataCamp 
                 The course focuses on Python specifically for data science. Lessons are interactive. A 
                 combination of videos and excercies and takes around 4 hours to complete. Covers: Basics, 
                 List, Packages, Functions and NumPy. Also covers introductions to R and SQL which could be 
                 useful. Link: https://www.datacamp.com 
               
                 CodeAcademy 
                 Fundamental programming concepts and the Python programming language course. 
                 Lessons are interactive.  Time to complete is estimated at 25 Hours and there are no 
                 prerequisites. The syllabus is extensive and covers: Python Syntax, Strings and Console 
                 Output, Conditionals and Control Flow, Functions, Lists & Dictionaries, Lists and Functions, 
                 Loops, Advanced Topics in Python, Introduction to Classes, File Input and Output. 
                 Link: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python 
               
                 Quantum GIS https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/trainingmaterial/index.html 
                 This freeware GIS is now well developed, and there are a good set of related resources, 
                 including tutorials at sites such as the one below. You can download the actual GIS 
                 software, and practice with the data sets provided. These resources cover basic GIS 
                 principles, all the way up to advanced topics including using python programming with GIS, 
                 conducting network analysis and more advanced spatial analysis, plus introductory web 
                 mapping. http://www.qgistutorials.com/en/ 
               
                 ESRI Virtual Campus https://www.esri.com/training/ 
                 This commercial site provides training resources for using ArcGIS and its extensions. 
                 Some of the courses are available free of charge. 
               
                 Suggested Pre-arrival READING 
                     •   Schmandt, M. GIS Commons: An introductory textbook on Geographic Information 
                         Systems free web enabled resource: http://giscommons.org/ 
                     •   de Smith, M Goodchild M F Longley P A 2015 Geospatial Analysis A Comprehensive 
                         Guide to Principles Techniques and Software tools. Third edition free web enabled 
                         resource: http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com/index.html 
               
                     Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J and Rhind D W (eds) (2010) Geographical 
                                                                                rd 
                     Information Systems and Science. Chichester: Wiley. 3 Edition. 
               
                     Periodicals to browse: 
                         •   JOSIS, http://www.josis.org/ 
                         •   International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 
                             http://www.tandfonline.com/ 
                         •   Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (CEUS), 
                         •   www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-environment-and-urban-systems 
                         •   Transactions in GIS, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ 
                         •   Cartography and GIS http://www.cartogis.org/ 
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