Module manager: Dr Maryam Asachi
Email: M.Asachi@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
The standard qualifications (or equivalent) set by the School of Civil Engineering for entry to any of its JBM accredited UG programmes.
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Civil engineers have a leading role in planning, designing, building, and ensuring a sustainable future. In doing so, they must find ways of reducing the impact of construction-related activities on the environment. Addressing environmental challenges involves significant investments in resilient and sustainable infrastructure to protect the environment and public health. Green building design and construction, and efficient use of materials are amongst the fundamental aspects of sustainable civil engineering. The incorporation of energy-efficient technologies, eco-friendly materials, and innovative designs that reduce resource consumption and waste generation are paramount to sustainability. Sustainable practices must also support urban design and water infrastructure to create sustainable communities. The module is about the application of green engineering principles for a sustainable and resilient development. This module trains students with the capability of designing infrastructure systems that are resilient to extreme climates and offset the greenhouse warming effect.
On completion of this module students should be able to:
- Identify how civil engineering projects impact on the local and global environment. They will have an understanding of the drivers for sustainability in a range of different global contexts and they should be able to assess impacts at a project/system scale.
- They will understand a range of options that are available for engineers to reduce impact of a project and increase sustainability and have knowledge of tools and technologies to support sustainable solutions.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes (contributing to the AHEP4 learning outcomes between brackets):
1- Understand drivers for sustainability and energy/resource considerations in a local and global context [M1, M7, M13]
2- Understand the impacts of civil engineering projects in both project and system level contexts [M1, M7, M17]
3- Have knowledge of measures and targets for sustainable development and tools for assessing the impact of projects at different scales [M1, M7, M17]
4- Understand technology solutions that can increase sustainability and methods of evaluating the potential benefits. [M1, M13]
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
a- Apply Environmental Impact assessment for evaluating the potential environmental effects of a proposed project.
b- Apply knowledge of sustainable engineering practices/principles for proposing a sustainable development.
c- Improve the communication skills (both within verbal and written communication) by writing academic reports and giving presentation to student audience, and receiving feedback, information searching and referencing through the course’s projects.
d- Improve the teamwork/collaboration and personal/critical thinking skills by building positive relationships with other people through the course’s presentation project, gathering information from a range of sources, and working independently on an individual report project.
- Global Sustainability issues
- Climate change, mitigation and adaptation
- Sustainable cities
- Sustainable transport
- Sustainable buildings/Technologies for low carbon buildings
- Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental management system
- Sustainable urban water management
- Sustainable Drainage Systems/Nature-based solutions
- Resource sustainability - from a linear to a circular economy
- Sustainable and international goals.
Methods of assessment
The assessment details for this module will be provided at the start of the academic year
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 8 | 2 | 16 |
| Seminar | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Private study hours | 80 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 100 | ||
Coursework consists of group presentation and individual report tasks. The students will be given 3 hrs for delivering a group project task to student’s audience and two assessors.
Formative assessment process is used in the coursework to help students improve their learning and performance by providing feedback and identifying areas for improvement. For instance, two assessors will provide verbal and written formative feedback to students (within two days after students’ seminar session) for the presentation task of the coursework. Peer assessment opportunity is made available to students for up to one week after seminar day so that students evaluate the work of their peers against a set of criteria for the presentation task of the coursework. The module leader will also provide formative feedback to students (within three weeks after students’ report submission date) for the individual report task of the coursework.
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 30/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team