Module manager: Gordon Mitchell
Email: g.mitchell@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
| GEOG3125 | Bilbao: Contested Urban Transformations |
| GEOG3145 | Exploring the Mediterranean Migration Crisis |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
Cities are where the majority of the global population live, and their functioning has major implications for people and planet. As such they are a core focus of geographical study, where efforts are made to understand the processes that give rise to them, how they function, and their social, economic and environmental consequences. This module explores urban development, considering spatial planning/design and mobility systems, and how these can promote liveable, environmentally sustainable cities. The key feature of the module is a study week in the Helsinki region, which allows first-hand experience to be gained of fast urban growth and how this can be managed for sustainability. Helsinki often tops global rankings for most sustainable city, but other cities in the metropolitan region have historically done less well, providing a comparative living lab to develop understanding of key issues in urban sustainable design. During our week in Finland, we investigate the relationships between urban form and function, mobility and sustainability. We collect data through an all class public questionnaire (English is widely spoken) and via independent (small group) sustainable place observation surveys based on planning industry methods; meet with local experts (e.g. guided visits / technical presentations); and make personal observations. We travel extensively through the wider region (always by public transport) exploring the Russian imperial core of Helsinki where we are based, nodes of urban intensification within central Helsinki and its periphery (e.g. Vuosaari, the new port suburb), as well as growth nodes in the neighbouring cities of Espoo and Vantaa (e.g. the ‘forest’ new town of Tapiola, self-styled 15 minute neighbourhoods). A staff escorted trip to Tallinn, Estonia’s capital provides a major contrast to Helsinki. Shaped in the 1200’s by the Hanseatic league, Tallinn is rapidly being reshaped as economic development sweeps away the communist urbanism legacy beyond the medieval walled city.
The objectives of this module are to:
a) develop an understanding of the relationships between urban spatial pattern, transport/mobility services, and sustainability at neighbourhood and city-region scales;
b) develop an understanding of planning strategies used to accommodate urban growth pressures, supported by first-hand experience of rapidly growing cities in a case study area (the Helsinki metropolitan region);
c) enhance understanding of (a) and (b) through developing an awareness of the historical evolution of urban growth pressure, and its drivers in the case study area;
d) provide practical experience of data collection and analysis suited to investigation of sustainable urban design/planning;
e) develop graduates with awareness of how wider placed based contextual factors can enhance and constrain sustainable growth accommodation strategies.
These objectives are addressed through a focus on the Helsinki metropolitan region, which provides an ideal ‘living lab’ due to its fast growth, globally strong innovation and sustainability performance, and the variety of planning approaches adopted across the region’s cities. Class teaching pre-fieldtrip provides the foundation that enables students to understand key theoretical ideas (tested via a pre-trip essay), our field methods, and to subsequently place their field experiences / derived knowledge into practice (tested in a post-trip Helsinki specific report).
Lectures provide a grounding in core ideas relating urban form/function and mobility to sustainability, with exemplification through material from the field area, and internationally (inc. UK) (Obj a, b). Historical context is provided (with attention to long run regional development, and also to more recent transport innovations, such as mobility as a service, invented in Helsinki) so as to understand the evolution of growth pressures in the region, varied responses (e.g. market v plan led; technology mediated), and the development of ‘place’ (Obj c, e).
Lectures include directed digital exploration (based on the Green Building Council LEED-ND survey method, and using Google maps, and accessibility scoring) so that each small group develops familiarity with and ownership of the neighbourhoods they will subsequently be responsible for surveying. We also pilot our all class resident questionnaire (behaviour / place satisfaction / liveability) so as to gain familiarity pre-trip. All data collected in the field is pooled and shared for post-trip analysis. Our data collection methods are now fixed across years, so as to provide a larger consistent data base to draw upon, with more extensive geographical coverage. Data (text, numbers, images) are shared digitally, including via online maps to which students pin data as they collect it (Obj d).
The field trip involves extensive all day activities, with students taken to various strategic points within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa). In addition to the in-field questionnaires (executed as a class) and LEED-ND place surveys (executed in independent small groups throughout the region), students develop their knowledge of the area through guided study tour (staff led), tours / technical presentations from local professionals (planning authorities and consultants), and personal observation/photography and private study (Obj a-d). These in field experiences are particularly important for developing the awareness of wider contextual factors that mediate the success of urban planning for sustainability (Obj e).
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. With reference to theoretical ideas and international practice, explain how urban sustainability is influenced by spatial form, transport infrastructure/services and their interaction;
2. Identify and critically review spatial planning approaches used to accommodate urban growth;
3. Exemplify how context specific ‘place’ factors, such as history or culture, influence growth and its accommodation for urban sustainability;
4. With reference to the case study city region, critically review growth accommodation strategies for urban sustainability, drawing on secondary source information and primary field collected data.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
1. Work ready: communication, research skills, IT skills;
2. Sustainability: critical thinking, systems thinking;
3. Enterprise: self-confidence and perseverance;
4. Academic: critical thinking, academic writing, information searching, referencing, time management;
5. Digital: information and data literacy, digital communication.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Induction Session | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Lectures | 7 | 2 | 14 |
| Fieldwork | 1 | 54 | 54 |
| Private study hours | 130 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 70 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Classes include: (1) a formative small group exercise, with all class feedback, testing understanding of relative benefits of urban spatial forms; (2) two further sessions include small group digital exploration of neighbourhoods across the city region, which are to be surveyed in person during the trip – this exploratory survey provides a means to understand the basis of one of our field survey techniques, gain familiarity with its use, and scan for features to follow up on in the field. This exercise elicits direct feedback to individuals/small groups (both staff in attendance). (3) In the field, staff are with students all day (excepting x2 4hr periods of small group neighbourhood observation survey), which results in extended interaction/ dialogue over sustainable urban design issues. The summative essay is marked pre-trip, so feedback is available to inform student observations / learning in the field, which then feeds forward into the summative post-trip report.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Coursework | 35 |
| Coursework | Coursework | 65 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 08/05/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team