Postgraduate Course: Future Infrastructure Policy, Innovation and Society (fusion online) (EFIE11391)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *Programme Core Course: Future Infrastructure, Climate Change and Sustainability (MSc/PGD/PGC)*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on the Future Infrastructure, Climate Change and Sustainability (MSc/PGD/PGC) degree.
Global climate change is driving an accelerated shift in policy and innovation to support a just transition to meet societal need. Synergetic demands by so many countries with net zero policies is also creating market shift in low carbon technologies and materials. New policies and innovation should primarily do no harm, plan for co-benefits and drive transformational change. This course will support the student through the journey of policy and innovation pathways providing insights to equip them into the complexity of addressing future infrastructure and societal challenges. |
| Course description |
During this course, students will have the opportunity to investigate the role of policy and innovation for future infrastructure and societal need. Students will learn about previous policies and innovations and reflect on what has worked or not worked in their delivery, impact and outcomes. This will provide a context to the development of critical analysis and recognizing the barriers and constraints. Topics covered will include technology readiness levels, policy interventions, critical pathways and backcasting.
This then allows the student to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding to apply to their coursework they will produce via an ¿investigative report¿ supported by a structured template they are provided with. Utilising local to international case studies the students understand the socio-economic, planning and environmental factors to consider in developing policies or innovations which can benefit future society.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 6,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
170 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1. A max 3,500 ¿investigative report¿ (80%)
- A structured template will be provided to the students
- Students have an option to choose either a specific Policy or Innovation for their investigative report.
2. A groupwork Risk analysis of various countries (20%)
- A template is provided for this
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| Feedback |
Feedback on the formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The course organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the infrastructure climate change policies in addressing key challenges.
- Apply critical analysis of data-driven evidence in investigating policy or new innovation pathways and demonstrating an understanding of the complexity and societal impacts arising.
- Critically review proposals by government bodies and infrastructure and the role of data.
- Develop skills to present and analyse the SWOT of a new innovation to address climate change factors.
- Demonstrate some originality and creative insight in understanding the synergies and also the differences in a multi-complex critical pathway for infrastructure policy or new innovation.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2022: Too Little, Too Slow - Climate adaptation failure puts world at risk. United Nations (2022). https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2022
Huddleston, P., T. Smith, I. White and C. Elrick-Barr. Adapting critical infrastructure to climate change: A scoping review. Journal of Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 135, Pages 67-76, (2022) ISSN 1462-9011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.04.015.
McKinsey & Co. Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts. Case Study: Will infrastructure bend or break under climate stress? (2020) https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/will-infrastructure-bend-or-break-under-climate-stress#/
Smith, A.. U.S. Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. Historical Context: Hazard and Socioeconomic Risk Mapping (2021). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/billions/docs/billions-risk-mapping-2021-ams-forum.pdf
Recommended Reading:
IPCC Synthesis Report AR6: Climate Change 2023. 'Longer report': Sections 4.2 and 4.3. (2023) United Nations. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
M. Santamouris. On the energy impact of urban heat island and global warming on buildings. Energy and Buildings. Volume 82, Pages 100-113, (2014). ISSN 0378-7788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.07.022.
Defra. Climate Resilient Infrastructure: Preparing for a Changing Climate. UK Government. (2011) HM Stationary Office https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69269/climate-resilient-infrastructure-full.pdf
The Global Risks Report 2023. Insight Report. 18th Edition (2023). World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2023.pdf
Smith, S. The world needs to build 2 billion homes in the next 80 years. (2018) World Economic Forum
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-world-needs-to-build-more-than-two-billion-new-homes-over-the-next-80-years
Further Reading:
Global Infrastructure Trends. Part 4: Developments in sustainability. Price Waters Cooper. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/capital-projects-infrastructure/publications/infrastructure-trends/global-infrastructure-trends-developments-in-sustainability.html
Sustainable Infrastructure. Global Infrastructure Hub. (2023) G20 Initiative https://www.gihub.org/sustainable-infrastructure/?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6fgNFeTflaru9uRqfevI7Dui4NxridSfmp7BP2arSLXrZnU-FtYluEaAlbgEALw_wcB |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course contributes to the following graduate attributes and skills:
- Creative problem solvers and researchers.
- Critical and reflective thinkers with ability to consider future horizons.
- Effective and influential contributors.
- Skilled communicators. |
| Keywords | Climate Change,Infrastructure,Resilience,Futures,Environment,Adaptation,EFI,Level 11,PG |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Sean Smith
Tel:
Email: Sean.Smith@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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