Module 1: General and Applied Ecology

The Module General and Applied Ecology provides an overview of the basic and applied aspects of ecology. Biodiversity is used as a cross-cutting issue to link scientific models and theories to application in planning and management. This module consists of two parts: general ecology and methods of biodiversity assessment.
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Module 2: Soil Protection and Ecotoxicology

The module has the aim to extend the basic knowledge of soil protection. Selected issues of soil science and applied soil protection related problems will be reflected including different climate regions of the world. This module consists of two parts: soil protection and tropical soils management.
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Module 3: Molecular Sciences

The lecture is to provide examples of systems in biochemistry and cell biology. The students are introduced into the specific aspects of organic life which are not found in the physical and abiotic aspects of nature. However, the starting point is the rules of the natural sciences of physics and chemistry, which serve as a key to the understanding of processes in beings.
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Module 4: Aquatic Ecology

The module provides deeper understanding of the variety of freshwater ecosystems with their structures and functions, the students shall understand the interaction of abiotic and biotic processes in lakes and rivers, most important ecological processes relevant for the quality of freshwaters, the interaction of biogeochemical cycles and water quality as well as the processes connecting the major impacts and the water quality shall be known and understood.
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Module 5: Freshwater Restoration Ecology

The objective of the module is to develop an understanding of principles of water management, knowing principles and methods of established surface water quality assessment, guiding principles, basic impacts to surface waters, approaches to mitigate human impact to surface waters, understanding the eco-technology approach in water management, rehabilitation and restoration techniques in various freshwater systems, understanding the potential and limits of restoration measures.
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Module 6: Environmental Modelling

Objectives of the module are to enable students to identify and formulate ecological modelling problems and to apply modelling techniques to experimental data sets on regional and global scales. Students will be able to understand and to use statistical techniques or high sophisticated ecological models to solve ecosystem management problems. They will be able to judge the importance of model based ecosystem and resource management actions. The module comprises of two parts: model-based decision support and introduction to GIS and applications.
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Module 7: Protection of the Atmosphere

The module presents two main environmental goals in respect to the atmosphere: reasonable air quality and the prevention of climate change. In order to achieve these goals it is necessary to assess the current situation and to make forecasts of (develop scenarios for) potential future changes. The students are encouraged to do these forecasts based on incomplete knowledge.
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Module 8: Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment (SEA/EIA)

In the lecture EIA/SEA fundamental knowledge regarding environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment will be gained. The most essential contents of the lecture shall be discussed to a greater depth and in a more detailed manner, throughout the seminars. The module consists of two parts: environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA).
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Module 9: Industrial Sustainability

The module gives an overview about the principles of product and company related legislation, systems and cost management for take-back operations, state-of-the-art and implications of the recycling technology, the process of emulating take-back ordinances is understood and compared to the situation in different countries, international and national standardization for environmentally conscious product design and company management, properties of selected materials, especially plastics regarding recyclability as well as clean production.
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Module 10: Material Management

The module aims to impart knowledge on analysing and assessing risks in plant operations, understanding the differences in approaches to chemical safety as based and shaped through culture, understanding the environmental impact of resource utilization, the necessity of recycling, and obtain knowledge of recycling options for complex products. Students get familiar to the state-of-the-art of recycling processes; the legal requirements to recycling operations, additionally consequences are outlined with respect to product design.
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Module 11: Cost Benefit Analysis in Environmental Evaluation

The module enables students to get acquainted with economic methods of valuation, of analysing and solving problems. Its main focus is put on the logic of economic research, scarcity, co-ordination and rules, theory of valuation, valuation measures, state activity and application of the contingent valuation method.
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Module 12: General Business Administration 

This module introduces the major tools and deeper understanding of the basics of economics and business administration. The main contents of the module consist of: introduction to economics and business administration, legal forms of companies, financial accounting, finance, industrial cost accounting, investment appraisal, optimization and project management.
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Module 13: Natural Resource Investigation

The objectives of the module are to get to know geological processes and to understand the role of these processes for the formation of natural resources, to become acquainted to the processes leading to the genesis of different raw materials, to study methods and techniques for investigation of natural resources, to use these investigation methods in the field and in the lab, to be able to present working results in an oral presentation and to defend them in an open discussion and to get an insight in the work of a professional exploration company during an excursion.
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Module 14: Applied Geology

The objective of the module is to develop an understanding of groundwater systems, their dynamics and geochemistry in the hydrological cycle. Its main contents focus on aquifers and aquicludes and their properties, estimation of groundwater recharge, groundwater exploration, methods of investigation, groundwater protection, as well as natural and anthropogenic factors and processes influencing the formation of water and soil quality in the whole hydrological cycle.
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Module 15: Municipal Solid Waste Management

After a more general introduction, the students will be made familiar with the phenomenon of entropy for deriving guidelines and recommendations for the development of policies and strategies in waste management. From this, new approaches to the solution of the waste problem will be discussed. Furthermore, an introduction into economic problems with focus on PPP-models will be given. The students should learn to development appropriate strategies for their home countries. Lab exercises and excursions deepen the understanding for the subjects.
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Module 16: Methods of Water Resources Management

The contents of the module are focused on methods to assess and to balance the components of the water cycle and to derive properties of surface and subsurface catchments with respect to runoff generation and water yield. It comprises of lecture and computer exercises (tutorials) in numerical modelling using an approved modelling tool, e.g. the software ‘Watershed Modelling System (WMS)’; deriving and preparing input parameters to create and apply a model; simulating hydrological responses of the water balance components to different inputs.
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Module 17: Production, Processing and Use of Renewable Raw Materials 

The module objective is to learn how an enhanced bioenergy production affects land use in different regions (tropical, temperate), to apply the principles of interaction between site conditions, trees and crops in order to design agroforestry systems and short rotation plantations, learn principles of plant nutrition and plant production, describe how and where renewable resources can be used and which restrictions follow from this, understand methods, potentials and barriers of processing and use, describe case studies of processing lines for different bio resources as natural oils, fibers or starch, and to use and understand the basic concepts of life cycle assessment on a certain example.
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Module 18: Wastewater and Sludge Treatment

The objective of the module is to obtain knowledge of general processes of waste water and sludge treatment, e.g. coarse cleaning by screens and rakes, micro-sieving, sedimentation processes: thickener, grid chamber, preliminary sedimentation and secondary settling, flotation processes: oil and fat trapping, light density material collector, clearing by filtration, etc.
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Module 19: Decentralized Power Generation

The module provides basic knowledge of understanding in electrical power engineering with special reflection on the situation during normal or fault operation. Students will get an overall understanding of technical solutions for decentralized power generation as well as energy storage.
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Module 20: Power Systems Economics

The module “Power System Economics 1” provides the students with deeper understanding of energy-economic basics. The students can compare different components of an energy supply system with the help of techno-economic characteristics. Furthermore, the students know the new economic reality of liberalised energy markets. Due to the variety of interdependencies between power system economics and business administration/economics the students also have knowledge of different approaches used in business administration and economics.
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Module 21: Safety and Risk Analysis for Process Plants

The module provides an overview about the fundamentals and application of the following techniques: hazard identification, evaluation of probability/frequency, consequence of failures, qualitative and quantitative risk assessment, safety related plant optimization and inherent safety.
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Module 22: Industrial Sites Management

In this module, the students learn how to evaluate brown fields and other anthropogenically influenced sites including buildings and sub-surface facilities concerning their values, the risks going out from them for men, biotic and abiotic protective goods and valuable real assets, and the possibilities of their conversion for new uses. Issues and targets of the reclamation of mining areas are discussed.
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Module 23: Philosophy of Ecological Sciences

The module provides knowledge and orientation in a post-modern world, which requires a comprehensive overview of the philosophical back-ground and the ethical relevance of ecological concepts and their applications. In contrast to standard philosophical approaches, emphasis is laid on the analysis of examples and cases studies taken from the field of biological sciences.
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Module 24: Social Change and Continuity

The module gives an introduction into the main themes of social change and continuity. It enables students to apply key-concepts to specific dimensions, and/or cases. The main topics discussed are theories of social change, modernity and social structure, equality and inequality, i.e. gender inequality, work and labour markets; organisations, institutions and networks, as well as theory and concepts of empirical methods.
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Module 25: Culture and Globalization

The main contents of this module the central importance of the environment and culture in international politics, selected international organisations; history, development and ways of working of international organisations, political models and concepts influencing on contemporary international politics, theories of development, under-development and dependency. Additionally the consequences of colonialism and imperialism in and on former colonised and former colonising societies are discussed; as well as consequences of colonialism and imperialism, variety of religious expressions, racism in colonial and the post colonial history.
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Module 26: Sociology/Environmental Sociology

This is an introductory module in sociology/ environmental sociology. The objective of the module is to convey a basic understanding of sociological thought and the methods used in social sciences. The module is also designed to provide an overview of environmental sociology and a profound understanding of the potentials and limitations of the various approaches.
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