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Course Outlines

https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/ENVSCI/738/1253

ENVSCI 738 : Water Sensitive Cities

Science
2025 Semester One (1253) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription
This course probes experiments with radical urban change to examine the co-constitution of water-society in
the pursuit of improved futures. A case study is built around the aspiration to become a Water Sensitive City.
Students rst employ quantitative methods to design a water sensitive neighbourhood. Students then critique
reductionist approaches to becoming sustainable. The aim is to better understand the sustainable city debate
and its emerging logics.

Course Overview
Experimenting with radical urban change is becoming the norm as cities around the world pursue improved
futures. Experiments are considered dynamic and provisional and are seen as a way to cut through
administrative red-tape and materialise visions of ourishing, sustainability and liveability. Experiments are
viewed as an acceptable way to take risks and come with expectations of high failure rates but promises of high
returns. But who is doing the experimenting? Who is being experimented on? Can (and should) lessons be
applied elsewhere?

This course probes the appeal of experiments with more sustainable cities through a case study of Auckland’s
Healthy Waterways strategy. The rst half of the course examines the science of Water Sensitive Cities.
Students apply and critique deterministic and constructivist approaches to realising more sustainable cities.
The second half of the course attempt to makes sense of change that is produced by how improved futures are
both imagined and materialised. Students examine how experiments with more sustainable cities are
understood to be important. Do they reframe institutions and recongure actors? Do they engender radical
change? Are they a viable alternative to long-term planning? Are they business-as-usual repackaged in
appealing rhetoric? There are three take home messages:
1) Experiments with urban futures carry a politics like any other activity;
2) Visions of the future matter and have to be positioned among competing visions;
3) There is still need to imagine better kinds of human society.

A student who successfully completes this course will have the opportunity to design a Water Sensitive City to
reveal how water scientists envision their role in social change. Through the practice of urban hydrology and
academic grounding in critical literature, students will explore the politics of experiments. Students should
leave the course with:
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1) Knowledge of the water sensitive city;
2) Understanding of how the practice of science involves political propositions;
3) Grounding in dominant ideologies that frame contemporary visions and how they manifests in sociomaterial
outcomes.

Course Requirements
No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: People and Place
Capability 2: Sustainability
Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 5: Solution Seeking
Capability 6: Communication
Capability 7: Collaboration
Capability 8: Ethics and Professionalism

Graduate Profile: Postgraduate Diploma in Science

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Define major environmental issues of our time and identify how science is used to approach those issues
and propose solutions. (Capability 4, 5 and 6)
2. Explain and apply scientific method that underpins environmental policy and response. (Capability 2 and
3)
3. Work collaboratively as well as individually to critique environmentally framed problems and solutions.
(Capability 1, 7 and 8)
4. Identify and describe some of the challenges of applying environmental science. (Capability 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
and 8)

Assessments
Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Literature review and critical reflection 20% Individual Coursework
Preparation and participation report 20% Group Coursework
Presentation 10% Group Coursework

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Exam 50% Individual Examination
4 types 100%

Assessment Type Learning Outcome

Addressed
1 2 3 4
Literature review and critical reflection 

Preparation and participation report 

Presentation 

Exam    

Special Requirements
There is a one day field trip and participation is optional but strongly encouraged.

Tuākana
As part of the University-wide Tuākana community, The School of Environment Tuākana Programme aims to
provide a welcoming learning environment for, and enhance the success of, all of our Māori and Pacic
students. We are led by the principles of tautoko (support) and whanaungatanga (connection), and hope you
nd a home here at the School. Students who have identied as Māori and/or Pacic will receive an invitation
to our online portal introducing the Programme, the resources we have available, and how you can get
involved.
Māori and Pacic students are encouraged to contact Sonia Fonua ([email protected]) for information
about the Tuākana programme.

Workload Expectations
This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in
each 15 point course that they are enrolled in. For this course, you can expect 1-3 hours of lectures and 6 hours
of reading and working on assignments each week.

Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Attendance is expected at scheduled classes including lectures and laboratories/tutorials to complete
components of the course. Lectures will be available as recordings but other learning activities including
laboratories/tutorials will not be available as recordings.

Attendance on campus is required for the final examination.

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The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable over 12 weeks.

Learning Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes
reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Students are expected to read as part of this course. Students will be provided with links to required readings
but also actively encouraged to read broadly and widely.

Student Feedback
During the course Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the sta responsible for the course
and staff-student consultative committees.

At the end of the course students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool
called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback.

Your feedback helps to improve the course and its delivery for all students.

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Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in
coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic oence. The work that a student submits for grading
must be the student's own work, reecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be
properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source
material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to
provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

Class Representatives
Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the
wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to
raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Copyright
The content and delivery of content in this course are protected by copyright. Material belonging to others may
have been used in this course and copied by and solely for the educational purposes of the University under
license.
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You may copy the course content for the purposes of private study or research, but you may not upload onto
any third party site, make a further copy or sell, alter or further reproduce or distribute any part of the course
content to another person.

Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written
form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible
and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the
Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is aected by illness or other personal circumstances outside
of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances signicantly aect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible
written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-
exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity
In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and
learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has
contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not
compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your
course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about
how to proceed.

The delivery mode may change depending on COVID restrictions. Any changes will be communicated through
Canvas.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process
and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The
University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other
students and sta so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit
Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-
and-guidelines/student-charter.html.
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Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for
enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the
right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or
other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements
may be used. The nal decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation
arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the
assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

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