2015 Landscapes and People: New Zealand & Cook Islands"Landscapes and People: New Zealand & Cook Islands" will allow you to explore the changing landscapes of two areas of the South Pacific. The first part of the program will be a voyage of discovery in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, one of the most significant high-mountain environments of the Southern Hemisphere. You will learn about a wide variety of environmental processes and the opportunities and risks these have provided for the earliest (Maori and European) and present human inhabitants of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Several case studies will be employed including the rebuilding of Christchurch following the devastating Canterbury earthquakes of 2011, the history and environmental impacts of pastoral land use in the Southern Alps, the hydrological resources of the Southern Alps and how these are being impacted by climate change, and the management of mountain hazard risks in New Zealand. The second part of the program will introduce you to the Cook Islands, specifically the main island of Rarotonga. As with the New Zealand part of the program, the focus will be on the relationships between environmental processes and the human inhabitants of the Cook Islands (Kuki Airani), beginning with the archipelago's settlement as part of the great Polynesian migrations. You will learn about the management of tropical cyclone and tsunami risks in small island nations in the context of adaptation to climate change. Other case studies will range from island types in the tropical Pacific and the resources and risks these provide to the remarkable long-distance canoe voyaging and celestial navigation of Polynesians which allowed the insular Pacific to be settled. Deadline for application is Nov 17, 2014 Details
Program Type:
Group Study Program (GSP) |
