New Zealand And Beyond!

Friends, Family, Strangers!

I'm Currently a 3rd Year student at the University Of British Columbia, and i'm heading to New Zealand and the Cook Islands as part of a group study program for Go Global this May! Being a poor student, I need all the support I can get! The program will look at Landscapes and People, and we will be spending a significant amount of time in the Southern Alps looking at natural hazard risk in mountain environments. It's an oppurtunity of a life time for me ( as I've never travelled before).

These are the course outlines of what I will be studieing while abroad!

Landscapes and People” will provide a better understanding of the changing landscapes within 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. The focus here will be on the geoecological processes operating within this landscape, and the opportunities and risks these have provided for the earliest as well as present human inhabitants of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

1. Geography 413: Mountain Environments

The underlying premise of this course is that natural hazards and disasters result from the interaction of humans with their natural environment, and thus the manner in which this interaction occurs is just as important as the physical (geophysical, meteorological, etc.) characteristics of the hazard-creating process (earthquake, landslide, storm, etc.). A related premise is that natural hazard risk is a function not only of event magnitude and frequency but also the multitude of ways in which human activity and infrastructure affect vulnerability to disaster.

2. Geography 491: Selected Topics in Geography: Natural hazard risk in New Zealand and the Cook Islands
An advanced study of the risks associated with selected natural hazards, and the management of these risks, in New Zealand and the Cook Islands. Case studies will include the Christchurch earthquakes of 2011; mass movement, flood, glacial and meteorological hazards in the Southern Alps; and tropical cyclone and tsunami hazards at Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

Definition of mountain environments and geoecology: Origins of mountains, mountain weather/climate, mountain hydrology, mountain geomorphology, mountain biogeography, applications and limitations of geoecology for understanding mountain environments as human habitats. Case studies include mountain regions throughout the world (with a focus on the Southern Alps in this instance).

http://students.ok.ubc.ca/global/outgoing/group-study-programs/current-programs/landscapes-people-new-zealand-cook-islands.html

If you made it this far, why not just kick in a few dollars! anything helps!!! Everything raised will go towards the Go Global Fees, Flights, Food, UBCO tuition, and any gear I will need! 

Thanks!!

Katlin