Overview
This unit will cover essential knowledge of natural and impacted (mining, urban and industrial) landscape features and their management. You will gain a theoretical and practical understanding of landforms, biogeography, and the effects of natural and man-made impacts on the sustainability of local ecosystems. You will also learn how erosion control, vegetation surveys, modern techniques of rehabilitation, productive use of degraded land and rehabilitation success criteria are used to return disturbed landscapes into sustainable or productive ecosystems. You will gain practical experience through field trips to disturbed and rehabilitated sites. The emphasis will be on Central Queensland sites with links to broader Australian landscapes.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Students must have completed 72 units of credit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from In-person feedback
Some students commented that visiting the open cut coal mine to see how land is rehabilitated after mining, and talking to practitioners about progressive rehabilitation and closure planning, was insightful and complementary to the online learning resources and associated assessment item.
Continue to include visits to mine site rehabilitation whenever possible. Continue to include up to date information about Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Planning, including the latest technical advice from the Office of the Queensland Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner.
Feedback from SUTE Unit Feedback – Areas to Improve
One student indicated that some of the video resources could be improved.
Review the few remaining older videos and update accordingly.
Feedback from In-person feedback and personal observations
The majority of students seemed to enjoy conducting field work, specifically, monitoring to assess landscape function and revegetation success. They also appeared to appreciate hearing from volunteers, industry, and government personnel involved in land rehabilitation and monitoring.
Continue to offer students the opportunity to conduct hands on tasks, such as sampling, monitoring and assessment. Continue to engage industry, government, and local restoration practitioners to give regionally relevant talks.
Feedback from Student performance data and email communication
Some students found research, data interpretation, and analysis more challenging than others.
Increase communication to students about the importance of being prepared, reading through all assessment materials, and seeking help through the appropriate channels as early in the term as possible. Continue to remind students about the research guides, videos, and other support resources available via the university library. Continue to set aside time during the residential school to assist students with processing the collected data.
- Describe key features of the biogeographic landscape
- Discuss the impacts of mining, urbanisation, industrial development and tree clearing activities on the sustainability of Australian landscapes
- Conduct land and vegetation surveys, simulate erosion events and describe disturbed land rehabilitation techniques
- Analyse the techniques used in the rehabilitation of degraded Australian landscapes
- Design a protocol for rehabilitation and/or sustainable management of a disturbed landscape
- Assess the criteria used to determine cost effectiveness and success of rehabilitation processes.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Practical and Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||
| 3 - Online Test - 30% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||||
| 10 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||||
| 11 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||