1. Faculty of Environment
  2. School of Geography
  3. Undergraduate
  4. Resource list

Resource list

BSc Recommended resource list

To help you prepare for studying in the School of Geography, we have gathered together some resources that you may find interesting and informative. However, there is no pre-requisite reading that needs to be done. 

Online resources

There are excellent online resources that introduce many topics relevant to our courses available via the National Geographic, Royal Geographical Society , and British Society for Geomorphology. The  CarbonBrief  website also has a range of excellent pieces on the current trajectory of climate change and shifts in energy use.

Our research actively informs our teaching programme and you can follow these links to find out about our current work studying how hydropower schemes influence riverflow, our work on natural flood management , or the role that tropical forests play in the global carbon cycle and whether they can handle rising temperatures. 

The relationship between people and the physical environment is a theme that is deeply embedded in our courses. Physical Geographers at Leeds have used computer modelling skills (that you will learn in your programme) to demonstrate that malaria transmission across Africa will decline as the climate changes, because the land temperature is becoming too hot for standing water ponds to develop. We also advise policymakers on how to make decisions about managing the natural environment, such as advising the United Nations on the conservation needs of peatlands to maximise their carbon storage potential.

Geography as a discipline has roots in European exploration from the 15th Century onwards, and today's physical geographers must be aware of this legacy because it can affect how we understand key phenomena such as natural hazards. This means that when we study how volcanoes erupt and the disasters that unfold around them (see this dashboard for a map of current eruptions), we will also study the importance of volcanoes to the Māori and how this affected the response to the 2019 Whakaari eruption. 

Data visualisation is increasingly important for communicating scientific concepts. The skills threads of our teaching in our undergraduate programmes will teach you software and skills that you need to present engaging messages using data. You might be surprised to find out how much of data visualisation is about having an eye for design and the message you want to tell, rather than coding or mathematical skills.

Finally, if you are interested in using maths to solve scientific problems, we recommend having a look at The US Public Broadcasting Service’s The Great Math Mystery and BBC’s Uncharted podcastwith Hannah Fry.

Online taster course

Our Planet Earth: Understanding and Protecting our Environment course is two-week course, delivered via FutureLearn. You will discover the processes of the hydrosphere, the geosphere, and the biosphere and explore the impact of human activity and climate change on our planet.

Suggested books 

  • Bryson, B. (2004, or later editions) A Short History of Nearly Everything, Black Swan. “The title says it all: a tour of all the big questions that are important for understanding and managing our planet today. We touch on many of these issues throughout our curriculum, from understanding the geological processes that modify the world today, to mitigating climate change.”
  • Beerling, D. (2017) The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History, Oxford University Press. “This book provides a captivating account of how plants have driven changes in climate for millions of years. We actively research how the terrestrial biosphere modifies the rate of climate change today and teach these ideas in our courses on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling.”
  • Flannery, T. (2007) The Weather Makers: Our Changing Climate and what it means for Life on Earth, Penguin Books. “This book tells the dramatic story of how earth’s climate has changed in the past and the extraordinary methods and scientific techniques used to reconstruct past climate, and what this means for the future. Climate change is of high relevance to all, and the story told here of the Earth’s climatic changes through time and the theory of climate change forms an important part of our curriculum.”
  • DK (multiple authors) (2019) The Maths Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, DK. “This book provides an accessible journey through the history of maths and its uses and applications.”
  • Wignall, P.B. (2019) Extinction. A Very Short Introduction and Lenton, T. (2016) Earth system science: A Very Short Introduction, both published by Oxford University Press. “Accessible and comprehensive introductions to key topics within our BSc Geography and Geology curriculum.”
  • Scorse, J. (2010) What Environmentalists Need to Know about Economics, Palmgrave McMillan. “An easy to read, non-technical introduction to the economic roots of environmental problems, relevant to modules on sustainable management throughout our course.”

Research and innovation at the University 

Our research actively informs our teaching programme and you can follow these links to find out about our current research: 

Taster lecture

To give you a snapshot of what it is like to study with us our academics have put together a short taster lecture relevant to this undergraduate degree:

University resources 

The University of Leeds also offers many useful resources to help you transition to higher education learning.