Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 301152

Coordinator Val Spikmans Opens in new window

Description The subject is designed for professionals working in environmental regulatory authorities and laboratories at the federal, state or local level. This includes but is not limited to police jurisdictions, environmental protection agencies (EPAs), coastguards, park rangers, customs and quarantine officials. It is designed to give the environment law enforcement officer a background in the principles of contaminant analysis and transport in the environment with the ultimate aim of determining liability for pollution. The syllabus includes the main modes of contaminant transport in air, water and land, as well as an in-depth look at hydrocarbon fingerprinting.

School Science

Discipline Forensic Science

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 2 10cp

Level Postgraduate Coursework Level 7 subject

Restrictions

Students must be enrolled in 3741 Master of Forensic Science, 3742 Graduate Diploma in Forensic Science or 3743 Graduate Certificate in Forensic Science.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Communicate their knowledge, ideas and opinions in environmental forensics in appropriate written forms
2. Identify and analyse the main features of problems related to environmental forensics
3. Describe environmental systems and their forensic relevance with an international perspective
4. Describe and calculate the partitioning and speciation of chemicals in the environment
5. Interpret, analyse and evaluate contaminant transport models

Subject Content

1. Introduction
2. Toxicity
3. Identification of hydrocarbons
4. Fate of chemicals - partitioning
5. Fate of chemicals - biotransformations
6. Environmental transport models
7. Groundwater transport models
8. Atmospheric dispersion models