Master in Environmental Management and Audits

Solid waste is currently one of the most pressing challenges in environmental conservation, due to the unprecedented levels that complicate its collection and disposal. Given this context, waste cannot be carelessly discharged, buried, or dumped into the sea or rivers.

The waste problem must now be addressed using channels that ensure proper treatment and preserve the surrounding natural environment.

From a highly practical approach, this module covers the most relevant topics related to waste management, offering current and practical examples, with a special emphasis on all preventive and corrective techniques aimed at reducing pollution and environmental impact.

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Currently, the large-scale use of fossil and nuclear fuels constitutes one of the principal features of what is known as an industrialized society.

The environmental impact caused by the manipulation and transformation of conventional energy sources has created a new and different framework, beginning with the 1973 oil crisis. Specific problems—including global warming, the ozone hole, acid rain, desertification, and the storage of radioactive waste—have all raised awareness across industrialized societies.

In this regard, governments are issuing and enacting increasingly restrictive environmental laws in the energy sector. This trend suggests that renewable energies will play a leading role as the solution for driving the 21st century toward sustainable development.

From a practical approach, this module is essential for learning about today’s main sustainable technologies and their application in successfully addressing the energy crisis challenges of the new century.

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Environmental figures for natural spaces may assume an important role in the coming years as experimental models for sustainable development. Natural areas tend to gravitate towards possibilities in diversification by offering leisure and economic development activities, besides the more classic conservationist functions.

From a practical approach, this module focuses on studying the conservation and resource management of natural areas, emphasizing effective spatial planning and sustainable development.

Regarding conservation, this module addresses diversity at the genetic, species, and community levels, emphasizing the most effective modern methods for ensuring their long-term survival. On the topic of management, the intervention of different types of spaces, both terrestrial and marine, as well as the interaction between urban and natural environments, are approached holistically.

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Education plays a vital role in humanity’s social and economic network, making it essential for creating strategies needed to solve environmental problems.

Incorporating an environmental dimension in educational programs requires effort to transform the system, a process that is not without obstacles. Academic, educational, and practical commitment to review educational development and alternative approaches is needed.

From a highly practical approach, this module addresses environmental education to enable teachers to incorporate environmental content into basic education, viewing it as a process that contributes to the holistic development of human beings.

This program is part of an ambitious plan to train professionals capable of designing, promoting, and managing environmental education for sustainable development across various fields of social activity—from the global to the local level. The course structure addresses four key areas: conceptual and philosophical foundations, environmental education for sustainability, environmental management for sustainable development, and national and local case experiences.

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This module is designed for graduates with previous studies or knowledge on marine sciences who wish to enhance their career prospects and expand their knowledge.

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Currently, there are numerous industries that produce waste with high concentrations of heavy metals that can affect the aquatic environment. The accumulation of heavy metals in marine sediments causes invertebrates and other organisms to enter the food chain, initiating the bioaccumulation of metals, such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, among others.

From a highly practical approach, this module presents a comprehensive analysis of the main pollution problems affecting marine spaces. Regarding physical pollution, the module discusses topics related to existing theories and models on the spread and dilution of effluents into rivers and seas. The discussion of chemical pollution provides an overview of all major contaminants, including hydrocarbons, pesticides, heavy metals, organic matter, etc. Finally, the module addresses biological contamination by studying the assessment and analysis of major pathogens that pose a threat to the environment.

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Air pollution is an unwanted by-product generated by factories through industrial processes. Equipment, facilities, and management have been devoted to the prevention, or at least control, of pollution.

The medium directly affected is the atmosphere, a gaseous layer just a few dozen kilometers thick surrounding the Earth. Its apparent limited magnitude can lead to the misconception that atmospheric issues are less significant than those impacting the aquatic or lithological environment.

From a highly practical approach, this module addresses this issue and proposes control and reduction strategies based on pollution at source, apart from treatment and correction solutions that, in most cases, result in the transfer of pollutants from one physical medium to another.

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Today’s fast-paced life has led to an increase in waste generation, the disposal of which poses a serious environmental problem. However, exploiting the organic fraction’s combustible qualities does not just eliminate a large part of the waste; it also allows for energy recovery by harnessing the potential contained within it.

Today’s fast-paced life has led to an increase in waste generation, the disposal of which poses a serious environmental problem. However, exploiting the organic fraction’s combustible qualities does not just eliminate a large part of the waste; it also allows for energy recovery by harnessing the potential contained within it.

From a highly practical approach, this module raises this issue and objectively analyzes its solution. The systematized strategies of recovery, reuse, and recycling are prioritized over more corrective solutions, such as incineration or controlled landfills.

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Of the three basic elements that comprise the environment—water, soil, and air—water is related to 60% of current environmental issues, which explains its importance to life and to sustainable development.

As urbanization, population growth, and raising standards accelerate, water supply problems have worsened, leading to confrontations between agriculture, urban supply, and industry.

From a highly practical approach, this module proposes measures to improve industrial water management (textile, paper, and food industries, etc.) through water conservation and better use of existing resources.

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There is a clear correlation between the per capita income of a country and its produced waste. The "throwaway" culture of Western industrial and post-industrial societies has resulted in nations, such as Spain, where each inhabitant generates an average of 20 kg of waste per day.

The volume of waste produced has become one of the most pressing environmental conservation issues, particularly because of the challenge in collecting and disposing of solid waste. Today, the solution to waste must focus on establishing channels that include proper treatment to preserve the natural environment and human habitat. This necessary action comes at a high cost.

From a highly practical approach, this module analyzes the factors that affect the rates of residue produced and proposes sequential solutions that include reduction at the source, reusing and/or recycling techniques, treatment, and, as a last recourse, discarding in controlled landfills.

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Soil contamination is defined as soil containing substances at concentrations higher than normal, posing a risk to the ecosystem and/or human health.

Social is especially important, as it is a complex reactor capable of filtration, decomposition, neutralization, inactivation, and storage, among other functions. That is why it acts as a protective barrier for other more sensitive systems, namely hydrological and biological.

Soil degradation occurs due to a variety of factors (chemical, physical, or biological). Given this context, planning a recovery plan is a fundamental element in the investigation of potentially contaminated sites.

From a highly practical approach, this module provides the tools to conduct an environmental study and, through sampling and analysis, develop a risk map to establish corrective measures or draft a site recovery plan.

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Most of the raw materials currently used come from the subsoil. These are of great importance in today's economy, so much so that many countries base their economic development on the resources they possess.

At the beginning of the last century, the growth of mining activity, unhindered by environmental protection regulations, led to indiscriminate exploitation, unmindful of the depletion of existing resources, leading to current levels of contamination nearly impossible to eliminate.

From a highly practical approach, this module analyzes the problems caused by a lack of environmental awareness in mining activity and proposes sustainable solutions that use existing regulations as the basis for all environmental policies.

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The 1992 signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change marked the beginning of a series of initiatives aimed at curbing the lack of concern that had existed until then about emissions of certain gases into the atmosphere, mainly carbon dioxide and methane, which cause global warming.

Later, with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and its subsequent entry into force, the final push was given to the inclusion, with varying degrees of success, of the phenomenon in the governmental agendas of developed countries, in private investment, and, ultimately, in the daily life and perception of civil society.

However, regardless of particular interests, there is still a great deal of unfamiliarity about the mechanisms of climate change and its impact on biodiversity, production systems, and the population in general, hence the need for qualified personnel to carry out actions and make decisions in the fight against global warming.

This module responds to the need to train critical professionals in different sectors, who can find alternatives and take advantage of the business opportunities arising from this phenomenon to formulate adaptation and mitigation plans in research, development, and innovation projects.

For this reason, it is considered essential to prepare students with a prior environmental background that allows them to understand the basic issues of climate change and, thus, after studying the second part, achieve a comprehensive view of the problem at the environmental, sociopolitical, and economic levels.

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This module is designed for graduates with previous environmental studies seeking specialized learning in environmental engineering to enhance their job prospects and deepen their knowledge.

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