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King's College London

Environmental Science for Sustainability MSc

You are not required to study anything specific before September. However, if you want to get into the swing of things beforehand then the list below serves as an entry point for your forthcoming programme. Most of the journal articles suggested here are free to access, but you may find that others are hidden behind paywalls. If that's the case, you can often get hold of a free version of the article by looking up the author on ResearchGate or Academia.edu. And while academic books are often expensive to buy brand new, you can often find cheaper second-hand versions, or access them for free through libraries.

Suggested Reading / Listening / Viewing

  • Borie, M. and Hulme, M. (2015) Framing global biodiversity: IPBES Between Mother Earth and Ecosystem Services. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, pp.487-496

  • Brondizio, E.S., Settele, J., Diaz, S. and Ngo, H.T. (2019) Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES Secretariat: Bonn, Germany

  • Colglazier, W. (2015) Sustainable Development Agenda: 2030. Science, 349(6252), pp.1048-1050

  • Estoque, R.C. (2020) A Review of the Sustainability Concept and the State of SDG Monitoring Using Remote Sensing. Remote Sensing, 12(11), pp.1770

  • Haapio, A. and Viitaniemi, P. (2008) A critical review of building environmental assessment tools. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 28(7), pp.469-482

  • Keck, F. et al. (2025) The global human impact on biodiversity. Nature, 641, pp.395-400

  • McDonald, T.L. (2003) Review of Environmental Monitoring Methods: Survey Designs. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 85(3), pp.277-292

  • Pascual, U., Balvanera, P., Anderson, C.B. et al. (2023) Diverse values of nature for sustainability. Nature, 620, pp.813-823

  • Rockstrom, J. et al. (2009) Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Ecology and Society, 14(2)

  • Steffen, W. et al. (2015) Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet. Science, 347(6223)

  • UN (2015) Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations: New York