Applied and environmental geology

The aim of teaching in the follow-up master's program Applied and Environmental Geology is to provide a master's education in applied geological disciplines, i.e. to consolidate and deepen the education obtained in the bachelor's program, to familiarize with the detailed issues of applied geological disciplines, to develop practical skills including work from fieldwork to the preparation and management of practical company tasks to writing final reports. The program allows students to focus on economic geology, geotechnics, hydrogeology, and/or environmental geology, depending on their interests. The program primarily provides the qualification of a company geologist prepared for independent work in geological companies working in applied geological fields, such as the search for and exploration of mineral resources, the geological survey of construction sites, the nature of groundwater, and/or contamination of the rock environment. Second, the program also provides qualifications for administrative staff of administrative bodies and offices managing and controlling the work of companies (e.g., departments of construction, environment, mining office, etc.). The teaching in the program is done both in full-time and combined forms.

After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• explain the importance of mineral resources for society and analyze current trends in the use of raw materials, describe the main identification features of mineral resources, and know typical samples of mineral resources;
• define the main features of the genetic types of deposits, apply the methods of studying mineral resources and the main search methods, identify the features of the main deposit-forming processes, describe the economic criteria for the use of mineral
• assess the bearing capacity of the rock environment and the stability of the slopes, prepare the design and project of the engineering geological survey, carry out and organize the individual phases of the IG survey and its subsequent evaluation;
• orientate in the use and evaluation of geotechnical monitoring, apply engineering geological legal regulations;
• explain the issue of groundwater circulation and groundwater contamination, obtain, process, and analyze basic hydrogeological data, interpret the outputs of basic hydrogeological methods;
• create a groundwater flow model, design the groundwater supply system, including the design of the position of the wells and the pumped quantity, design the hydraulic protection system to remediate the contamination cloud;
• relate phenomena occurring at the interface of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere, define environmental risks, propose a suitable method of environmental risk assessment,
• analyze current scientific knowledge in the field of environmental geology, orient oneself in current legislation regarding environmental protection and waste management;
• search for the results of previous surveys, prepare a final report in applied geology, and publicly present and sufficiently explain the results of the solved task.

The graduates are expected to find employment especially in specialized geological companies, in institutes applying geological knowledge to practical needs (such as environmental departments etc.).

Students get practical training according to their choice of courses, one-week practical course is obligatory.

In the Mastr's thesis, the student demonstrates the ability to independently solve the problem of adequate difficulty, including work with literature, the processing and interpretation of the results and their presentation.

The student has the right to propose the topic of his/her thesis on the topics listed for the given study program or outside of this offer, if the supervisor agrees to do so and lists the proposed topic. Topics of the final thesis are approved by the director of the department.

The thesis includes literature thesis, i.e. a sufficiently good written summary of the current state of published knowledge about the topic on the basis of primary sources (i.e. scientific articles) including the list of cited literature.

The data used for the Master's thesis should be obtained by field or laboratory research, exceptionally can be taken over. The data must be creatively elaborated and interpreted in such a way that the Master's thesis brings new discovery.

The formal content of the Master's thesis is determined by the Dean's regulations. The extent of the core of the final thesis (i.e. the text and figures of the chapters between the Introduction to the Conclusions inclusive) must not exceed 50 pages. The minimum extent of work is not defined.

Graduates can pursue their studies in doctoral degree programmes.