Geography researchers in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences are on the forefront of understanding the Earth's environments, landscapes, people and places. Faculty use a range of geospatial methods and tools to examine water, climate and society; hazards and resources; and human-environment relations with an international perspective aimed at enhancing global awareness.
Learn more about our geography research.
Geography and Geospatial Science Research Focus Area
Geography faculty in this area use integrated methods to study surface water processes, climatology, biogeography, water policy and water management. Research topics extend from impacts of forest management practices on water scarcity, to how climate change affects snowpack and seasonality of precipitation, to water conflict resolution in shared basins around the world.
Affiliated faculty: Lynette de Silva, Erica Fleishman, Hannah Gosnell, Julia Jones, Mark Raleigh, Mary Santelmann, Aaron Wolf, and David Wrathall
Faculty in this area use GIS, cartography, remote sensing, geovisualization, geospatial intelligence, spatial statistics and web mapping to examine a variety of environmental, social and cultural dimensions of our landscapes. Research threads include mapping settlements of people displaced by disaster and conflict, assessing forestry and land-cover changes over time, predicting illegal activities at sea, and examining hydrology in snow-influenced watersheds using remote sensing.
Affiliated faculty: Julia Jones, Robert Kennedy, Mark Raleigh, Jamon Van Den Hoek, and James Watson
Geography faculty who study natural resources, planning and hazards link physical processes with factors such as social vulnerability and resource management. Research streams — many of which have a strong regional focus — include topics such as rural geography, marine geography, coastal vulnerability, land use and livelihood changes, conflict ecology and human dimensions of global change.
Affiliated faculty: Larry Becker, Erica Fleishman, Hannah Gosnell, Michael Harte, Robert Kennedy, Jenna Tilt, Jamon Van Den Hoek, and James Watson