Environment, Sustainability and Planning Research
The decisions that we make every day affect the quality of our world. Classes in environment, sustainability, and planning will help students to understand and to think critically about the developed and natural world and strategies for balancing environmental quality, economic development, and social equity.
Students of these sub-fields are concerned with a diverse array of questions, such as:
- How will climate change impact the future of our natural and built environments?
- How can we design and retrofit cities to be efficient, affordable, equitable, and environmentally sustainable?
- How can communities develop in a way that respects and supports the natural environment?
Geography classes in environment, sustainability, and planning can help students to explore a wide range of interests, from "smart cities" that use cutting-edge technology to enhance energy efficiency, to rural areas that engage in community-based management of limited water resources.
What students of these areas have in common is an intense interest in the world around them and a desire to understand and balance the needs of humans and nature.
Our Faculty Researchers
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Geoffrey L. Buckley--Environmental justice
--Historical geography
--Public lands
--Urban sustainability -
James M. Dyer--Biogeography
--Landscape ecology
--Forest dynamics -
Ryan Fogt--Polar meteorology and climatology
--Climate variability and change
--Stratosphere - troposphere interactions -
Yeong-Hyun Kim--Globalization
--Economic geography
--Urban geography
--Asia -
Harold Perkins--Political ecology and economy of environments, including topics of neoliberalization, the state, governance, environmental justice, and the agency of nonhuman organisms
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Dorothy Sack--Physical geography
--Geomorphology
--Quaternary studies
--Paleolakes
--Arid lands
--History of geomorphology -
Thomas Smucker--Environment and development
--Rural livelihood systems
--Food systems and food security
--Adaptation to climate change
--Environmental governance
--African drylands -
E. Edna Wangui--Gender
--Rural livelihoods and landscape change in East Africa