About the Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences
The Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences at South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University is within the College of Natural Sciences. Our offices are located in Wecota Hall, the department has nine faculty, more than 20 graduate students and over 70 undergraduate majors.
Specialties
Physical Environment
Geographers in this area examine the drivers and processes that lead to physical changes to the Earth's land, air, water and patterns of life. Additionally, many geographers explore how humans interact with, change, manage the physical environment and develop better tools for better resource management.
Our geographers study subjects such as how societies change the landscape over time, the legacy of these changes to the physical environment, how climate change and land management impacts wetlands in the upper Midwest, how people positively and negatively influence soil health locally and internationally (e.g. South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, Kansas and Brazil), and what steps may be taken to integrate this knowledge into current environmental management programs to achieve sustainable systems.
Faculty
Geospatial Techniques
Geographers employ a number of techniques to collect, store, visualize and interpret geospatial data that range from conducting field surveys and mapping census data to analyzing satellite imagery. Geospatial data are increasingly stored on computers and available interactively through the internet. SDSU geographers use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), aerial and satellite remote sensing, data derived from Global Positioning Systems (GPS), digital mapping, statistical techniques and cartography to develop models and monitor Earth changes.
Faculty and students conduct research in land cover dynamics, GIS-based surface flow modeling, and advanced mapping/geovisualization techniques. Training and research expertise in these techniques are central to our Geographic Information Sciences (GISc) undergraduate major and minor programs and an optional focus area within our Graduate program.
Faculty
Rural and Urban Land Use Dynamics
Interpreting changes in both rural and urban landscapes bring together physical and human geographies to examine pre-historic, historic and contemporary processes of change to the Earth’s surface. Geographers examine the driving forces that cause land changes and evaluate the human and environmental consequences of those changes. Understanding the geography of land change provides a framework for land management and for predicting future changes.
Geographers in our department study the driving forces of land change in the United States, changing wetlands in the Upper Midwest, relationships between humans and soils (particularly prehistoric Amazonian soils) and urbanization in West Africa. These studies all stress how societies change the environment, adapt to changes in the environment and how thoughtful adaptations can lead to sustainable urban and rural communities.
Contact Us Form
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Department's History
Geography was one of the initial chairs established when South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University was founded in 1881. Geography courses were offered from time to time over the years, but no major development culminating in a formal program occurred until the 1966-1967 academic year.
In 1967, Edward P. Hogan joined the SDSU faculty. The geography major was established in 1967 and in 1968 a Department of History and Geography was formed. On July 1, 1973, a separate Department of Geography was established with professor Hogan as its head. A year later, in July of 1974, the South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã Board of Regents approved the offering of the Master of Science degree in geography. The B.S. in geographic information sciences was approved in 2001.
The Department of Geography is housed in Wecota Hall. Seven faculty members in residence and several adjunct appointees provide a broad range of training, interests, and instruction.
On March 2, 1970, 22 individuals chartered the Delta Zeta Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon, The International Geography Honorary Society, at SDSU. The chapter continues to be one of the most active in the country as is evidenced by its by students and faculty members of the 52nd Annual South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State Geography Convention, conducted in March 2021. The first convention was held in the spring of 1970. The convention has grown to become an event in which dozens of geographers, from many states and institutions and hundreds of SDSU students and townspeople enjoy professional communion.
