Beginning in 2007 a new Department of Geography and the Environment will be established

The field of geography has been invigorated by dramatic technological improvements in geographic information systems, aircraft-based and satellite-based remote sensing, and predictive modeling. Increasingly, these tools are being applied to resolve many issues, including urban and suburban planning, assessment of natural disasters, plant and animal invasions and declines, and climate change, to name a few. Humans interact with the biological, chemical, and physical attributes of their surrounding environment in ways that dovetail with sociological, economic, and political drivers.

These interactions, and their sometimes subtle feedbacks, can be explored through traditional descriptive observation and manipulative experimentation, and by mathematically based models that help us not only to characterize the past, but also to predict the future. Understanding the complex interactions between humans and their environment requires an interdisciplinary perspective, which the new department will embody. A Department of Geography and the Environment will constitute an administrative unit that offers undergraduate degrees in emerging and growing fields. By its nature, this new Department through its degree programs will be unique within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in that it will truly bridge and effectively integrate the social sciences and the natural/physical sciences in ways that embrace the liberal arts tradition of the College and of the University.