Geography Courses
An investigation of the historical development of geography, including its changing philosophies and prominent contributors. Students are also introduced to various approaches for conducting research in geography and must develop a written research proposal in an area of their interest.
A study of the physical landscapes in the southeastern United States. Emphasis is on the geological setting, geomorphic features, climate, soils, and vegetation, and the interrelationships of these conditions that shape the landscape in this region.
No description available.
No description available.
Investigation of the theories, tools, and techniques used in historical ecology with a focus on the establishment of reference conditions for habitat restoration and management decisions.
This course is devoted to the changing geography of the national park system and related protected areas throughout the world, with an emphasis on their design, planning, and operations.
To provide a basic understanding of the waters of Earth, especially with relation to the effects of precipitation and evaporation upon the occurence and character of water in streams, lakes and on or below the land surface.
Applied Climatology is a graduate/senior level course designed to expand upon fundamental concepts learned in GY 101 and also GY 402 (Climatology). Within this broad field, a specific focus in GY 513 concentrates upon climate and human health/behavior, and human modification of climate. The course contains a mixture of lecture, lab, and field assignments.
This course is an introduction to the effect of global climate change on health. The course will be taught from a geographical perspective and will introduce students to the physical science of climate change and the impact it has on health through discussion of extreme weather events, altered ecological systems, and threats to human security and welfare. Discussion will build on the core concepts of climate change science to provide students with a solid foundation to further examine a variety of topics from acute impacts such as heat waves and other weather extremes to chronic conditions such as shifting disease vector habitats, degraded air quality, and food security. Direct correlations between health impacts and climate change will be emphasized throughout as will discussion of mitigation and adaptation strategies.
This course is an introduction to geostatistical data analysis using R. The course will be taught from the perspective of geographical and climate data analysis but serves as a broad introduction to the high-level programming language, R, as well as applied spatial data analysis. Students will load and manipulate data of different types, perform a variety of statistical analyses, generate graphical output, and create productive workflows using R alone. The primary outcome will be to facilitate students’ use of R to analyze data of their own choosing on a final project. Students will present these methods to the class for others to critique, analyze and learn from. Code sharing and re-use is highly emphasized, as is collaboration. The course is designed as a 1-hour lecture plus 2-hour lab each week.
EW&S is an integrated physical and social science (W) seminar class consisting of readings, discussion, and lectures on perception, understanding, and communication of severe weather hazards.
This course presents a comprehensive overview of the geographic sub-disciplines of Spatial Statistics and Geostatistics. Students will learn about the nature of spatial data, and the methods of centrography, point pattern analysis, spatial interpolation, spatial autocorrelation, density mapping and estimation, spatial regression, and both spatio-temporal and network based spatial statistical analyses. Students will learn the limitations of the methods, their proper use, and how to accurately describe their outputs.
Focuses on basic principles behind remote sensing physics, techniques, and technology and introduces new sensor systems and digital image processing. Major topics include electromagnetic radiation principles, airborne remote sensing, microwave remote sensing, satellite remote sensing, and digital image processing.
This course introduces several quantitative methods used by geographers to analyze and interpret geographic data and solve geographic problems. Topics include: Data formatting and organization, descriptive statistics, sampling, hypothesis formulation and testing, and parametric and non-parametric statistical procedures through factor analysis.
This course is a hands-on, practical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) introduction. GIS is a computer-based system used for gathering, analyzing, and displaying geographic information. GIS enables users to integrate multiple spatial data sources, perform complex geographic analysis and present the results in digital and paper map. This technology has a wide range of applications for research, businesses and governments. Tailored toward first-time users, this course will focus on learning how to use the ArcGIS software package to import, generate, display and analyze spatial data.
Introduces the basic concepts of GIS, including definition and components of GIS, spatial data structures, data sources, data input, manipulation and analysis, applications of GIS, and managing GIS.
No description available.
Individual work experience in GIS supervised by the staff of an off-campus agency.
Focuses on the quantitative analysis of non-photographic remote sensor data, providing students with hands-on experience using a digital image processing software package. Topics include preprocessing, image enhancement, classification, digital change detection, and remote sensing and GIS.
Focuses on the analytical use of spatial information as well as GIS applications. Topics include spatial aspects of geographic information, attribute data structure, error and uncertainty, spatial analysis theories, GIS modeling, and GIS design.
The application of Geographic Information Systems to transportation has resulted in a sub-field known as GIS-T. This course will provide a hands-on introduction to GIS-T.
This course focuses on the extension of geographic information systems (GIS) through programming as well as on the development of stand-alone algorithms for spatial analysis and numerical modeling.
The course explores the legal standards by which land is regulated and controlled in the U.S. It is designed for students who wish to become actively involved or exposed to land management and the planning profession.
Environmental problems are social problems, and social problems are environmental problems. This truism is becoming increasingly apparent with the convergence of several grand challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, widening socioeconomic inequality, and meeting the growing food demands of a global population expected to top 9 billion by 2050. Moreover, possible solutions to these problems often present unavoidable social value tradeoffs that are difficult to judge objectively, and the complexity of social and ecological systems make unintended consequences nearly impossible to foresee. In other words, social-ecological problem are “wicked problems”.
This course presents the theory and practice of Location Science – the study of the optimal or near optimal spatial location and allocation of facilities, routes, personnel, or other assets. A variety of optimal procedures for location problems is presented, including minimum spanning tree, shortest path, maximal flow, and transportation problem algorithms. The Simplex method as applied to location problems is outlined and demonstrated. Heuristic approaches to location problems including greedy heuristics and Tabu search heuristics are reviewed. The peer-reviewed literature in location science is explored.
This course examines the geographical elements of how people use the biophysical environment to grow domesticated plants (crops). Agriculture is understood in this course as the transformation of biophysical or “natural” environments into "cultural" environments. It is assessed in regard to both the plants cultivated, and the soil, slope, moisture, and temperature conditions that exist and then are modified or created by farmers. Ecological and systematic approaches are taken in order to understand how different agricultural strategies insure continual long-term productivity and stability. Microeconomics is an important and recurring theme.
Global Environmental Change focuses on the major issues of global change, including anthropogenic climate change, land use and land cover change, biodiversity issues, environmental pollution, potential global change-related impacts on human health, and relevant social policies. The class will follow a quasi-seminar format where individual presentations and group discussion will comprise a large portion of the in-class activity. Each week students will do research on and/or read assigned articles and additional articles of your own selection on relevant subjects. Instructor will provide a summary of the weekly topic and as a class, students will discuss issues raised in the research and readings.
Designed to help students develop both the tools and the personal philosophy necessary to analyze and manage scarce resources. A review of current environmental topics is followed by a survey of different paradigms and techniques that contribute to environmental decision making.
Explores the linkages between the biophysical environmental and human social systems. Public-policy implications are viewed from a social science perspective.
A thorough examination of the literature in economics, political science, and sociology that is relevant to the geographical study of contemporary urban structure, power, and conflict.
The primary objective of this course is to introduce students to the essential characteristics and basic processes of inquiry and analysis in the area of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. Specifically, the WEF nexus will be considered in relation and its application to human concerns, such as emerging supply and demand issues and their impacts of social and economic systems, ecological health, and human well-being. This course will encourage the development of critical thinking skills and requires students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate knowledge about core WEF concepts.
Political ecology is a multidisciplinary approach to studying the environment through interrogating how power shapes and intersects with human-environment relationships. As a field of inquiry and practice, political ecology has greatly expanded over the past several decades to not just understand the political foundations of environmental problems or challenges, but also the co-production of environments with close attention to matters of justice, power, and inequality. Political ecology contends that through critical analysis and interdisciplinary methodologies, we can come to better understand the roots of socio-environmental problems in order to work for political change and social good.
This course explores the interactions between land use, land cover, and social and environmental processes at multiple scales. The emphasis is on understanding how the natural landscape influences human activities, how humans modify the natural landscape to meet our needs, and how those modifications create a co-evolution between landscapes and human use. Understanding how land uses are, or should be, allocated to achieve multiple goals, including food and fiber production, space for human settlement, provision of ecosystem services, and access to renewable energy sources, requires consideration of these multiple objectives and of the various factors driving land-use decisions at multiple scales.
Examines location and function of the multimodal North American transportation system, the urban transport planning process, and the political and environmental contexts of transport systems, including impacts of continued reliance on the automobile.
No description available.
Introduction to the scientific study of soils. Covers soil physical properties, morphology, development, classification, environmental functions and uses, and resource degradation.
This course will evaluate the current approaches to policy theory and examine systematically the broader implications of the substantive aspects of public policy development in the water resources spectrum. In analysis of public policy development in water resources, the student will look at both policy process and policy substance. Attention will be given to the questions of how and why water policy differs across states, and how one might evaluate policy performance cross-nationally.
Individual work experience in cartography supervised by the faculty and staff of the University.
Individual work experience in GIS supervised by the faculty and staff of the University.
The Water Resources Management, Law, and Policy course will provide students with a survey of water resources development, control, law, policy and management with particular emphasis on public policy considerations including: the acquisition and exercise of water rights—appropriative and riparian; groundwater management; water districts and user organizations; environmental considerations; Federal/State relations including interstate allocation; and the Alabama Water Resources Act. The course will also address international water law—the multinational treaties, laws, cases, practices and politics governing Earth’s transboundary freshwater resources (watercourses including rivers, streams, lakes, and groundwater aquifers) shared by two or more countries.
Individual work experience in planning supervised by the staff of an off-campus planning agency.
The course will focus on the linkages between water resources policy and conflict or cooperation with primary interest on interstate (transboundary) and intrastate water issues. The conceptual framework of the course is centered on water scarcity, water conflict, hydropolicy, hydrohegemony, water security, and dispute resolution. The role of disparate stakeholders and the problem of scale will be considered. The policy, norms and laws for mediating water conflict at different jurisdictional levels, including adversarial legalism (lawsuits) are examined.
Rivers are dynamic natural systems that are of great importance to ecosystems and society. This course examines river hydrology processes from a physical geography perspective. A major theme of the course will be impacts of human actions on river systems.
This course covers concepts, numerical algorithms, and techniques for digital terrain and watershed analysis. It combines lectures with a substantial practical lab component. The lectures covers spatial representation of topography, topographical data acquisition techniques (Photogrammetric Stereo, InSAR, LiDAR, GPS, cartography), terrain visualization, terrain parameter derivation, extraction of critical terrain features, landform recognition and classification, viewshed analysis, cut-and-fill and volumetric analysis, drainage network extraction, watershed delineation, and distributed watershed models. The practical component, involving 8 lab assignments and one individual mini-project, will give students hands-on experience in using proprietary GIS software packages, ArcGIS, EPA BASINS 4.0 and HSPF 12.0 to handle topographic and image data for terrain and watershed analysis.
A study of the relationship of trees to the environment, and the interrelationship of organisms that compose the forest community.
Individual work experience with agency involved in geographical research, analysis, and reporting.
This course provides an in-depth investigation of the processes that form rivers and their evolution.
In this course silviculture is treated as applied forest ecology. The goal of this course is to provide students with a knowledge of silviculture and its ecological basis so they can design manipulations in forest ecosystems to achieve a range of management objectives. The course requires field trips to tour different sites and visit with forest scientists and managers. In this course students learn about tree growth and stand development and use this information to develop silvicultural prescriptions to meet a diverse range of management goals. We will explore how silvicultural treatments can influence stand structure and composition and how these changes influence timber quantity and quality, forest health, biodiversity, soil, and wildlife habitat among other features. We will also focus on how silviculture is influenced by broader social, economic, and ecological issues.
No description available.
This independent research course partially fulfills required master’s-level research thesis hours toward the master’s degree in Geography. The course is conducted under the guidance of the thesis advisor. Material covered will be of an advanced nature aimed at providing master's students with an understanding of the latest research and current developments within the field. Discussion and advisor guidance will be directed towards readings of research articles and development of research methodology, with the aim of producing an original research contribution that represents a novel development in the field, or a novel perspective on a pre-existing topic in the field.
This course is a doctoral level research intensive seminar in the geographic sub-field of climatology. The course will be taught by faculty with varied expertise within climatology and will, therefore, be dynamic in its topical focus from semester to semester. Content will broadly fall within hydro-climatology, synoptic climatology, climatological extremes, bio-climatology, and historical or paleo-climatology. The material covered will be of an advanced nature aimed at providing doctoral students with an understanding of the latest research and current developments within the field. Discussion will be directed towards readings of research articles and development of research methodology with the aim of producing an original research product that could be submitted in a scholarly journal for publication.
This is a reading and discussion intensive graduate seminar course. Each week you will be expected to come to class prepared to critically discuss the readings and other assignments. We will cover a diversity of topics in forest science and management and some additional reading may be necessary for you to be fully prepared to engage in class discussion. Our seminar time will be devoted to discussion of topics selected by individual students and the instructor. Students are encouraged to select a topic related to their research, but this is not a requirement. Throughout the semester we will also discuss the philosophy of science, the rubrics of scientific evaluation, the publication process, and other topics to aide in your training as a research scientist.
This is a reading and discussion intensive graduate seminar course. Each week, students will be expected to come to class prepared to critically discuss the readings and other assignments. A diversity of topics will be covered in human-environmental interactions in geography and some additional reading may be necessary for students to be fully prepared to engage in class discussion. Seminar time will be devoted to discussion of topics selected by individual students and the instructor. Throughout the semester there will be discussion of the philosophy of science, the rubrics of scientific evaluation, the publication process, and other topics to aide in student training as a research scientist.
Geographic Information Sciences (GISci) include a range of spatial technologies, including Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, computer modeling, GPS, and cartography. This seminar will examine contemporary issues in GISci through readings and group discussion.
Geomorphology is the study of earth surface processes and landforms, including quantitative analyses of how and why landscapes change over space and time. In this seminar students will examine how and why geomorphic systems function and change in response to climatic and tectonic forcing and human activities through readings and group discussions.
This independent research course partially fulfills required doctoral level research dissertation hours toward the Ph.D. in Geography. A total of 24 dissertation hours are required. The course is conducted under the guidance of the Ph.D. advisor. The student repeats hours in this course at least until the dissertation requirements have been satisfactorily completed. Material covered will be of an advanced nature aimed at providing doctoral students with an understanding of the latest research and current developments within the field. Discussion and advisor guidance will be directed towards readings of research articles and development of research methodology with the aim of producing an original scientific contribution that represents a novel development in the field or a novel twist on a pre-existing topic in the field.