Facilities & Resources

Students at the Geography and Environment Department at Boston University have access to a wide variety of facilities and laboratories. Many are limited to Geography and Environment undergraduate or graduate students, or those taking Geography and Environment courses; please see the specific lab administrator if you have any questions.

Research/Teaching Laboratories

Physical Geography Lab Location: STO 443 This lab contains lab and field equipment relating to climatology and physical geography; often used in conjunction with GG101 (Natural Environments: The Atmosphere ) lab sections.

Biogeography Lab Location: STO 441

The biogeography lab is equipped to measure biophysical characteristics of vegetation that are important in regulating exchanges of mass and energy between land surfaces and the atmosphere. In addition to bench space for lab-based experiments, the lab contains the following instrumentation: (1) Li-Cor 6400 gas exchange system for measuring fluxes of carbon and water from vegetation foliage, (2) Granier sap flow systems for estimating whole-tree and stand level water transport (sensors made in-house), (3) LAI-2000 Leaf Area Index meter for estimating canopy leaf area cover, (4) PMS Instruments model 600 pressure chamber for measuring leaf water potential, the driving force for water movement within plants, (5) canopy access scaffolding, (6) Campbell environmental data loggers, (7), Campbell CS615 soil moisture probes, (8), net radiation sensors, photosynthetically-active radiation sensors, and standard meteorological sensors (air temperature, relative humidity).

Computing Facilities

Center for Excellence in Remote Sensing (CERS) Computer Lab Location: Room CAS 456; Access: Via BU ID card only. Please contact the Mike Holmes in the Geography Main Office (457) to set up access. This lab contains 17 Sun Ray workstations, 2 Sun Fire 280R servers, and 8 Dell PCs.

Center for Remote Sensing Computer Facilities Access: Permission of CRS faculty or staff. The Center for Remote Sensing is associated with the Department of Geography and the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. The Center maintains a variety of computer facilities which includes equipment for image processing, coordinate digitizing, image display and analysis, image reproduction, and plotting.

Research Group Computing

Please note that many of our faculty have research groups which have computers and printers dedicated to their project(s). Use of these facilities is generally limited to those working on the specific research project but sometimes they can be used in a limited way by others. Please see the Principal Investigator of the research project for permission.

CAS Labs

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) maintains two computer labs. One lab can be used by all students, and the other can be used only when taking certain classes.

CAS 330 is a Mac & PC lab that all CAS/GRS students may use during posted free hours. Students sign up for accounts for this room. Please see http://cashelp.bu.edu for more info.

CAS 327 is a computer classroom of Silicon Graphics UNIX workstations. Students who are taking classes that meet in this room may use the facilities. Please see http://cashelp.bu.edu for more information.

BU Labs

Boston University offers the following facilities, open to the BU community:

Information Technology Public Terminal Cluster, 111 Cummington Street, basement Information Technology Mugar Library Public Terminal Cluster, 771 Commonwealth Avenue, 3rd Floor

University Resource Center (URC) Mac Lab, 1 University Road, Sargent Gym Building