Research
Intellectual foci in Geography and Environment integrate the Earth’s physical and human dimensions using quantitative methods and interdisciplinary models of research. Over the next several decades, geographical and environmental sciences will play an important role in determining how society tackles the increasingly complex challenges that confront us. From global warming to energy systems, and from deforestation to global biogeochemistry, the interface between human systems and the natural environment provides the focus of our research in the 21st Century.
Faculty in the Department of Geography and Environment are providing international leadership in a wide array of highly topical subject areas. Many of our faculty are active members of several different research centers at Boston University. The department was recently ranked third in the country by a study published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and faculty members hold influential positions on numerous editorial boards (including Remote Sensing of Environment, Ecological Applications, Ecological Economics, Energy Policy, the Encyclopedia of Earth, among others), and international science teams (including the Landsat Science Team, the Transportation Research Board, the MODIS Science Team, NPP Science Team and Global Observations of Forest Cover and Land Cover Change). Research in the department is strongly aligned with activities in our three research centers: The Center for Remote Sensing and the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. The department also works closely with the Frderick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.
Graduate training and research in the Department emphasizes four main areas:
- Remote sensing and Geospatial Technologies
- Energy and Environmental Policy
- Physical Geography, including Hydrology, Biophysical Ecology, & Climate
Each of these areas encompass theoretical and applied research topics that are of critical importance to society. As we move into the 21st Century, the Department of Geography and Environment at Boston University is poised to provide a leadership role in tackling the very difficult environmental questions that will confront society in the coming decades.
Despite recent downturns in federal fudning, the research program in the Geography and Environment Department continues to thrive, with over 40 active grants totaling three million dollars in FY07, and approximately $11 million in committed funds over the next 5 years. Remote sensing-related research grants and contracts from NASA continue to provide a majority of this funding, but substantial awards were also received by faculty from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, among others.
