Geography (GEOG)

Program Overview

Geography (GEOG)

Course Fees

Some courses may carry fees beyond the standard tuition costs to cover additional support or materials. Program-, subject- and course-specific fee information can be found on the Office of the Bursar website.

Courses

• GEOG 500. Globalization Seminar
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 300 or permission of instructor
  • Description: A discussion-based course that focuses on current events, global economies, and cultural and environmental issues resulting from globalization.
• GEOG 510. Urbanism in the Global South: Cities and Space
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Description: This course is a reading-based seminar. We learn about processes and practices within the Latin American and African city from a spatial, cultural, economic and political perspective.
  • Note: Cross-listed with LALS 510 and URBS 687.
• GEOG 520. Geography and Nutrition Among African and African-American Populations
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
  • Description: Comparison of geographical conditions, food culture, technology and socioeconomic factors among Africans and African-Americans affecting health and nutrition.
  • Note: Previously cross-listed with PAS 560.
• GEOG 521. Medical Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Faculty consent
  • Description: Introduction to concepts, methods and tools used to investigate geographic aspects of health and disease. Application of concepts and methods through analysis of health, population and environmental data.
• GEOG 522. GIS and Public Health
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
  • Description: Application of tools and methods of analysis in geographic information systems (GIS) to public health. Use of ArcGIS software to manage and analyze health, census and spatial data.
• GEOG 524. Food and Race
  • 3 Units
  • Description: This course will serve as a critical analysis of the intersection between race and food/agriculture. Topics covered include: 1) production, preparation and consumption patterns; 2) food production during slavery and sharecropping; 3) modern day agricultural labor; 4) food and health; 5) food and borders; and 6) food and national identity.
  • Note: Cross-listed with PAS 605.
• GEOG 525. Measuring Sustainability: Our Human Planet
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Spring Odd Years
  • Description: This course will facilitate student understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in a spatially-explicit manner by introducing how Earth Observation data is being used to monitor and measure the SDG indicators.
• GEOG 528. Planning, History and Issues
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 328
  • Description: The history of planning and contemporary issues with an emphasis on role of planning, zoning and law.
• GEOG 529. Geography of Urban Issues
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 328, GEOG 558 or comparable Urban Geography and GIS course
  • Description: Advanced urban geography course with unique geographic perspective for integration of socioeconomic problems in America's metropolitan areas.
• GEOG 530. Transportation Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 200 or consent of instructor
  • Description: An analysis of distribution and transportation systems as functional entities capable of introducing and reacting to change within the economic region.
• GEOG 531. GIS & Urban Demographic Analysis
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Fall Only
  • Prerequisite(s): GIS knowledge or concurrent tutorial
  • Description: Demographic analysis through the use of GIS technology. Emphasis placed on metropolitan area characteristics including population change, segregation, ethnic settlement, social and economic stratification and commuting.
• GEOG 535. GIS and Retail Site Analysis
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Fall Only
  • Prerequisite(s): GIS knowledge or concurrent tutorial
  • Description: Retail site analysis through use of GIS technology. Emphasis placed on market demand and supply characteristics. Physical site analysis, demographics, and competitive environment will be examined.
• GEOG 536. Sustainable Transportation
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 200 or permission of instructor
  • Description: The course looks into the problems of developing sustainable transportation systems. We will examine the environmental and human problems associated with transportation; including climate change, air quality, consumption of non-renewable resources, safety, congestion and social equity. We will also explore possible solutions to these problems, including pricing, planning, policy, technology and education.
• GEOG 540. Geography and Human-Environment Interactions
  • 3 Units
  • Description: The study of interactions between humans and the environment is inherently interdisciplinary and multi-scaler, two of the hallmarks of contemporary geographic research. Students taking this course will be exposed to the theoretical underpinnings of both social and ecological aspects of research. Through in-class discussions of both seminal and contemporary peer-reviewed literature, students will be expected to engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of how studies of human-environment interactions have evolved from disciplinary roots into the large, complex and transdisciplinary projects commonly funded today and expected in the future.
• GEOG 545. Unoccupied Aerial Systems and Geospatial Applications
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Spring Odd Years
  • Description: This course introduces unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology, application and the underlying principles of remote sensing and photogrammetry that inform the utilization of UAS data in geographical/environmental research.
• GEOG 548. Special Topics in Urban Analysis Applications in GIS
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 357 or GEOG 558
  • Description: Introduction to the application of GIS by local governments, non-profit agencies and other urban-related groups.
  • Note: May be repeated if topics vary.
• GEOG 549. Special Topics in Environmental Analysis Applications in GIS
  • 3 Units
  • Description: Introduction to the application of GIS to environmental problem solving.
  • Note: May be repeated if topics vary.
• GEOG 555. Remote Sensing
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Fall Only
  • Fee: An additional $80.00 is charged for this course
  • Description: This course provides an introduction to the theory and application of remote sensing data with weekly lab reports for hands-on-experience in the acquisition and utilization of remotely-sensed data in geographical/environmental research. This course prepares for GEOG 556. Prior completion of GEOS 200, GEOS 350, or GEOS 301, or PHYS 111 or equivalent is recommended, but not required.
• GEOG 556. Advanced Remote Sensing
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 555 or consent of instructor
  • Fee: An additional $80.00 is charged for this course
  • Description: Application of advanced techniques involved in the collection of digital imagery data from aircraft and spacecraft instruments.
• GEOG 558. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
  • Description: Introduction to geographic information systems using ArcGIS software, management of relational databases, and manipulation and graphical output of digital geo-spatial data.
  • Note: May not be taken for credit if credit has been earned in GEOG 357 or GEOG 557.
• GEOG 559. Advanced Geographic Information Systems
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 558
  • Description: Application of advanced GIS concepts to real-world projects. An emphasis will be placed on the development of a digital spatial database.
  • Note: Graduate students must arrange for an additional project for graduate credit.
• GEOG 561. Urban Environmental Quality
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
  • Description: A study of environmental aspects of urban areas and analysis of inter- and intra-city variations in environmental quality.
• GEOG 583. Spatial and Non-Spatial Database Management
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Occasionally Offered
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 357 or GEOG 558
  • Description: Provides students with "hands-on" experience in development, management and integration of spatial and non-spatial databases, using GIS and database management software.
• GEOG 590. Special Topics
  • 3 Units
  • Description: Investigation of topics not offered in regular courses. Topic will be announced in Schedule of Courses.
  • Note: Offered as needed.
  • Note: May be repeated for different topics up to a limit of 12 hours.
• GEOG 599. Directed Readings in Geography
  • 1-4 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Advanced courses in geography or related fields; permission of major department
  • Description: Supervised readings centered around a specific region or topical field for advanced work.
• GEOG 600. History and Philosophy of Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Description: An explanation of the history of geographic thought and the paradigms that have shaped geography since the late nineteenth century.
• GEOG 620. Geography & Nutrition Among African and African-American Populations
  • 3 Units
  • Description: An in-depth examination of the nutritional status of Africans, African Americans and persons of African descent. The course will focus on comparison of epidemiological transition, political economy of nutrition, politics of food welfare programs, food aid, over-nutrition (obesity), under-nutrition and dietary-related diseases among African Americans, Africans and persons including blacks in the Diaspora.
  • Note: Cross-listed with PAS 660.
• GEOG 628. Planning History and Issues
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
  • Description: The history of planning and contemporary issues with a special emphasis on the role of planners, zoning and law.
• GEOG 631. Urban Demography
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing
  • Description: Spatial analysis of the distribution, characteristics, growth, and change of the population of a metropolitan area.
• GEOG 635. Real Estate Market Analysis
  • 3 Units
  • Term Typically Offered: Fall Only
  • Prerequisite(s): URBS 602 or approval of instructor
  • Description: Covers concepts, methodologies and analytical tools used in urban real estate market analysis, with a particular emphasis on site selection using GIS applications.
  • Note: Cross-listed with URBS 613.
• GEOG 640. Approaches & Methods in Applied Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Description: Examination of concepts and methods used by applied geographers.
• GEOG 641. Research Design and Proposal Development in Applied Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): GEOG 600, GEOG 656, GEOG 660
  • Description: Provides students with the background needed to design a research study and develop a research proposal and culminates in development of thesis proposal.
• GEOG 656. Spatial Statistics
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Statistics course
  • Description: The analysis of spatial patterns and processes through the use of spatially-based statistics.
• GEOG 657. Geographic Information Systems
  • 3 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
  • Description: Application of GIS to real world projects. An emphasis will be placed on the development of a digital spatial database.
• GEOG 660. Qualitative Methods in Applied Geography
  • 3 Units
  • Description: An examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the qualitative approach with practical experience in conducting qualitative research.
• GEOG 685. Introduction to Programming for GIS and Spatial Data Analysis for Graduate Students
  • 3 Units
  • Description: There are two primary goals for this course. First, students will learn introductory computer programming concepts and features. Students will deconstruct examples from a variety of programming and scripting languages (primarily Python, R, VBA, and IDL), learning how to identify common logic, flow control and syntactic features. Students will learn the purpose of these structures and how to start using the programming and scripting environments of common statistics, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) platforms.
• GEOG 690. Special Topics
  • 1-3 Units
  • Description: Investigation of topics not offered in regular courses. Topic will be announced in Schedule of Courses. Offered as needed.
  • Note: May be repeated for different topics up to a limit of 12 hours.
• GEOG 691. Research and Independent Study
  • 1-5 Units
• GEOG 698. Thesis
  • 1-6 Units
  • Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor
  • Description: Reading, research, and writing of thesis under the supervision of a faculty member.