Environmental Studies in Physical Geography
Program
The Department of Geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign offers a graduate program leading to both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees with a specialization in River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics. The program is designed to provide students with a set of skills they can use to help solve societal problems and to achieve solutions to important scientific problems in physical geography that relate to the dynamics of rivers, watersheds and landscapes.
Program Emphases
Students wishing to enter the program are strongly urged to contact the participating faculty member most closely matching their prospective research interests. The program emphases are closely tied to current research interests of individual faculty members.
Statement
The River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics Program builds upon the foundations of physical geography as an integrating science that examines the origins, contemporary development, and processes of the Earth’s natural and human-modified surfaces. All participating faculty place strong emphasis on the theoretical underpinning of their research and teaching. The principal research themes of the program reflect the specialties of the participating faculty. Each of the participating faculty has strong links to other departments and/or programs on campus and a high proportion of the research conducted in the program has a strong interdisciplinary flavor. The Program has strong ties to the Center for Water as a Complex Environmental System housed in the School of Earth, Society and Environment. It also maintains strong cross-campus connections with other water-related research programs in Geology, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Faculty in the program also maintain close working relationships with scientists in the Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois Natural History Survey and the Illinois Water Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey, all of which are located on campus.
Participating Faculty
Program Prerequisites
Students must already have completed, or take immediately upon entry into the program: 1) an introductory college calculus course (a one course minimum is required, but course work through calculus of several variables is recommended); 2) college physics and/or chemistry.
M.A. Program
The masters program in the River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics Program follows the guidelines of the Graduate School and the Department of Geography. Prospective students should appreciate that an important additional requirement is that the program requires master’s candidates to undertake the thesis option.
Participating faculty consider the research experience to be an essential ingredient of graduate training in physical geography. Students should also appreciate that the participating faculty will usually supervise graduate research in areas that fall within their expertise.
For a complete description of the M.A. requirements see the Department of Geography’s brochure “The M.A./M.S. Program.”
Ph.D. Program
The doctoral program in the River, Watershed and Landscape Dynamics Program follows the guidelines of the Graduate School and the Department of Geography. Students entering the program must have completed an M.A. or M.S. thesis prior to admission to the doctoral program. Although students in the doctoral program focus upon a specialized topic they are expected to develop a general familiarity with all aspects of contemporary thought in their chosen subfields in physical geography. Complementary course work outside the department in the form of a minor (see departmental requirements is required.
At an appropriate time after approval of the doctoral dissertation proposal by the Ph.D. committee, the candidate must present his/her proposal in the departmental colloquium series.
Selected Graduate Courses
- GEOG 401 – Watershed Hydrology
- GEOG 406 – Fluvial Geomorphology
- GEOG 408 – Watershed Analysis
- GEOG 460 – Analysis & Interpretation of Aerial Photography
- GEOG 467 – Dynamic Simulation of Natural Resource Problems
- GEOG 468 – Biological Modeling
- GEOG 469 – Spatial Ecosystem Modeling
- GEOG 595 – Alluvial Boundary Layer Dynamics