AAG

DELAWARE
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
DATE FOUNDED: 1966
GRADUATE PROGRAM FOUNDED: 1971
DEGREES OFFERED: B.A. (Geography, Geography
Education, Environmental Studies), B.S. (Meteorology
and Climatology, Environmental Science), M.A. and
M.S. (Geography), Ph.D. (Climatology, Geography),
Graduate Geographic Information Science Certificate
GRANTED 9/1/14-8/31/15: 79 Bachelors, 13 Masters, 3
Ph.D.
STUDENTS IN RESIDENCE: 270 Majors (27 Geography,
152 Environmental Science, 80 Environmental Studies,
11 Meteorology and Climatology), 13 Masters, 15 Ph.D.,
8 GIS Certificate
NOT IN RESIDENCE: 2 Masters, 1 Ph.D.
CHAIR: Delphis Levia
ASSISTANT TO THE CHAIR: Kaci Middlemas
FOR CATALOG AND FURTHER INFORMATION WRITE
TO: Delphis Levia, Chair, Department of Geography, University of
Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. Telephone: (302) 831-2294. Fax (302)
831-6654 (Faxes should be directed to Delphis Levia).
E-mail: info@geog.udel.edu. http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/schoolsdepartments/department-of-geography.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH FACILITIES:
Delaware's graduate programs provide opportunities to interact closely
with faculty whose research interests encompass one or more of three
broad areas: climatology, ecohydrology, and human-environment
interactions.
A newly crafted Ph.D. degree in Climatology, beginning Fall 2014,
builds on the longstanding climatology tradition in the department
with additional faculty and resources within the College of Earth,
Ocean and Environment. The climatology faculty research focus on
land/ocean/ice– atmosphere interactions, and climate dynamics and
variability. The faculty employ a wide range of models, from cloud
scale to climate scale, and use environmental observations including
surface, upper air, and satellite data, along with state-of-the-art
methods of analysis and modeling to study our climate system.
The Geography Ph.D. degree serves as the umbrella degree for
advanced geographic research in both physical and human geography.
The physical geography research includes cryospheric studies (sea ice,
glaciers, snowcover) and ecohydrology research (vegetation change,
biogeochemical changes in forests, linkages between hydrology and
ecosystem processes). A new human geography focused PhD
encourages research in human-environmental relations, political
ecology and in fieldwork at home and abroad. Interdisciplinary work
is encouraged from across the university and in collaborations with
local, national, and international partners. The department is flexible,
focusing on individual interests and encouraging multidisciplinary
work.
Delaware's masters programs in Geography provide individualized
coursework and professional training, with an emphasis on developing
research and analytic abilities, as well as professional communication
skills. A thesis is required of all masters students.
Graduate GIS Certificate program is designed to provide the
theoretical underpinnings of GIS to make informed use of geographic
technologies and to gain the technical skills needed to construct and
solve problems in the physical and social realms. The program
requires one core graduate GIS course followed by 9 additional
graduate GIS credit hours.
Topical Emphases:
Climatology emphasizes the study of interactions between the earth
and atmosphere and their role in environmental problems. Faculty
research interests fall within all the traditional subareas of
climatology, including climate dynamics, hydroclimatology, physical
climatology, microclimatology, paleoclimatology, and synoptic
weather-analysis climatology. Human impacts on energy and moisture
exchanges, and climatic influences on socioeconomic activities are of
increasing importance and allow many opportunities for
interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research.
Ecohydrology integrates primary processes in the soil, vegetative
layer, and atmosphere. Departmental interests include the effects of
forest cover on hydrological and biogeochemical flows and the
linkages between hydrology and ecosystem processes.
Cryosphere studies feature heavily in both climate and land-surface
research, including snowcover and snowfall studies, glacier dynamics
and variations, and sea-ice dynamics and development of sea-ice
datasets.
Human geography faculty are examining the adaptations to a
changing world focusing on topics of environment and society,
sustainability and justice, and urbanization and development. Current
research project include the study of Guatemalan immigration to
Delaware and its impact on migrant and host communities, political
ecology of health with an interest in the historical relationships
between health and urbanization in the North American context,
geographic and policy dimensions of development in western China
(especially as they are related to water resources and climate change),
and food and agricultural systems in Mexico (focus on how local
actors interact with transnational development organizations to shape
landuse policies and agricultural practices).
Field research and measurement provide a major tool of research in
this department. The Delaware Environmental Observing System
(DEOS) established and maintains over 50 automated weather stations
in Delaware and nearby, providing real-time weather information for
regional environmental research as well as for a wide variety of
outside users. Geographic studies are conducted as multiple scales
from local to the global scale.
Research methods encompass analysis and synthesis of existing data,
including data from observational networks, remote sensing sources,
the census, modeling output, and other archival sources. Geographic
Information Science (GIS) is used as an analysis and presentation tool
in most of our research areas, and nearly all of our graduate students
opt for significant training in GIS. GIS skills are complemented by
training in remote-sensing, image analysis, statistical methods, and
database programming. Although all masters and doctoral theses
require topical research areas, emphasis on the research methods is
commonly allowed at the masters level. The Graduate GIS Certificate
Program prepares students to utilize GIS in their program area of
study by developing the student's theoretical underpinnings of GIS
and to develop their technical skills.
The University and Department cover student and faculty computing
and computer network needs. All graduate student offices include
department-provided workstations. The University provides licensed
software sufficient for a wide variety of uses, including GIS, image
processing, and statistical analysis software. The Geography
Department operates the University's GIS classroom as a state-of-theart
teaching facility. Departmentally owned workstations and data
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