Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences

UofL Geographic & Environmental Sciences stands in solidarity with our transgender and nonbinary students.  Please click here to read our statement.

Your support is critical to our success. Gifts to the Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences help us continue our exceptional research and will support the development of outstanding graduates and professionals.

Department Spotlight

A Fulani herder moves livestock in Senegal in 2015. Credit: Jonathan Salerno

Andrea Gaughan and Forrest Stevens, Professor and Associate Professor, respectively, in the Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, are shedding light on this complex issue through a study led by Colorado State University on rural-to-rural migration. Published as "Rural migration under climate and land systems change" in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability, their research aims to inform policies that help communities adapt to environmental changes and anticipates how land use and those changes interact. 


Christopher Andrew Day

Andrew Day, Associate Professor of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, was awarded a Kentucky Water Resources Institute grant that advances previous work on historical spatiotemporal shifts in extreme high and low daily streamflow events across the Kentucky River Basin in the context of changing environmental and climate conditions. By quantifying these flow extremes within the wider area of the basin, Day hopes to inform future flood/drought planning processes not currently covered by existing sub-basin management plans. The grant will support an undergraduate student and run for the next year. 


 

Recent Faculty Publications

King, K.E., Harley, G.L., Maxwell, J.T., Rayback, S., Cook, E., Maxwell, S., Rochner, M.L., Therrell, M., Bregy, J., Bergan, E., and Foley, Z. Reconstructed late summer maximum temperatures for the southeastern United States from tree ring blue intensity. Geophysical Research Letters, 51(13), e2024GL109099

William Scott Gunter, Quint M. Long, (2024)  A Mesonet-Based Climatology Of Severe Convective Winds in West Texas, E-Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology.

Kristen de Graauw, Maegen Rochner, Saskia van de GevelLauren StachowiakSavannah Collins-KeyJoseph HendersonZachary Merrill, and Amy Hessl; Comparing the impact of live-tree versus historic-timber data on palaeoenvironmental inferences in tree-ring science, eastern North America (Sept 2023)

Dr. C. Andrew Day and Jialiang (Daryl) Chen. 2023. Hydrometeorological observations from the Upper Kentucky headwaters flash floods, 26–29 July 2022.
Weatherhttps://doi.org/10.1002/wea.4448   

Dr. C. Andrew Day and Quint Long. 2023. An application of the Kentucky state Mesonet system to explore spatial and seasonal characteristics of erosive storm activity. Weather. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.4426

Kimberly Koenig and Dr. C. Andrew Day. 2023. Microstegium vimineum habitat suitability analysis in the Kentuckiana region using Geographic Information System (GIS) Modeling. Southeastern Geographer 63 (2): 183-202. DOI: 10.1353/sgo.2023.0014.

Student Guide

Geographers investigate the character and possible associations between a subject and its environment. The Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences educates students to view the world in a spatial and time-dependent context to determine relationships between people and their immediate and global environment.

Bachelor of Science: The department offers Bachelor of Science degrees in four different concentrations:

  • Environmental Analysis: designed for students who are interested in the environment and environmental sustainability.
  • Geospatial Technologies: designed for students who are interested in developing geospatial technologies like GIS and remote sensing.
  • Human and Cultural Dynamics: designed for students interested in the forces that shape human environments like population trends, sustainable development, ethnic and racial segregation, globalization and geopolitics.
  • Urban Analysis: designed for students interested in the various processes that shape urban environments.

Learn more about our undergraduate degree options

The M.S. in Applied Geography is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and background knowledge needed to solve real-world problems with geographic dimensions. Graduate students experience a nucleated body of coursework designed to foster and support the theoretical knowledge and advanced skill sets demanded for the professional and academic/research fields. Coupled with the enhanced level of course content; quantitative, qualitative and spatial data analysis applications; and the Departmental emphasis upon critical reasoning, effective writing and communication skills, graduates will be capable and prepared for effective integration into a broad diversity of professional fields.

Learn more about our M.S. in Applied Geography

The Department of Geography and Geosciences offers two minors:

  • Minoring in Geography exposes students to the schools of thought in physical and human Geography and techniques of Geographic Information System (GIS).
  • Minoring in Environmental Analysis exposes students to the physical processes associated with the environment and environmental sustainability.

Learn more about a Minor in Geography or Environmental Analysis

Our graduates work for local, state and federal governments; environmental consulting firm;, retail businesses; and research and educational organizations. Departmental graduates also have been admitted to some of the nation’s finest graduate programs.

Visit College of Arts & Sciences Advising for assistance with your major or minor.

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GeographIC and ENVIRONMENTAL sciences

University of Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky 40292

Office Hours

M-F 8:00am to 5:00 pm

No holiday hours

Phone

tel (502) 852-6844

fax (502) 852-4560

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