Human-environment interaction
Human-environment interaction provides the foundation for much of what we study in Geography at The University of Iowa. We conduct fundamental research into the biophysical processes that drive, for example, the movement of organisms and abiotic material (e.g., soil and pollutants) across geographic space and examine the processes that produce the temporal and spatial patterns that we experience in our daily lives. Advanced geospatial technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, and computer simulation, play an integral part in the study of these interactions. Examples of these studies include modeling the spatial pattern of ecosystem processes, land use and land cover change, statistical and remote sensing techniques for the detection of change, and GIScience techniques for the representation and simulation of dynamic geographic phenomena.
Environmental Studies
Students who study human-environmental interaction in the Department of Geography at The University of Iowa have the opportunity to learn from leading experts in landscape ecology, environmental sampling, land use/land cover change, and computer simulation.
As a student of Environmental Studies you can, for example, build expertise in:
- Environmental change
- Environmental policy and decision support
- GIS for environmental studies
- Remote Sensing
- Landscape ecology
- Field methods and statistical analyses
- Environmental justice
- Environmental impact analyses
Environmental Research
We are currently examining human-environmental interaction in areas such as ecosystem dynamics, environmental policy, environmental sampling, land use/land cover change, and computer simulation. Some examples of current environmental geography research at Iowa include:
- Biogeography and complex systems
- Land-use and land-cover modeling and simulation
- Remote sensing and GIS
- Spatiotemporal data modeling
- Agent-based geosimulation modeling
- Spatio-temporal patterns of health and the environmental factors
For examples of other recent research projects in Environmental Studies see our Research page.
Related Faculty
