Research at GEM

Professors, postdoctoral research fellows and graduate students in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management (GEM) conduct leading edge research related to four main geographical themes:

Climate Change and Environment

Research is focused on three main areas:

• physical impacts of climate change;
• impacts and adaptation strategies of climate change;
• mitigation and adaptation;
• policy development and analysis.

Economy and Society

Research is focused on three main areas:

• sustainable tourism and tourism economics;
• integrated resource management strategies in developed and developing countries;
• local and region economic development and policy.

Earth Systems Science

Research is focused into three main areas:

• hydrology and biogeochemical dynamics of watershed systems in Canada;
• cold season processes in alpine, sub-arctic and arctic regions;
• climate modelling and climate processes including global climate change.

Geomatics

Research is focused on four main areas:

• innovation in the application of intelligent geoprocessing systems for understanding and predicting land use change and land management;
• deployment of advanced remote sensing systems for diagnosing climate change and providing advanced decision support tools;
• advanced spatial analysis for mapping dynamic geomorphic systems;
• high resolution mapping methods of built environments.

Research is focused at the local, regional, national and international scales and is funded appropriately by not-for-profit and/or for-profit entities or by national government and international research agencies. In addition, faculty members and researchers are actively engaged in several research centres including the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC³) and the Water Institute.