Coordinator: Dr Sharron Pfueller
The diverse research interests of the teaching staff and the variety of facilities available offer a wide range of research possibilities that provide graduate students with research training and the foundations for engagement with government, NGO and private sector research and policy initiatives. The program is based on three broad academic strengths. The first explores the key factors associated with evolving patterns of urban and regional development at a range of scales (metropolitan to local community), activities (housing, farming, services), environments (urban and rural) and contexts (Australia and the Asia Pacific), utilising a variety of innovative methodologies. The second addresses short and long-term changes in climate, vegetation and the physical and the human landscape. The approaches adopted aim to explain the present-day environment and provide essential baseline data for realistic modelling and prediction of future change and its impacts. The third area is concerned with the socio- political structures shaping human interactions with the biosphere and explores the community governance of environmental and ecological change at local national and international scales.
Many of the graduate theses already completed have been concerned with
research problems in Australia, but there is increasing research interest in
the Asian region and, depending on available research funds, research outside
Australia may also be possible. Supervision is available in geomorphic process
studies, basic and applied climatology, environmental history, palaeoecology
and palynology, landscape evolution, geographical information systems and
remote sensing, regional, urban and cultural geography, environmental
conflicts, development studies, business and environmental sustainability, and
environmental planning and management.
While the School of Geography and Environmental Science is part of the Faculty
of Arts, candidates wishing to complete a masters degree by research in
geography and environmental science must enrol in a Master of Science with the
Faculty of Science. Further information can be gained from the Arts faculty
entry in this handbook and the School of Geography and Environmental Science
graduate studies handbook. Inquiries should be referred to the head of school.
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