Geography Study Focus Areas
UVic's Geography program offers four study focus areas: physical geography, human geography, environment & sustainability, and geomatics. We have defined these categories to give students a guide to course selections, especially for the last two years of study – these are not program requirements, and you will not see any sort of designation on your earned degree. See the course planning flowchart linked in each section for an overview of which Geography courses fit under each category.
Physical
Geography
Environment & Sustainability
Human Geography
Geomatics
ELECTIVE COURSES
The following courses are Geography courses that do not fit into one of our four identified study focus areas. These courses can be taken as complementary to any of the study focus areas, should you choose to use this guide to focus your studies on a specific area.
GEOG100 - Geography for Today
GEOG306 - Geography of Canada
GEOG309 - Geography of British Columbia
GEOG315 - Geocaching
GEOG324 - Directions in Geography
GEOG388 - Topics in Regional Studies
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Physical geographers are trained to recognize and explain patterns of climates, land forms, vegetation, and water and to understand how they interact. Topics include geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, biogeography, and ecology.
Department specializations: UVic has particular expertise in climate change modelling and impacts, as well as geomorphological studies, particularly in coastal and Arctic environments.
Upper level course topics:
GEOG313 - Field Studies in Mountain Meteorology
GEOG358 - Landscape Ecology
GEOG370 - Hydrology
GEOG371 - Water Resources Management
GEOG373 - Applied Climatology
GEOG376 - Process Geomorphology
GEOG391 - Topics in Geography: Karst Geomorphology
GEOG405 - Dynamics of the Cryosphere
GEOG424 - Field Studies in Coastal Geomorphology
GEOG474 - Field Studies in Biogeography
GEOG476 - Advanced Studies in Geomorphology
GEOG477 - Field Studies in Physical Geography
GEOG484 - Advanced Studies in Weather and Climate
GEOG487 - Advanced Landscape EcologyBack to the top
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Human geographers seek to understand how people make places, how we organize space and society, how we interact with each other in places and across space, and how we make sense of others and ourselves in our locality, region, and planet. Explore the world through the lenses of social, political, cultural, and economic geography.
Department specializations: Social justice represents the main overriding concern of UVic’s human geography program, as it applies to such fields as urban planning, community health and resilience, immigration and anti-racism, development in the global South, and navigating personal space.
Upper level course topics:
GEOG310 - Global Migration
GEOG316 - Field Studies in Human Geography: Food and the City
GEOG317 - Field Studies in Sustainable Communities
GEOG332 - Urban Development in the Global South
GEOG339 - Disaster Management and Community Resilience
GEOG340 - Cities and Planning
GEOG346 - Health, Environment and Community
GEOG347B - Geographies of Development
GEOG380 - Community Mapping
GEOG386 - Contemporary Geopolitics
GEOG391 - Topics in Geography: Indigenous Geographies
GEOG391 - Topics in Geography: Landscapes of the Heart
GEOG404 - Space and Power
GEOG406 - Sustainable Cities
GEOG407 - Activism and Community-Based Planning
GEOG409 - Personal Space
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Urban Mobility
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Community-Based Participatory Research
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Anti-Racism and Geography
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ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
The field of environment & sustainability is all about better understanding and improving human-environment relationships. Topics include environmental governance, sustainability, biogeography, conservation, ecology, resource management, and coastal studies.
Department specializations: At UVic, the sustainability and environment stream has a strong focus on innovative socio-ecological governance, resource management, conservation, and activism in the context of intersecting global crises, ongoing colonialism, and Indigenous resurgence in Canada (particularly Coastal BC), the United States, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Upper level course topics:
GEOG301 - Environmental Impact Assessment
GEOG303 - Conservation and Ecology of Whales
GEOG304 - Coastal Conservation
GEOG314 - Global Environment Change and Human Response
GEOG325 - Field Surveying
GEOG353 - Coastal and Marine Management
GEOG357 - Parks and Protected Areas
GEOG358 - Landscape Ecology
GEOG371 - Water Resources Management
GEOG438 - Aquaculture in British Columbia
GEOG450 - Environment and Sustainability in Practice
GEOG453 - Field Studies in Coastal and Marine Management
GEOG456 - Wildlife Conservation
GEOG457 - Marine Protected Areas
GEOG474 - Field Studies in Biogeography
GEOG487 - Advanced Landscape Ecology
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Indigenous Environmental Activism
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Ecology and Politics of the Killer Whale
GEOG491 - Advanced Topics in Geography: Whale GeographyBack to the top
GEOMATICS
Combine geography and computer science into a field known as geomatics. This includes learning how GPS (global positioning system), satellite imagery, remotely-sensed data (e.g. drone-gathered), and spatial mapping are integrated within GIS (geographic information systems) and visualization tools. Learn how to collect, process, analyze and display data and use maps to improve our world.
Department specializations: The Geomatics stream at UVic emphasizes training in technical geographic tools, such as GIS and remote sensing, and their useful application to problems in such fields as climate change, urban planning, forest fire surveillance, and resource management.
Upper level course topics:
GEOG319 - Remote Sensing of the Environment using Passive Sensors
GEOG322 - Digital Remote Sensing of the Environment using Active Sensors
GEOG323 - Cartography
GEOG325 - Field Surveying
GEOG328 - GIS Analysis
GEOG329 - GIS Applications and Tools
GEOG418 - Advanced Spatial Analysis and Geo
GEOG420 - Field Studies in Coastal Geomatics
GEOG422 - Advanced Topics in Remote Sensing
GEOG428 - Advanced Topics in Geographic Information Sciences
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