Graduate Courses: Geography

GCU 529 Contemporary Geographic Thought (3)
Comparative evaluation of current philosophy concerning the nature and trends of geography.

GCU 585 Geographic Research Design and Proposal Writing (3)
Prepares students to undertake creative geographic research culminating in the generation of new knowledge. Serves as a foundation for the student in achieving the objective of a productive and successful degree. To accomplish this, instruction  

stresses a research framework, ethical practice, and the generation of an original research proposal. Specific learning objectives are: to produce an area of specialization statement, literature review, problem statement, description of methods and final proposal; to develop the skills needed to conceive and plan a research project; to communicate ideas effectively in written and oral form; to develop and articulate informed opinions about research designs; to learn about academic publishing format and process; and to understand and engage in ethical research practices.

Cultural Geography (GCU)

GCU 514 Human Dimensions of Sustainability (3)
Concepts and definitions of the human dimensions of sustainability; the role of attitudes and values in shaping sustainability goals, practices, and programs; the diversity of values and socio-cultural contexts relating to sustainability; bottom-up and top-down sustainable policy development; social data collection methodologies. Seminar.

GCU 515 Human Migration (3)
Economic, political, social, and geographic factors underlying population movements. Migration selectivity, streams and counter-streams, labor migration, and migration decision making.
Previous Syllabus

GCU 516 Principles of Urbanism (3)
Organizing core course for PhD concentration in Urbanism. Gives overview of various perspectives on urbanism to present basic tenets, disciplinary threads, and body of scholarship associated with urbanism. Pre-requisities: Graduate student; Students who have credit for PUP 560 or SOS 560, may not enroll in GCU 516.

GCU 526 Spatial Land-Use Analysis (3)
Determination, classification, and analysis of spatial variations in land-use patterns. Examines the processes affecting land-use change.

GCU 529 Contemporary Geographic Thought (3)
Comparative evaluation of current philosophy concerning the nature and trends of geography.
Previous Syllabus

GCU 542 Geographical Analysis of Transportation (3)
Examines the geographical aspects of transportation systems. Looks at the geography of networks; transport costs and rates; different modes of transport, trade, economic development, and technology. Studies the movement of freight and passengers at the individual, urban, national, and international scales.

GCU 584 Internship (1-12)

GCU 585 Research Design and Proposal Writing (3)
The course prepares students to undertake creative geographic research culminating in the generation of new knowledge. The key objective is to create a foundation for achieving a productive and successful degree.
Previous Syllabus

GCU 591 Seminar (1-3)
A small class emphasizing discussion, presentations by students, and written research papers.  Current & recent topics:

• Comparative Immigration
• Environmental Justice & the City
• Human/Environment Interactions
• Geographic Agent-Based Modeling
• Research Publication in Human-Environment Science
• Sustainability Science  Previous Syllabus

GCU 596 History of Geographic Thought (3)
Historical development of geographic thought from pre-Greek days to the early 20th century.

GCU 598 Special Topics (1-4)
Current & recent topics:

• Advanced Urban Modeling
• Cultural Perspectives in Sustainability
• Economic Geography
• Geographic Perspectives on Landscape  Previous Syllabus
• Geography Colloquium (1)
• Geography of Arizona and the Southwest US
• Geography of Phoenix
• Geography of the US-Mexico Border  Previous Syllabus
• Global Water Security
• Global Health, Sustainability & the Built Environment
• Solar Energy and Public Policy
  

Physical Geography (GPH)

GPH 505 Energy and the Environment (3)
Sources, regulatory and technical controls, spatial distribution, and consequences of the supply and human use of energy.  Previous Syllabus

GPH 511 Fluvial Processes (3)
Geographical aspects of processes of river erosion, transportation, sedimentation: emphasizing spatial characteristics of forces, resistance, landforms, sediment; includes computer applications.

GPH 535 Water Law and Planning (3)
In-depth study of legal materials providing substantive knowledge of water law, water management issues, and land use planning options

GPH 537 13 Ways Nature Can Kill You (3)
Examines aspects of specific natural disasters (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis). Addresses each topic in terms of the scientific background of each disaster, the social concerns and overview of historical occurrences. Discusses safety recommendations for each disaster.

GPH 569 Digital Analysis of Remotely Sensed Data (3)
Focuses on the digital image processing of remotely sensed data for earth resource analysis and applications. Provides the skills and knowledge to apply digital remote sensing techniques for biophysical and environmental planning and problems. Through laboratory work, students have opportunities to practice concepts and techniques learned in the lecture part. Requires a reasonable background in college algebra and basic statistics.  Previous Syllabus

GPH 570 Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science (3)
Covers the basic topics of Geographic Information Science research including scale, coordinate systems, data, analysis, remote sensing, geocoding, and mapping.
Previous Syllabus

GPH 573 Geographic Information Science III (3)
In-depth look at programming within GIS. Focuses on programming and methodology, utilizing specific software, and basic scientific computing.

GPH 575 Geographic Applications of Remote Sensing (3)
Uses imaging and nonimaging methods of remote acquisition of data, including satellite sensors, airborne radar, multiband scanning, conventional photographic sensors, and ground-based equipment.

GPH 581 Optimization Fundamentals for Spatial Analysis (3)
This course will cover the fundamentals of optimization for spatial analysis. The first half of the course will review elements of calculus, matrices and basic linear algebra. The second half of the course will introduce linear programming, integer programming and branch and bound, and heuristics. The course provides the basics for use and application of GIScience and spatial analysis methods.  Previous Syllabus

GPH 582 Location Analysis and Modeling (3)
This course provides a technical overview of location theory in the context of GIScience, focusing on analysis and modeling issues. Applications associated with emergency service planning, natural resource management, retail site selection, among others, will be relied upon to make connections between models, spatial information and interpretation of findings. Utilization and implementation considerations using GIS will be explored.  Previous Syllabus

GPH 584 Internship (3)

GPH 591 Seminar (1-3)
A small class emphasizing discussion, presentations by students, and written research papers.  Current & recent topics:

• Advanced Geomorphology
• Climate Change Research
• Desert Geomorphology  Previous Syllabus
• Geocomputation
• Geography Colloquium (1)
• Geography Forum (1)  Previous Syllabus
• GIScience and Environmental Decision Making
• Human & Social Dimensions of Climate Change  Previous Syllabus
• Physical Meteorology
• Urban Climate
• Weathering

GPH 596 Advanced Spatial Statistics (3)
Multivariate and advanced statistical techniques including Box-Jenkins modeling and spectral analysis. Project papers and presentations required.

GPH 598 Special Topics (1-4)
Current & recent topics:

• Advanced Digital Analysis of Remotely-Sensed Data
• Advanced Location Analysis
• Biotic Distributions  Previous Syllabus
• Climate Research
• Environmental Science - Ecosystem Services Trade-Offs
• Fortran Programming  Previous Syllabus
• Geocomputation
• Geographic Information Analysis
• Hydroclimatology
• Spatial Analysis
• Spatial Regression
• Species Distribution Modeling
   Previous Syllabus