Welcome to the Department of Geography at San Diego State University.

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Physical geographers deal with the natural aspects of the natural environment. The emphasis is on interrelated physical processes, such as plate tectonics and mountain building, erosion, glaciation, climate change, and their effects on human use of the earth.

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Environmental geographers study the ways that human and environmental systems interact. This area focuses on social and ecological aspects of natural resources such as water, land, and air, emphasizing sound science contributing to improving environmental policy.

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Human geographers focus on the spatial dimensions of human activities. The emphasis is on the interrelations and interactions among people, earth space, and place or location. Human geography is studied in the context of scale, that is globally, regionally, and locally.

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GIScience is the study of all aspects of geographic information systems including remote sensing of the earth, image processing, spatial analysis, qualitative methods, spatial modeling, cartography, and visualization. This area emphasizes the study of the technology used to produce and analyze large data sets.

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