Physical Geography
Geography is one of the oldest academic disciplines, dating back to the early Greeks, but it remains as relevant as ever because of its ability to address many of today’s concerns over our environment and our exploitation of its resources. Geography is unique as an academic discipline because of its ability to integrate ideas and methods from many disciplines. This provides an important advantage when addressing multi-faceted environmental and other issues requiring an interdisciplinary approach for understanding.
Physical geography is, generally speaking, the part of Geography focusing on physical environments at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, as well as on human interactions with these environments. It is in turn divided into sub-disciplines such as climatology, hydrology, geomorphology and biogeography which focus on the study and understanding of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere of Earth, respectively. Within each of these sub-disciplines, a broad range of approaches can be employed for this study and understanding, ranging from the highly theoretical enquiry needed to advance modern Earth system science to the kind of applied investigation required for solving practical issues of environment or resource use. In both cases, modern systems theory plays an important role in organising our thinking about environmental systems and the interactions between them.
At UBC's Okanagan campus, students become successful global stewards by studying Physical Geography using a broad range of approaches to arrive at a deeper understanding and appreciation of our planet and the forces, processes and problems that affect our lives.
Last reviewed 
12/16/2011 2:49:05 PM
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