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Research at UNT Geography
www.geog.unt.edu
We
are an applied geography department specializing in interdisciplinary studies
of human-environment interaction. Our topical core expertise is:
- environmental
monitoring and modeling;
- health and urban/economic geography; and
- environmental archaeology.
We
also have technical expertise in geographic information systems (GIS), remote
sensing, and quantitative methods that we apply extensively to each topical
core.
The
environmental
monitoring and modeling core covers several environmental variables
(especially water, sediment, and land cover), as well as natural processes and
human actions that influence the distribution of those variables. Our health
and urban/economic geography core examines such issues as locating health
care facilities and corporations, as well as industrial ecology and disease
patterns. Finally, our environmental archaeology core
addresses human-environment interactions over different time periods, as
interpreted from bones and artifacts from the past.
Faculty
Specializations
• Miguel
Acevedo (affiliated) Environmental and
ecological modeling; wireless sensors
• Pinliang
Dong GIS; remote
sensing
• Reid
Ferring Geoarchaeology;
Quaternary geology; soils
• Paul
Hudak Environmental
monitoring and remediation; groundwater
• Bruce
Hunter (affiliated) GIS; fire
ecology
• Donald
Lyons Urban and
economic geography; industrial ecology
• Kent
McGregor Meteorology; climatology
• Lisa
Nagaoka Zooarchaeology;
evolutionary ecology
• Joseph
Oppong Medical
geography; quantitative methods
• Feifei
Pan
Hydrology; hydrological models
• Murray
Rice Economic
geography; regional economic development
• Sean Tierney
Energy; transportation
• Chetan
Tiwari GIS
programming; location-allocation medical geography
• Harry
Williams Geomorphology;
paleoenvironments
• Steven
Wolverton Conservation
ecology; environmental archaeology
Much
of our research is interdisciplinary. Recently, our faculty members have
collaborated with: anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, chemists,
computer scientists/engineers, ecologists, economists, environmental
scientists, geographers, geologists, health scientists, mathematicians,
philosophers, physicists, and soil scientists, among others.
Recent
Funding Sources
Canadian
Embassy, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Geo-Marine, National Parks Service, National
Science Foundation, Oak Ridge Affiliated Universities, Tarrant County Regional
Water District, Texas Army National Guard, Texas Department of Transportation,
Upper Trinity River Water District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S.
Department of State (Fulbright), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, World
Bank/Global Development Network
Ongoing
Research
Research
Facilities
The Geography department
operates or is affiliated with several research centers and labs. These
facilities are housed both within the department and within the Institute of Applied Sciences
(IAS), a center for interdisciplinary research of which the department is a member.
Center for Spatial Analysis and Mapping (CSAM)
The Center for Spatial Analysis
and Mapping (CSAM) provides instructional and research support in the
areas of geographic information systems (GIS), computer cartography,
spatial analysis, and environmental modeling. Beyond its immediate
instructional and research mission, CSAM is envisioned as the facility
to provide GIS support for institutional planning and facilities
management at UNT, and to work with Government Documents in the
University of North Texas Willis Library to provide access to spatial
data bases such as the U. S. Census Bureau's census of population
which is now distributed in digital format.
Geographic
Information Systems Lab
For more information, contact Bruce Hunter at Bruce.Hunter@unt.edu
or by phone
at 940 565-2991.
Geomorphology
Lab
Hydrogeology Lab
The
hydrogeology lab supports teaching and research in groundwater supply
and contamination issues. It includes computing equipment,
visualization software, various groundwater sampling devices,
instruments for measuring water quality characteristics of groundwater,
equipment for measuring the ability of earth materials to transmit
fluids, and seepage tanks for studying the movement of groundwater
through porous media.
Recent projects supported by the lab include developing new equipment
for measuring the hydraulic conductivity of rock aquifers, determining
chemical ratios in water from animal feedlots, monitoring water quality
at a field station near the Denton Airport, quantifying the composition
of residential and commercial solid waste in Denton, devising
groundwater monitoring strategies near landfills, studying
groundwater-surface water interactions at local wetlands, building
filter cartridges to remove contaminants from groundwater, and
visualizing subsurface contamination at toxic waste facilities.
For more information, contact Dr. Paul Hudak
via e-mail at hudak@unt.edu or by
phone at (940) 565-4312.
Institute of Applied Sciences
Research Facilities
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