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Research

Faculty

G--Geospatial Technology; H--Human Geography; P--Physical Geography;

The Department of Geography and the Environment is renowned for the quality and diversity of its collaborative research and curricula. We invite you to explore the disciplinary spectrum through our research clusters, initiatives, and spotlights.

Research Clusters

The Digital Landscapes cluster explores the theoretical and applied issues associated with the acquisition, measurement, representation, analysis, simulation, and visualization of digital geographic information. It integrates Geographic Information Science (GIScience) theory and methods with substantive research foci such as landscape ecology, bio-diversity, medical/health geography, global change, environmental remote sensing, urban planning, hydrology, and geomorphology. Suites of approaches such as GIS, remote sensing, GeoAI, spatial data science, GPS, simulation modeling, and spatial analysis are used to analyze and describe patterns in the geographic distribution of various phenomena ranging from plants to diseases to disturbances, with fieldwork components in locations as diverse as Botswana, Mexico, Perú, Texas, and Australia.

The Environmental Changes and Surface Processes cluster focuses on environmental changes as conditioned by biotic, climatic, geomorphic, and anthropogenic factors. Research questions span several spatial scales, from land use changes in response to regional climate change to fine-scale processes of soil development or sediment transport, across Quaternary, historical, and modern time-scales. Representative themes include climate change and paleoecology, channel adjustment and floodplain processes of large fluvial systems, water management, agriculture, and human-environment interaction of peoples past, present, and future. The cluster spans sub-disciplines such as hydrology, geomorphology, soils, biogeography, paleoecology, geoarchaeology, and cultural and political ecology, with field projects in Latin America, Hawaii, southern Africa, the Mediterranean, northern Europe, and Texas.

The Space, Place and Social Worlds cluster examines wide-ranging socio-cultural and political-economic processes, with a critical focus on population health, migration, media, environmental and climate politics, tourism, ancient and contemporary urbanization and inequality, globalization and development. We examine how these processes operate at multiple scales to (re)produce asymmetries such as poverty, health disparities, ethnic/racial discrimination, gender inequity, political exclusion, spatial segregation and other forms of marginalization in a globalizing world. Research settings bridge physical places (the United States and its borderlands, Latin America, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and India) and virtual places (Internet forums, social networks, television and movie sets).

College of Liberal Arts

End of semester and anniversary celebration, spring 2017.
Our amazing students are now completing graduate school, organizing for urban and environmental justice, working for the UN, or making change otherwise through art, poetry, economics and more!

Research Labs & Working Groups

E.S.H.I.

Co-Directors: Eugenio Arima and Carlos Ramos Scharrón

ESHI stands for Ecology, Sustainability and Human-Environment Interactions. We are a graduate student reading group. Through our research, reading and discussion, we aim to understand environmental problems through a diversity of viewpoints, ranging from ecology and geomorphology to economics and culture. We are interested in understanding both the biophysical and social dynamics of today’s ecological challenges, and we use a lens of coupled human-environmental systems to engage with various subfields of geography. We study biogeography, hydro-geomorphology, ecological restoration, land use change, ecosystem services, political ecology, vegetation ecology, and economic geography, among other things. We utilize mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, including remote sensing, spatial analysis, surveys, interviews, and soil, hydrologic and biological sampling. Our collective brings together faculty and graduate students to work on our own research, as well as stay up to date with the latest research in these fields.

Geospatial Intelligent Sensing and Mapping Laboratory (GISense Lab)

Director: Yuhao Kang

The GISense Lab is equipped with advanced computing resources designed to manage large-scale geographic datasets and tackle complex geographic challenges. The laboratory boasts a suite of high-performance computing servers with GPUs for intensive geographic data processing and GeoAI-driven geospatial research. These computing resources, along with GIS and cartography software, enable advanced GeoAI development, spatial analytics, and high-level cartographic production — supporting machine learning, advanced geospatial computations, and map production across fields including urban planning, environmental science, public health, and the social sciences and humanities.

The Spatially Explicit Artificial Intelligence Lab (SEAI Lab)

Director: Gengchen Mai

The SEAI Lab develops spatially explicit AI models. As Prof. Michael Goodchild puts it, "A model is said to be spatially explicit when it differentiates behaviors and predictions according to spatial locations." Inspired by that idea, the lab redesigns and develops better AI and ML models for consuming spatial information across geospatial tasks by incorporating spatial knowledge and spatial inductive bias such as spatial heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and map projection.

The Spatial Justice Lab & Feminist Geography Collective

Co-Directors: Brenda Boonabaana and Caroline Faria 

Collaborators: Rebecca Torres and Laurel Mei-Singh 

The spatial justice lab in the Department of Geography and the Environment brings together undergraduate and graduates, postdocs, and faculty conducting research on the relationship between power and place. We engage with critical geographic approaches, including feminist, post- and decolonial, intersectional, political economy, political ecology, and abolitionist strands of theory to examine urgent issues of environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and environmental and social justice. Our members primarily employ qualitative and ethnographic methodologies but may also integrate critical cartography, remote sensing, and varied forms of land use science. We are a collaborative, co-managed, and peer mentoring space. Our members work on independent undergraduate theses or capstone projects, MA and doctoral projects, book projects and article-based outputs.  In concert, we center professional development for junior academics providing mentorship on grant proposals, publishing, conference presentation, grad school and academic job market applications, fostering confidence- and leadership capabilities, while maintaining a sustainable work-life balance that supports fun and long-term professional success. Finally, we maintain strong academic, practical, and policy collaborations across Texas, the United States, and around the world. 

GIS Center

The GIS Center serves as a collaborative hub for GIScience, Spatial Data Science, and Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) research, teaching, and outreach at UT Austin. The Center connects faculty-led research laboratories and departmental research clusters, bringing together expertise in GIS, remote sensing, cartography, spatial analysis, and GeoAI. These interdisciplinary efforts advance geographic research across environmental science, urban planning, public health, and human–environment interactions. The Center also supports educational and professional development opportunities through the GIScience study track, the GeoAI Certificate, and donor-supported initiatives, including UAS education, the GIScience Speaker Series, and student research awards. Together, these activities strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential learning, and research innovation across the University.