Research Activities in the Department of Geography

In a world of increasingly focused research, Geography is a discipline where we actively integrate the social sciences, natural sciences and the humanities. Our Department of Geography is a leader and innovator in new trends in the discipline. Geography has been experiencing both a theoretical and a methodological revolution, with the spatial turn in the Social Sciences in general, and the technological impact on data collection and analysis. Human and natural environments, including critical issues such as urbanization of the world population and climate change, are the focus of the Geography Department. The Department works across disciplines in the Social Sciences and Sciences, and is a lynchpin in five cutting-edge interdisciplinary academic programs and vital player in others. All faculty members are leaders in their areas, working in Geography as an integrative Science.

Use the links below to explore some of the research activities our faculty and students are currently engaged in.

eCognition Centre of Excellence
The Department of Geography is dedicated to research in object-oriented digital image processing. We are one of only four world centres of excellence for eCognition: the world's leading object-oriented image processing software.

Arctic Coastal and Near-Shore Dynamics Project
The Arctic Coastal and Near-Shore Dynamics Project was initiated in 2003 to develop a better understanding of processes at work in the onshore-offshore region of the Mackenzie Delta. The project involves partners from industry and government to assist in environmentally responsible and economically effective natural gas resource development.

Arctic Glacier-Permafrost Interactions
Across the Arctic interaction between permafrost and glaciers significantly influences the environment, surface and subsurface hydrology and climate. This project uses Bylot Island as a study area to examine the interplay between arctic glaciers and the surrounding permafrost.

ArcticNET - Theme 3, Project 3.1 Managing the Largest Canadian Watershed in a New Climate: Land-Ocean Interactions in Sub-Arctic Hudson Bay
ArcticNet connects well-established Centres of Excellence in the natural, medical and social sciences, and their partners in northern communities, federal and provincial agencies and the private sector to study the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. ArcticNet researchers collaborate with the best research teams in the USA, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Belgium.

Cities as complex adaptive systems
Using Calgary as our test city we are attempting to blend ‘old’ and ‘new’ systems theory, in order to understand the role played by cities and city dwellers, as entities in ecological world system.

Civil Society Opposition to Nonferrous Metals in the Philippines
Dr. William Holden examines the opposition of civil society to nonferrous metals mining in the Philippines.

Constructing Difference and Managing Development: material and discursive visions of
This International research program examines how the African elite played a key role in community and national development in Zimbabwe(formerly Rhodesia) during the Federal (1953-1964) and settler rule (1965-1980) periods.

Foothills Climate Array
A meso-grid of backcountry weather stations has been established in the southern Alberta foothills. This array will provide an unprecedented dataset of mesoscale meteorological variability in complex terrain.

Foothills Model Forest Grizzly Bear Research Program
The Foothills Model Forest Grizzly Bear Research Program was created in 1999 to provide knowledge and planning tools to land and resource managers to ensure the long-term conservation of grizzly bears in Alberta.

G8 Legacy Chair in Wildlife Ecology
In late 2003, Yvonne Martin was invited to join the interdisciplinary research team for the G8 Legacy Chair in Wildlife Ecology. The Chair provides funding over a 5-year period for numerous research projects/initiatives, and postdocs/graduate students falling under the G8 umbrella. Yvonne and her research team are involved in investigations of the links between geomorphology, hydrology and ecology occurring at the Kootenay National Park wildfire burn site.

Geoarchaeology of the Greater South Saskatchewan River Valley
This research program is designed to investigate the geologic and environmental context of known Early and Middle Prehistoric period archaeological sites on the northern Plains. The proposed research is being undertaken within the greater South Saskatchewan River Valley, including its tributaries, the Bow River and Fish Creek in Calgary.

GEOBIA: GEO-Object-Based Image Analysis
GEOBIA (pronounced ge-o-be-uh) is a newly evolving sub-discipline of Geographic Information Science devoted to developing automated methods to partition remote sensing (RS) imagery into meaningful geographically based image-objects, and assessing their characteristics through spatial, spectral and temporal scales. At its most fundamental level, GEOBIA requires image segmentation, attribution, classification and the ability to query and link individual objects (a.k.a. segments) in space and time. For Conference information please check out GEOBIA, 2008.

Glacier-climate processes
Field-based glacier-climate studies in the Canadian Rockies and Canadian Arctic are being undertaken to improve the basis of global-scale models of glacier retreat in response to ongoing climate change.

HEAT - Home Energy Assessment Technologies
The HEAT project (Home Energy Assessment Technologies) evolved from a proposal to develop new remote sensing and GEOBIA (GEOgraphic Object-Based Image Analysis) tools to support Canadian urban energy efficiency programs and reduce greenhouse gases.

Hypertemporal image analysis
As if space weren't enough, Geography can also contend with time as a variable. What cyclic partterns exist on the landscape and how can we adapt "traditional" remote sensing image analysis techniques to using them to help understand ecological processes?

Ice Age climate dynamics
Ice sheet and climate modelling are being used to analyze millennial- and orbital-scale climate dynamics during the Pleistocene glaciations.

Ice core studies in the Canadian Arctic
Deep ice cores were collected from the Prince of Wales Icefield, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut in May 2005, in a collaborative project between the Geological Survey of Canada and the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. This is a high-accumulation area in the Canadian Arctic and we are analyzing these ice cores for a high-resolution (i.e. annual) reconstruction of climate over the last millennia.

IMMERSRE :: Investigating Multi Modal Representations of Spatial Environments
This international and interdiscinplinary research program investigates how individuals acquire and re-present an understanding of geographic space, and is developing novel multisensory interfaces to geographic information.

INTERNATIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION: Commission on Maps and Graphics for Blind and Visually Impaired People
Dr. Dan Jacobson is currently the co-chair of the International Cartographic Association Commission above whose mandate is to exchange and disemminate information on the design of, research of, and production technologies for, maps and graphics for blind and visually-impaired people, and to provide experts for workshops throughout the world.

IPY - CFL (Circumpolar Flaw Lead) System Study
Our team studies how changing climate interactively affects Arctic sea ice. The flaw lead, the focus of the CFL project, is a passageway between drift ice and fast ice (ice attached to the shore) which is navigable by surface vessels. The flaw lead goes through an annual evolution; ice forms in fall/winter and melts in spring/summer. This seasonal evolution is closely related to atmospheric and oceanic forcing (like air temperature, winds, ocean currents etc). This determines the amounts of mass, radiation and energy exchanged between atmosphere and ocean through sea ice.

Multi-scale geo-object-based segmentation of forest objects derived from optical and lidar data.
The goal of this project is to develop automated multiscale object-based approaches to improve methods for operationally measuring and mapping forest canopy height, above-ground biomass, and carbon content of Canada’s forests with high-resolution satellite and LiDAR data.

Parks Canada Montane Bioregion Landcover Mapping Project
The Parks Canada Montane Bioregions Landcover Mapping Project is a collaboration between Parks Canada, the Foothills Model Forest, and the Foothills Facility for Geographic Information Science that will produce comprehensive maps of landcover and vegetation across the five mountain National Parks.

Social and Economic Housing Vulnerability of Youth in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
This IDRC sponsored research focuses on urban youth in Zimbabwe. These youth struggle to establish themselves socially and economically, many in the context of housing vulnerability. The longitudinal study is based on household dyad interviews with youth and their parents or guardians in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Social Gendered Dimensions of HIV/AIDS Care in Urban and Rural Zimbabwe
Despite the fact that Africans constitute more than 70% of HIV/AIDS sufferers globally, we know little about the gendered impacts of caregiving. This international research program looks at the impacts of HIV/AIDS care for women and girls at household and community levels in Bulawayo and Tshelenyemba, Zimbabwe.

Spatial Analysis Research in Computational Science (SPARCS)
The Spatial Analysis and Research in Computational Science (SPARCS) laboratory originated in 2004 as a collaborative effort between Department of Geography and Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary. The laboratory is mainly supported by GEOIDE Canadian Network of Excellence, with additional support from sponsors in Academia and Industry.

The Basic Ecclesial Community Movement in the Philippines
This project studies how the Basic Ecclesial Communities, organized by the Roman Catholic Church, engage in programs designed to provide sustainable livelihoods for the poor in the Philippines as alternatives to neoliberal development policies and programs.