Humans play an integral role shaping landscapes. Teaching and research in Human Systems & Environment (HSE) seeks to understand how human systems evolve, influence, and are influenced by this dynamic relationship.

At UNT, faculty and students in the HSE core draw on expertise in health, urban, economic, and social issues to contribute solutions to significant problems people currently face.

We conduct research around the world in such places as Canada, Mexico, Peru, Ghana, China and the Middle East. We specialize in urban and economic geography, GIS, medical geography, and human-environment interactions. Below are our HSE research interests by sub-area and faculty member.

Urban/Economic Geography

• urban development (Ahmed, Chatterjee, Rice)
• corporate and retail geography (Ahmed, Rice)
• industrial ecology (Rice)
• economic geography, investments and finance capital (Ahmed)

GIS Applications in Human Systems

• population estimation (Dong)
• disaster assessment (Dong)
• land-use and land-cover change (Dong)
• location modeling and optimization (Oppong)

Health and Medical Geography

• geography of disease (Oppong)
• environmental health (Oppong)
• spatial analysis and GIS applications for public health (Oppong)

Human-Environment Interactions

• land-use and livelihoods (Wolverton)
• environmental archaeology (Nagaoka, Wolverton)
• cultural ecology (Wolverton)
• conservation (Nagaoka, Wolverton)
• resource geography (Ahmed)
• political ecology (Ahmed)

Read more on courses offered in this core area >>