Research

The Department of Geography and Planning is characterized by a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary research that promotes innovative and impactful scholarship across the social sciences, humanities, and earth system sciences.

The North

Researchers in Geography and Planning have a special interest in Canada’s north, including the Arctic and boreal zones of the nation.

You can undertake work examining permafrost and glaciers, geomatics, climate change, vegetation dynamics, biogeochemistry, hydrology, and resources.

Our researchers are engaged in northern communities and work to incorporate Indigenous knowledge in our projects. Research in these areas inform issues of governance, resource extraction, and conservation in one of the most vulnerable regions of the world.

The Community

Researchers in Geography and Planning address a wide range of issues that describe our communities.

You can explore anti-colonial and anti-racist geographies, historical geographies, political ecology, health geographies, global urbanisms and economies, geohumanities, and critical aspects of remote and Indigenous populations.

Researchers in our unit employ case studies that situate this work across the world, from Canada’s north to the cities and towns of Africa and South America, and which range in scope from the individual to country-level and international work.

The City

Researchers in Geography and Planning are interested in all aspects of urban development, including the role of professional planners in guiding the growth of our cities and towns.

You can examine issues ranging from climate change, sustainability, and environmental planning to healthy cities and societies.

Planners focus on issues of land use planning, urban development, transport and mobility, protected areas planning, and international planning.