An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Content in any given year depends on instructor. The program in which this course can be used depends on its context. Consult Departmental Office in April.

Content in any given year depends on instructor. The program in which this course can be used depends on its context. Consult Departmental Office in April.

In this seminar course, we will use lectures, readings, and classroom activities to investigate the ways in which Earth’s surface has been impacted by humans while considering the role of geomorphology as a science for understanding these changes.

Modern developments in hydrology and ecology, including form and process models, interactions of hydrology, ecology and geomorphology; the course emphasizes the use of computer simulation models of drainage basin processes.

Building on GGR315H1 (formerly GGR337H1) Environmental Remote Sensing with advanced theories and techniques for land cover mapping, vegetation biophysical and biochemical parameter retrievals, optical and thermal remote sensing of urban environment, and application of satellite remote sensing to terrestrial water and carbon cycle estimation. Basic radiative transfer theories as applied to vegetation will be given in some detail as the basis for various remote sensing applications. Optical instruments for measuring vegetation structural parameters will be demonstrated in the field.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has emerged as a key component of environmental planning and management. EIAs are planning tools to predict and assess the potential costs and benefits of proposed projects, policies, and plans and avoid or mitigate the adverse impacts of these proposals. This course focuses on the origins, principles, scope, and purpose of EIA from theoretical and practical perspectives, emphasizing the Canadian context. We will also explore the various components of EIAs and critically evaluate techniques to assess, predict, and mitigate impacts. Through course readings, in-class activities, and assignments, we will engage critiques of EIAs, particularly as they relate to considerations of climate change, sustainability, long-term monitoring, meaningful public engagement, indigenous people’s rights, dispossession and resettlement, and environmental justice. Case studies will allow students to learn about current practices in EIA and develop skills to examine and improve EIA processes.

Examines political aspects of the appropriation of natural resources, including policy and regulation, environmental impacts, and social justice. Emphasis is placed on reading contemporary literature on the politics of resource access and control from geography and other social science disciplines.

Examines how environmental problems affect people, communities and societies differentially and how marginalized communities and people often bear the brunt of environmental costs, while contributing little to their creation. It uses readings and case studies from across the globe to address the production of environmental injustice and the struggle for environmental justice.

The history of geography as an intellectual subject, focusing primarily on the modern period, and on the genealogies of central concepts. Disciplinary developments will be situated next to broader contexts, including imperialism and militarism, the relationship between culture and nature, and the shifting social role of the academy.

Introductory overview of major issues in interurban and intraurban transportation at the local, national and international scale. Topics include urban transportation, land use patterns and the environment, causes of and cures for congestion, public transit, infrastructure finance, and transport planning and policy setting.

The course focuses on a broad range of topics related to innovation and governance, such as (i) technological change and its social and economic consequences, (ii) the spatial effects which result from this, and (iii) the necessities for economic policies at different territorial levels. Since international competitiveness of industrialized economies cannot be based on cost advantages alone, future growth in the knowledge-based economy will be increasingly associated with capabilities related to creativity, knowledge generation and innovation. As a consequence, questions regarding the performance in innovation and effectiveness of policy support become decisive at the firm level, regional level and national level. The first part of the course deals with conceptual foundations of innovation processes, such as evolutionary and institutional views of innovation. In the second part, national configurations of innovation processes are investigated. The third part deals with innovation at the subnational level, focusing on regional clustering, institution building, multilevel governance, and regionalized innovation systems.

Focuses on actually-existing markets and their geographically-mediated formation and assemblage. Explores how markets are produced, stabilized, reshaped and fall apart at multiple geographic scales. We examine issues such as the debates on states versus markets, embeddedness of markets, neoliberalism and moral justification of markets, varieties of capitalism, regionally variegated capitalism, post-socialist market transitions, and the dynamic evolution of market institutions and economic landscapes.

Economic activity, and related indices of socioeconomic well-being and human capital, have always tended to concentrate in space, leaving specific regions to be classified as “creative”, “developed”, or “core” regions and others as “have-not”, “less-developed, “peripheral”, or “marginal” regions. As a result, regional economic change has been very difficult to fully explain (and certainly predict) using conventional (orthodox) theories and methods. This course examines the theoretical linkage between related trends in terms of globalization, vertical disintegration, specialization, innovation, and the locational behaviour of firms. We will focus on the seemingly counter-intuitive finding that regional economic change in a time of increasing global interdependence is increasingly dependent on the local context. Topics will include evolutionary economic geography, path dependence, economic clusters, learning regions, the role of institutions, knowledge spill-overs, and the geography of innovation, among others. We will see why the economic activity is becoming ever more concentrated in space even as it globalizes. The course makes extensive use of empirical case studies from around the globe.

Set against the backdrop of the rise of China, and following the perspective of geographic political economy, this seminar course examines the interactions between and mutual transformations of the Chinese economy and the global economy. We will focus on the evolving political and institutional foundations of China’s post-Mao, hybrid, hierarchical market-authoritarian system. Key sectors – telecoms, Internet, semiconductor, and automobile – will be examined to understand the nuances of China’s integration into the global production through state-directed uneven domestic development, and in turn the challenges raised by escalating international conflicts.

Linking across fields that include public health, geography and planning, this course examines the growing evidence and ways in which human health is affected by the design and development of the built environment in which we live, work and play. The course considers how various planning and development decisions impact population and individual health, particularly in relation to chronic diseases, injuries, and mental health. Potential of several local field trips (transportation costs: approximately $20).

Examines concepts of resilience as a way of building the capacity of communities to (a) respond to predicted disruptions/shocks associated with climate change, global pandemics, anticipated disruptions in global food supply, energy insecurity, and environmental degradation; and (b) nurture the development of alternative spaces that support the emergence of more life-sustaining structures and practices. Includes explicit attention to equity and public health, and explores issues such as: participatory governance of social-ecological systems, the nature of social change, complexity science, the role of social movements, indigenous and political ecology perspectives.

This seminar course examines how waste is made and how it circulates locally, regionally, and globally. It considers changing conceptions of ‘waste’ and the wider systems that have shaped efforts to manage waste through a selection of historic and contemporary geographies of waste. We will examine waste as a resource (e.g., recycling, composting) and waste avoided (e.g., reuse, repair). Through case studies, we will analyze waste – including urban wastewater – in relation to policy and planning, political economy, forms of labour and infrastructure, and the social norms and values that have shaped people’s relationship to it.

Examines the implications of development – as an economic and social project – for how the environment is used, by whom, and to what ends. Draws on literatures in political ecology and critical development geography. Topics include: interpretations of scarcity and degradation, questions of consumption, and the greening of development. Examines expansion of and struggles over new forms of green infrastructure in urban and rural settings.

This course investigates the city as a space sculpted by particular configurations and relations of power, and productive of those forms. It considers shifting urban geographies of identity, economy and desire with a focus on race and racism, settler colonialism, empire, the laboring body, sexuality, and sexual identity. Course participants will engage a series of case studies of particular urban spaces and struggles, drawing on conceptual support from scholarship in urban geography, anti-colonial thought, political economy, black studies, feminist and queer theory, Indigenous and settler colonial studies, as well as literature and other artistic work.

This course focuses on a special topic in urban geography and covers it with more depth than would otherwise be the case in a survey-oriented class. The aim is to utilize this single topic as a vehicle to understanding how urban geographical ideas are produced more widely. Check the department website for the theme (updated each year).

This seminar addresses the relationship between urbanization and global economic, political, cultural, social, demographic, technological and ecological dynamics. It does so with an emphasis on the contested legacies of city planning, urban design, architecture and urban political activism, by drawing on historical studies of global cities as well as critical-theoretical perspectives on the ‘production of space’. While broaching the question what’s ‘production of space’ got to do with social justice, we explore—with reference to pioneering thinkers in the fields of planning, architecture and critical theory—such concepts as radical planning, the urban revolution and the right to the city.

Students work in groups to develop their own research project and then acquire, organize and analyze geographic data to complete it. Emphasis is placed on research design, project management and the application of GIS concepts and skills learned in previous courses to a practical problem.

Explores the power of web mapping and CyberGIS, with a focus on hands-on learning and open source software. Students will learn about relevant software (exploring various APIs), data structures, methods, and cartographic and visualization techniques. Finally, students will work in groups to develop and deliver their own online web maps from scratch, on a topic of their choosing.

Advances in sensing and mobile technologies have contributed to the increasing availability of large volume georeferenced data such as geo-tagged social media content, GPS traces, and crowdsourced maps. While geospatial big data provide a major source for innovation and analysis, challenges relating to data handling, processing, and interpretation have simultaneously arisen. In this course, students will build a critical understanding of the evolution, potential, and biases of geospatial big data. Knowledge of geo-computational techniques to handle geospatial big data and perform meaningful analysis will also be developed and applied.

Examines the production of urban landscapes, built environments and social spaces in Toronto and surrounding areas through in-depth case studies. Coverage will vary some depending on instructor. The course consists of local field trips and in-class seminars and lectures. Students must submit an application directly to the Department in the spring (see the Geography website for details in March). Course may be limited by size. Not eligible for CR/NCR option. Field trip costs are normally low, but may go up to $150.

Specially designed for students wishing to gain experience in conducting research in their area of specialization. Of particular value for geographers interested in graduate study, or positions in government, planning and consulting firms where research skills may be an asset. Students select a research problem and complete a project under the supervision of a faculty member. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate; early discussion with a likely supervisor is encouraged. Enrolment may be completed at any time up to September; open to students in a Specialist or Major Program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client.” Enrolment requires written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning/GIS project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client”. Enrolment required written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10.0 credits and who are enrolled in a Specialist, Major or GIS minor program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.