Introduction to Human Geography
Practical and problem-oriented examination of spatial patterns of human organization and their links with social, economic, political and ecological processes.
Lectures, lab/seminar, 3 hours per week.
Principles of Physical Geography
The interactions of atmosphere, soils, vegetation and landforms occurring at the surface of the Earth. The development of natural environments and impacts upon people and their activities.
Lectures, lab/seminar, 4 hours per week.
Economic Geography
Theory and concepts of economic geography and the work of economic geographers. The organization of goods and services producing activities and their locational patterns. An overview of the geography of economic change in Canada and the United States since 1930.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Urban Geography
(also offered as ENVI 2P03)
Basic concepts and problems underlying the growth of cities, the urban system, land-use patterns in the city and urban policy making.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Introduction to Meteorology
(also offered as ENVI 2P04)
Principles, structure, composition and processes of the atmosphere; its energy budget, moisture balance and motion. Weather forecasting in middle and low latitudes, forecasting techniques and special problems in applied meteorology.
Lectures, Lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F91 or permission of instructor.
Earth Surface Processes
(also offered as ENVI 2P05 and ERSC 2P05)
Introductory geomorphology with an emphasis on basic principles and their application to global environments.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F91 or ERSC 1F95 or permission of the instructor.
Cultural and Historical Geography
Interactions among culture, society and landscape. The material and symbolic manifestations of culture in processes of landscape change.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Foundations of Geomatics
Basic spatial, metric, graphic and other concepts common to cartography, surveying, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). Properties of map and air photos. Principles of map compilation and design. Practical experience in computer map-making, field surveying, image interpretation and GIS analysis.
Lectures, lab, field work, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 1F90 , 1F91, ERSC 1F95 or permission of the instructor.
Principles of Biogeography
(also offered as ENVI 2P09 and ERSC 2P09)
Autoecological aspects of soils and plants including the human impact at all scales. Study of the patterns of soils and plants and their explanation. Spatial patterns of soils and vegetation communities and their explanation.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one of GEOG 1F91 and MATH 1P98, ERSC 1F95 and MATH 1P98, CHEM 1F92 (CHEM 1P80 and 1P81 or CHEM 1P90 and 1P91) or permission of the instructor.
Qualitative Research Design and Methodology
Aspects of qualitative research: project formulation, methodologies, writing-up; relation of theory and methodology.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Research Methods in the Geosciences
(also offered as ERSC 2P11)
Appraisal of scientific method. Problems of research design and the acquisition of information from the field by mapping, instrumental measurement, sampling and the use of published and unpublished data sources. Quantitative analysis of data, interpretation and the communication of results.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 1F91 or ERSC 1F95; MATH 1P98 or permission of the instructor.
Environmental Geoscience Field Course
(also offered as ERSC 2P90)
Introduction to interpreting, collecting, recording and synthesizing field data. Library research on selected topics. Elementary field mapping, mapping with existing maps and air photos. Preparation of field reports. Field sites chosen in Niagara Peninsula will include examples of exposed sections in Quaternary sediments, and coastal, hillslope, escarpment, and fluvial environments.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one of GEOG 1F91, ERSC 1F90, ERSC 1F95; two credits from ERSC or GEOG (Group B) 2(alpha)00 to 2(alpha)99.
Note: field work is undertaken in the weekly lab session.
Geography of Canada
The analysis of factors underlying the development of Canada's distinctive regions, with emphasis on its major metropolitan areas, resource regions and areas of decline.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Selected Field Studies
Application of geographical principles and techniques to the analysis of field data and problems; background preparation on a selected area, a two-week visit to that area and the compilation of reports on the topics studied.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Soil Science
(also offered as ERSC 3P00)
Pedogenesis; processes of profile development. Weathering and soil evolution. Major world soil types, soil taxonomy. Soils of Canada.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P05 or 2P09 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 3P31.
Topographic Surveying
Principles and techniques of topographic surveying. Use of tape, compass, clinometer, level, plane table, transit, theodolite, tachymeter, electronic distance meter and GPS receiver. Mapping using CADD software.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P07 or permission of the instructor.
Map Design and Production
Advanced aspects of map design. Methods of statistical mapping. Evolution of cartographic technology. Monochrome and colour map production using Adobe Illustrator. Issues and trends in cartography.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P07 or permission of the instructor.
Geographic Information Systems
Principles and use of computer-based systems for capturing, managing, manipulating, analysing and displaying data relating to the Earth's surface, with emphasis on raster applications. Practical work using Idrisi32.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P07 or permission of the instructor.
Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry
Theory and practice of remote sensing. Photographic, thermal, multispectral and radar imaging from aircraft and satellites. Photogrammetric mapping. Image interpretation, and digital image processing using Idrisi32.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P07 or permission of the instructor.
Applied Climatology
Studies in selected topics from the field of energy and moisture exchanges, air pollution, climatic change, climatic impact assessment and bioclimatology. Human impact on the climate along with applied microclimatological investigations and climatic data analysis.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P04 or permission of the instructor.
Climate and Winegrape Production
(also offered as OEVI 3P12)
Climatological aspects of winegrape production. Emphasis on selected wine regions of the world. The effects of climate, weather-related diseases, topography, soil and viticulture practices on winegrape production.
Lectures, lab, field work, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P04 or permission of the instructor.
Note: students enrolled in the OEVI program and OEVI certificate students are permitted to register without the prerequisite.
Principles of Geomorphology
(also offered as ERSC 3P22)
Field examples in the Niagara Peninsula establishing the late Quaternary chronology.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P05 or 2P11 or permission of the instructor.
Note: field trips undertaken in laboratory periods.
Advanced and Applied Geomorphology
(also offered as ERSC 3P23)
Selected topics in geomorphology using maps, aerial photographs and the modern scientific literature. The application of geomorphological principles to environmental management is developed wherever possible.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P05 or 2P11 or permission of the instructor.
Glacial Geomorphology/Geology
(also offered as ERSC 3P24)
Introduction to glaciology; glacial processes, glacial deposits; their genesis and sedimentology. Relationship of glacial processes to landforms and surface topography. Glacial systems and facies associations. Applied aspects of glacial geology such as drift exploration.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P05 or ERSC 2P31 or permission of the instructor.
Quaternary Geology
(also offered as ERSC 3P25)
Glaciations in the geological record, causes of glaciations, biotic responses to climatic changes, eustatic and isostatic sea level changes in response to glaciation, Quaternary stratigraphy and correlation of glacial and non-glacial events, application of Quaternary geology to economic and environmental problems, methods of paleoclimatic reconstruction.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 3P24 or ERSC 2P31 or permission of the instructor.
Glacial Soils and Sediments
(also offered as ERSC 3P26)
Applied aspects of glacial deposits. Geotechnical and pedochemical properties and structural attributes of glacial soils and sediments. Micromorphology, glacial soil discontinuity analyses. Introductory aspects of soil mechanics. Drift exploration. Landfill problems and issues related to glacial soils and sediments.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P05 or permission of the instructor.
Biogeography: Patterns and Processes
(also offered as ERSC 3P32)
Contemporary controls on plant and animal distributions (ecological biogeography). Past controls/paleo-geographical factors which shaped the distributions of species (historical biogeography), including plate tectonics and Quaternary climate change.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P09 or permission of the instructor.
Biodiversity
(also offered as ERSC 3P33)
Dispersal and migration; adaptation; speciation; extinction; ecological interaction; species invasion; plant and animal introductions; habitat fragmentation and application of biogeographical theory to conservation biology; human impacts on fire regimes.
Lectures, lab, field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 2P09, BIOL 2P05, 2Q04 or permission of the instructor.
Urban Growth Processes and Planning
Economic, social and political forces underlying population growth, land-use change and spatial expansion in cities in advanced industrial societies. Technological innovations and urban morphology. Urban planning issues relating to suburbanisation, small-town development, urban countryside, new towns, urban sprawl versus containment and intensification, and the loss of valuable resource areas.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 2P02 , 2P03, 2P06 or permission of the instructor.
Contemporary Issues in Social Geography
Spatial distribution of social well-being in Western society: work, housing, crime, gender, race, ethnicity in relation to the underlying structures of inequality, exploitation and alienation.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P03 or 2P06; GEOG 2P10 or permission of the instructor.
Community Development and Social Planning
Geographical approach to conceiving community and planning for community empowerment. Theories, policy perspectives and empirical studies from Canada and around the world.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P03 or 2P06; GEOG 2P10 or permission of the instructor.
Physical Geography Field Course
Application of geographical principles and field techniques to problems in physical geography.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Prerequisite: completion of year 2 GEOG requirements in the BSc GEOG (single or combined) programs.
Note: field work during registration week in early September. Students must register with the department by April of the preceding academic year. Students are expected to pay their own expenses.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 3P57.
Human Geography Field Course
Application of geographical principles and field techniques to problems in human geography.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Prerequisite: completion of year 2 GEOG requirements in the BA GEOG (single or combined) programs.
Note: field work during registration week in early September. Students must register with the department by April of the preceding academic year. Students are expected to pay their own expenses.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 3P56.
Geography of Transportation
Geographical aspects of transportation with particular emphasis on the bases for spatial interaction, networks and flows. The transportation planning process and transportation policy analysis.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P02 or permission of the instructor.
Geography and Gender
(also offered as COMM 3P74 and WISE 3P74)
Work of feminist geographers. Relationships between gender and space with respect to the organization of the city, architecture of the home, design of the shopping mall, the media, fear, homelessness, gentrification and employment.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 2P02, 2P03, 2P06, WISE 2P90 (2F90), 2P91, COMM 2P20 and 2P21 or permission of the instructor.
Environmental and Developmental Problems in the Third World
Interrelationships between physical and human factors and development; poverty and environmental problems; natural resource exploitation and sustainable development; humans as agents of change in desertification, deforestation, soil erosion and environmental pollution and their impact on climate, hydrologic cycle and nutrient cycling processes. Selected studies of regions that are marginal in terms of carrying capacity and ecological fragility.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or 1F91 or permission of the instructor.
Geography of Water Resources
Physical and human factors affecting patterns of use and development of water resources. Emphasis will be on patterns of supply and demand, approaches to development and management of the resource, problems and alternative strategies.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one GEOG credit numbered 2(alpha)00 to 2(alpha)99 or permission of the instructor.
Themes in Political Geography
Introduction to political geography with primary emphasis on contemporary themes, including geopolitics, economic globalization, global sustainability theory, evolution and emergent issues of the nation-state, new regionalism and place-based politics, and the local-global role of the new social movements.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P02 or 2P06 or permission of the instructor.
Ecology of a Changing Planet
(also offered as BIOL 3P85 and ERSC 3P85)
Impact of environmental change and human activity on ecosystems. Topics include climate change and global warming, habitat fragmentation, extinction, invasive species, conservation biology and the management of ecological integrity.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P09 or BIOL 1F90; BIOL 2P05 or 2Q04 or permission of the instructor.
Themes in Cultural Geography
Geographies of culture and cultural politics. Focus upon landscapes and the ways in which multiple meanings attached to them are implicated in relationships of power.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P06 and 2P10 or permission of the instructor.
Themes in Historical Geography
Literature, philosophies and methodologies of historical geography, including sections exploring the traditions of the field as well as current debates. Uses and limitations of primary source materials such as newspapers, oral traditions and government documents.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P06 and 2P10 or permission of the instructor.
Globalization and Sustainability
Phenomenon of globalization in relation to theories of sustainability. Changing spatial and power relations occurring through the globalization of economic, political, social, cultural and environmental spheres. Global sustainability principles in the contexts of local and regional "survival" under changing global conditions.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P02 or 2P06 or permission of the instructor.
Note: GEOG 3P84 strongly recommended.
Advanced Geographic Information Systems
Further study of geographic information systems, with emphasis on vector and database applications and advanced analytical operations. Practical work using Idrisi32 and MapInfo Professional. Discussion of legal, ethical, management and other issues relating to GIS.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 3P05.
Geoprocessing
(also offered as ERSC 3P96)
Geoprocessing applied to research in the Earth Sciences, focussing on case studies in biogeography glacial geology and geomorphology. This course will use image analyses techniques to investigate various paleoenvironmental processes and conditions.
Tutorial, lab and field work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisites: GEOG 2P05 or 2P09.
2001-2002: Geography of Rural Development and Tourism
(also offered as TOUR 3V60)
Provides overview of tourism as it intersects with rural development theory, processes and planning. Examines various social, environmental, cultural and economic problems, consequences and opportunities of tourism in a rural development context. Incorporates examples of rural festivals, wineries and agri-tourism as means to understand appropriate rural tourism development.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 1F90 or TOUR 1P98 (2P08).
Special Topics in Geography
Topics selected from year to year on the basis of faculty expertise.
2001-2002: Geography of Urban Planning
Historical development of urban planning in Canada, planning theory and key aspects of current municipal land use planning practice in Ontario. Topics may include the Ontario Planning Act, the policy and development approvals processes, inner-city planning, community design, community development and growth management.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P03 or permission of instructor.
Selected Field Studies and Directed Readings
Application of geographical methods and techniques to the analysis of field data and problems; two weeks of field work in a selected area.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Note: experience in hiking and wilderness travel recommended.
Research Themes in Urban-Economic Geography
Selected topics and research themes relating to recent developments in global cities and service industries.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one GEOG credit numbered 2(alpha)90 to 3(alpha)99 from group A.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in 4F65 and 4F69.
Research Themes in Cultural and Social Geography
Selected themes and debates in the spatiality of culture and social well-being.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one of GEOG 3P52, 3P53, 3P86 or 3P87 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 4F61 and 4F64.
Honours Thesis
Individual research project carried out under the direction of a faculty adviser.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Note: students contemplating a thesis must consult with the department at the end of year 3. Regulations governing the thesis may be obtained from the Administrative Assistant. A detailed proposal must be submitted in writing before May 1st prior to entering year 4.
Honours Internship
Internship on a specific geographic problem or task under either the direction of a faculty member, or in a government or private agency working under the supervision of that agency.
Internship, 8 hours per week for 15 weeks; seminar, 3 hours per week for 9 weeks.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Topographic Science
Independent study of an approved topic selected from the fields of surveying, remote sensing, geographical information systems and cartography.
Lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 3P01, 3P04, 3P05, 3P07, 3P95 or permission of the instructor.
Advanced Cartography
Research, discussion and synthesis of a selected issue in modern cartography or the compilation and design of a map illustrative of a specific theme.
Lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 3P04 or permission of the instructor.
Research Topics in Applied Climatology
Climatological investigations of selected problems in winegrape production, air pollution and climate change.
Seminar, lab and field work, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P04 and 3P10 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 4F11.
Research Topics in Climatic Hazards
Special topics relating to climatic hazards, their impacts and societal adjustments.
Seminar, lab and field work, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P04 and 3P10 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in GEOG 4F11.
Snow and Ice Hydrology
Hydrological processes involving snow, ice and frozen ground and their place in a geographical and environmental context. Topics include snowfall and drifting snow, the formation and evolution of the snow pack, snowmelt, avalanches, ice growth and decay on lakes and rivers, ice jams, glaciers and glacial hydrology; ground ice and permafrost hydrology.
Seminar, lab, field work, 3 hours per week
Prerequisite: one of GEOG 3P22, 3P23, 3P24 or permission of the instructor.
Research Themes in Fluvial Geomorphology
(also offered as ERSC 4P26)
Survey of modern literature in fluvial geomorphology complemented by local field work and the analysis of published river records.
Seminar, lab, field work, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisites: one of GEOG 3P22, 3P23, 3P24 or permission of the instructor.
Advanced Glacial Sedimentology
(also offered as ERSC 4P28)
Sedimentology of present day glacial environments and of Quaternary sediments. Thermo-mechanical principles of glacier physics as applied to past and present glacier ice conditions. Glacial lithofacies associations. Glacio-tectonics and diagenesis. Principles of glacial erosion, entrainment and deposition.
Lectures, lab, field work, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 3P24 or 3P26 or permission of the instructor.
Vegetation and Climate Change
Plant community history; organization of communities past and present, long-term changes in plant distribution and diversity. Topics include rainforest refugia hypotheses; migration in response to climatic change.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 3P32 or 3P33 or permission of the instructor.
Quaternary Paleoecology/Paleoclimatology
(also offered as ERSC 4P41)
Methods of reconstructing paleoenvironments using paleontological and physical/chemical proxies. Organization of plant communities past and present, and changes in biogeographic distribution and diversity accompanying global climate change throughout the Quaternary Period. Emphasis on field and laboratory methods applied to paleoclimatic, paleolimnological and paleohydrological studies in the Great Lakes Region.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: GEOG 2P09 or ERSC 2P32
Note: year 3 students enrolled in the ENVI (ENVS) program are permitted to register in GEOG 4P41 provided they have successfully completed the ERSC requirements in Year 2 of the program.
Directed Readings I
Guided readings on a topic which is not covered in the department's regular course offerings.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Note: topics must be chosen in consultation with a faculty member willing to supervise the tutorial.
Directed Readings II
Guided readings on a topic which is not covered in the department's regular course offerings.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Note: topics must be chosen in consultation with a faculty member willing to supervise the tutorial.