Environmental Science

Environmental science is a broad area of research that explores how humans interact with their environment. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, research in environmental science cuts across traditional academic disciplines to include faculty and students in geography, geology and atmospheric science - working closely with other departments and research units on campus.

Within the geography program, research in environmental science includes urban and agricultural land use and land cover change, the human dimensions of climate change, the role of human acivity in the generation of dust storms and the impact impact of groundwater depletion on agriculture.

Other areas of related department research include:

• Geochemistry
• Geophysics
• Thunderstorms, Tornadoes and Lightning
• Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
• Human Biometeorology and Climatology

Faculty

Dr. Abinash Bhattachan,  aeolian processes, human-environment interactions, climate change and spread of infectious disease, urban ecology

Dr. Perry Carter, environmental justice as it relates to race and poverty in different communities.

Dr. Jen Henderson,  Risk, uncertainty, and vulnerability/resilience. Rapid and slow onset disasters. Weather and climate extremes. Politcal ecology.  

Dr. Jeff Lee, the relative role of climate and human activity on the generation of dust storms.

Dr. Yunuen Reygadas, remote sensing and spatiotemporal statistical analysis, with a particular focus on land-use/land-cover changes and their impacts on climate and human-environment interactions

Research and Teaching Facilities

• Geographic Information Systems Lab
• Remote Sensing Lab
• Physical Geography Research Lab
• Physical Geography Teaching Lab
• Texas Tech University, Junction Campus
• Center for Geospatial Technology

Courses

• GEOG 1401 Physical Geography
• GEOG 3310 Environmental Change
• GIST 3301 Remote Sensing of the Environment
• GEOG 4335 Field Seminar in Physical Geography
• GEOG 3353 Environmental Sustainability
• GEOG 3355 Environmental Hazards and Disasters
• GEOG 4357 Geography of Arid Lands
• GEOG 5304 Advanced Physical Geography
• GEOG 5306 Seminar in Geography of Arid Lands