1. Scientific Research introduction
The subject of geography in Northwest University, founded in 1937, has a long history of academic accumulation and has trained out many famous scholars such as Academician Liu Chang-Ming and Niu Wen-Yuan and more than five thousands excellent talents people working throughout the country. Since 1980s, the subject of geography, rooting in Shaanxi Province and covering Western China, mainly focused on regional problem with interdisciplinary study and achieved a lot of academic fruits, which has both stimulated the improvement of geography science academically and serviced for local socio-economic development practically. The outstanding research fields have extensive influences in China including comprehensive management of Loess Plateau, Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Area construction and development planning of West China, local sustainable development planning, DEM modeling and its application, population-resource-environment coupling system management with the support of 3S techniques, and environmental protection and ecological construction in Qinling Mountain area etc.
2.Scientific Research highlights
The researches of the college focus on the comprehensive system of multi-elements of earth surface interacting with human activities. The combined action and evolution of the earth elements and their evolution, regional differentiation as well as the structure and evolution of human-environmental areal system are probed, especially the theory, technique and method of regional sustainable development. Grounded on the fragile and undeveloped West China where the contradictions between human and land resource are quite prominent, the staffs have engaged for a long period in researches of land use/ coverage changes of the Loess Plateau, comprehensive system of multiple temporal and spatial scale geographic process, the evolution and optimal regulation of man-land relationship, urban and rural residential pattern and its spatial evolution. Since 1950s, a series of results have been achieved in areas such as natural resource investigation in Northwest China, site selection of important construction projects, agricultural zoning, economic regionalization, territorial planning, urban planning, comprehensive survey of the Loess Plateau and development in West China. The finished researches influenced greatly in both academic circles and society including natural regionalization of Shaanxi Province, agricultural geography and regionalization of Shaanxi Province, forecasting and planning of setting municipality of Shaanxi Province, ‘Spatial Analysis of Economic Activities’(monograph), ‘Introduction of Regional Science’(translation) and ‘A History of Ancient Chinese Geography’(the Qing Dynasty). In practice, the college emphatically carry out the researches of dividing and planning the main functional regions of Shaanxi Province, urban-rural integration development of western areas and typical metropolitan regions, technical diffusion and rural development in agricultural science and high-technology parks, man-land relationship of arid and semiarid areas in West China. Mean while, the college attaches great importance to the application of remote sensing and GIS technology to the extraction and quantitative inversion technology of spatial and temporal changes in regional geographical process. Distinct features have been formed in regional soil erosion and ecological system restoration, uncertainty of DEM and Topography, landscape ecology and hydrologic ecological environmental protection.
3. Talent training
There is a whole academic degree training system from B.S and M.S. to Ph D and post doctorate in the subject of geography. Based on the two first-level Master degree authorization points, one is urban and rural planning , and the other is environmental science and engineering, the subject of geography, with a training notion of “multi disciplines, strong basis, application attention” emphasized on interdisciplinary training pattern by integrating knowledge of geography, remote sensing, GIS and mapping engineering, urban and rural planning, and environmental impact assessment. The graduates mainly found their positions in universities, colleges and governmental institutions involving land resource management, environmental protection, tourism and cultural heritage management, and urban and rural planning etc. Most of them have gained an excellent personal appraisal as good academic accumulation, strong working and practice capacity .
