Undergraduate Program

Undergraduate students may major or minor in geography at UNH. See the links at the right for all of the opportunities open to undergraduates.

What is geography?

Geography is best defined as the discipline that describes and analyses the variable character, from place to place, of the Earth as the home of human society. As such, geography is an integrating discipline, studying many aspects of the physical and cultural environment that are significant to understanding the character of areas or the spatial organization of the world. Geography provides a basis for understanding the world in which we live.

Because its integrating character establishes common areas of interest with many other fields of knowledge, geography provides an excellent core discipline for a liberal education. Those who would understand geography must also know something of the earth sciences, as well as economics, cultures, politics, and processes of historical development.

Geography has been defined in many ways. A non-geographer, Leonard Krishtalka (Carnegie Museum of Natural History), described it in this way:

"Geography is the science of place. Its vision is grand. Its view panoramic. It sweeps the surface of the Earth, charting the physical, organic, and cultural terrains, their areal differentiation, and their ecological dynamics with humankind. Its foremost tool is the map."

The Association of American Geographers has answered the question, "What is geography?" in the following way:

"Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment.

There are two main branches of geography: human geography and physical geography. Human geography is concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence--how people and their activity are distributed in space, how they use and perceive space, and how they create and sustain the places that make up the earth's surface. Human geographers work in the fields of urban and regional planning, transportation, marketing, real estate, tourism, and international business.

Physical geographers study patterns of climates, landforms, vegetation, soils, and water. They forecast the weather, manage land and water resources, and analyze and plan for forests, rangelands, and wetlands. Many human and physical geographers have skills in cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Geographers also study the linkages between human activity and natural systems. Geographers were, in fact, among the first scientists to sound the alarm that human-induced changes to the environment were beginning to threaten the balance of life itself. They are active in the study of global warming, desertification, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, groundwater pollution, and flooding."