Department of Geography and Planning
Geography & Planning is about our world and our place in it, and how we can build better places for all of us to survive and thrive into the future.
Geography is concerned with our relationships with the physical and built environments and is therefore essential for answering the critical questions currently facing humanity: climate change, ecological collapse, human population growth, economic development, social inequality and accelerating land and water degradation.
Planning is about putting these answers into practice. Planning is about designing places that will stand the test of time and not cost the Earth.
Geography & Planning together are about working towards a more liveable, more sustainable world. It's a crucially important area of research and study.
Our courses
Our courses help students explore some of the biggest issues facing society today, and give students the tools and knowledge to help create liveable, efficient and sustainable spaces.
Our research
Our research combines our strengths in geography and planning for collaborative research and as disciplines focused on the physical world, we are ideally positioned for partnering with industry and community groups.
In the wake of the 2008 food and finance crises, the global agri-food system saw major investment from financial interests and actors. This ‘financialisation’ of the agri-food system has been observed at multiple levels, from commodity speculation and private equity takeovers of supermarkets, to investment banks and sovereign wealth funds purchasing and running farms. This ongoing project investigates financialisation of the agri-food system with a particular focus on the Australian case in order to understand how finance capital is shaping the future of the food system. Research to date has variously explored the narratives financial actors use to legitimise their new role as food producers; the state’s historical and contemporary role in facilitating financial investment in agriculture; the grounded experiences of farmers in response to the entry of financial actors into rural communities; and historical financial investment in Australian agriculture land and rural water markets. Researcher: Dr Nikki Larder Our research in these topical areas is primarily international in close collaboration with both governmental and non-governmental agencies in host countries. Our research has explored leopard cat use of agricultural landscapes to control rodent pests, ecology and conservation of endemic proboscis monkeys, and sustainable indigenous-based ecotourism in Borneo. Focus on the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan We’re undertaking a major research projects in the eastern Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan focusing on the ecology, conservation, and management of globally threatened mammals, namely red panda, tiger, golden langur, and takin. Further collaborative applied research in Bhutan includes efficacy studies on the country’s totally protected area network, and trophic cascade research involving apex predators, ungulates, and downstream water availability amidst impacts from climate change. Our current research in Bhutan is focused on the conservation of endangered Himalayan musk deer, externally funded by the National Geographic Society and United Kingdom’s Whitley Award for Nature. Australian native species studies On Australian soil, our research has focused on alleviating human-kangaroo conflict, population dynamics of endangered black-striped wallabies, and activity patterns of red-necked pademelons. We’re currently investigating the population status of native, endangered spotted-tailed quolls in mining land within the Hunter Region of New South Wales. Researcher: Dr Rajanathan Rajaratnam. River systems are complex, diverse and productive, and one of the areas of interest and expertise in our department. Our river science staff and students are interested in the hydrology, geomorphology and ecology of river systems in Australia and around the world, and how human modifications to river systems – including catchment disturbance, water extraction and floodplain and instream infrastructure such as dams, weirs and levees – disrupt the structure and functioning of rivers. From the impact of agricultural development and modification have impacted wetlands on the Danube River over 150 years, to the impact of colonisation on Australian billabongs, our studies contribute to a better understanding of human impact and conservation issues for our essential and vulnerable water systems and habitats. Lead researcher: Associate Professor Michael Reid Our researchers are committed to environmental sustainability and and are passionately engaged in research at the cutting edge of their disciplines as well as in multidisciplinary initiatives to combat climate change, protect biodiversity and arrest land and water degradation through designing better governance and policy and appreciating the 'human' side of environmental issues. Our current collaborative endeavours encompass: Our research has produced comprehensive publications including: Research lead: Associate Professor Robyn Bartel
Projects and activity
Our staff are prominent not only in their research fields but also in contributing to their respective disciplinary and professional bodies to benefit local, national and international towns, cities, regions and communities. A new Australian Disaster Resilience Index, developed in collaboration with UNE researchers, has been launched by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Using a series of interactive maps on a website, the index assesses the disaster resilience capacity of communities across Australia based on a set of social, institutional and economic factors. It identifies which factors support and which factors constrain disaster resilience across Australia. Researchers: UNE Rural Futures researchers Melissa Parsons, Graham Marshall, Richard Stayner, Judith McNeill, Peter Hastings and Phil Morley, UNE Geography and planning researcher, Dr Sonya Glavac. Project partners: Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, University of New England's Computation, Analytics, Software and Informatics group Our urban and regional planning staff have often sat as members of the Northern Regional Planning Panel. Regional Planning Panels are comprised of people with recognised experience or expertise in planning, and their role is to hear stakeholder submissions and provide oversight decisions on major, regionally significant developments and planning proposals. Membership on the Regional Panels is one way that UNE planning academics maintain a practical relationship with the planning profession, and with the local community who often participate in Panel hearings. It also provides a means of promoting the expertise of the Geography and Planning department, while ensuring that expertise remains in touch with current trends in urban and regional development and planning governance. Our department plays a role in identifying and providing expert advice on local economic, social and environment development issues to government, particularly as part of the Regional Development Australia-Northern Inland committee (RDA-NI). Providing regular advice to the committee, for example on migration trends into and out of the Northern Inland region, plays an important role in understanding such factors as short- and medium-term changes in school enrolments, workforce recruitment and ageing. Our representative is also an inaugural member of the Expert Panel within the Federal Government's Centre for Population. Committee member: Professor Neil Argent Our department boasts a proud heritage of contributions to, participation in, and leadership of, the national disciplinary bodies for Geography & Planning: Our involvement includes past and current executive members and past winners of the most illustrious award in the discipline of Geography in Australia: the Griffith Taylor Medal.
Understanding these capacities, and how they differ from place to place, will help communities, governments and industry work together to cope with and adapt to natural hazards such as bushfires, floods, storms and earthquakes.
View the index here.
Contact us
To find out more about our department, please contact:
Head of Department, Geography and Planning
Associate Professor Elizabeth Hale
Email: hasshod-gepl@une.edu.au
