Geography Blog

Year: 2012

  • MUGS 2012

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    averslui

    Gustavus Geography had a great showing at this year’s Midwest Undergraduate Geography Symposium (MUGS) on Saturday, April 28. Gustavus students Jory Birkeland, Emery Ellingson, and Peter Westby presented papers from their original research: Jory presented on the future of public transportation in the American West, Emery on the relationship between growth in corn ethanol and…

  • Sustainable Cities Field Trip

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    averslui

    Dr. Thomas Sigler took his Sustainable Cities class on a field trip to Minneapolis last week.  Two educated and informative speakers — Paul Burns from the Metropolitan Council and Ben Penner from Open Arms — met with the class to explain the mechanics of transit-oriented development and urban farming, respectively.

  • Bears and Humans in Vancouver’s Suburbs

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    mbjellan

    This sign on a city street in North Vancouver, British Columbia is evidence of the coexistence of humans and bears in the suburbs of Vancouver. Vancouver has set an ambitious goal of being the greenest city in the world by 2020. One of its main strategies is a strict urban containment boundary with large areas…

  • Field trip to a former lake

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    averslui

    Students in GEG105 Physical Geography: Earth System Science took a field trip west of campus this week to study human impact on the natural environment in Nicollet County, MN. At one time Nicollet County and surrounding areas were covered in lakes and wetlands–some seasonal and some permanent. At the turn of the 20th century, farmers…

  • Real-time wind map of USA

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    averslui

    Here’s a gorgeous and informative real-time animation of surface winds across the USA: http://hint.fm/wind/.  

  • Remote sensing of sea ice off Antarctica

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    averslui

    This is a guest blog by Geology major Andi Eglinton as part of the course GEG345 Remote Sensing of Environment. The Australian Antarctic Program is using remote sensing to look at near-coastal Antarctic sea ice and its impacts on ice shelves and ecosystems. They are using RADARSAT satellite ScanSAR images as well as MODIS images…

  • Remote Sensing Field Trip to EROS Center

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    averslui

    On Thursday, GEG345 Remote Sensing of Environment students made a pilgrimage to the “mecca” of earth-observation remote sensing: the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. From the EROS brochure, the Center is “the largest civilian archive of remotely sensed land data in the world. The archive represents a…

  • Are Electric Cars Good for the Climate? Depends on Where You Live

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    mbjellan

    A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the benefit of driving an electric car such as the Nissan Leaf depends on where you live. The numerical reduction in greenhouse gases depends on how the local electric utility generates its power. If it relies on hydropower, as on the West Coast, then…

  • Review of “Triumph of the City”

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    averslui

    Are cities “engines of human innovation” and are “vast increases in standards of living in the past century. . . attributable primarily to the advent of urban living on a large scale”? Geography Professor Dr. Thomas Sigler reviews Edward Glaeser’s 2011 book  Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and…

  • J-Term 2013: new Miami course

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    averslui

    The Haitian Diaspora: Surviving and Thriving in Miami Are you interested in Haiti but not ready to make a trip abroad? Join us as we spend January 2013 living and studying in Miami’s own Little Haiti. Discover a Miami you never knew! Course Description: Come study and experience Miami as a microcosm of immigrant relationships.…