The focus of the People, Society, and Environment track centers on the reciprocal relationships between social and natural processes. Current faculty investigate tropical forests, drylands, oceans, urban ecosystems, climate, and water resources using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and a range of theoretical frameworks, from politcal ecology to econometrics.

Students pursuing this track study issues and concepts such as:

• Global Environmental Challenges: From deforestation to climate change, geographers study not only the environmental systems that unite the globe, but the social and economic forces that drive profound, and perhaps irreversible, changes.
  

• Environmental Law and Policy: The realities of environmental law are formed both by the demands of ecological systems and the practicalities of social and economic processes. You can study the legislative procedures that form new environmental law and the methods and techniques used in managing parks, forests, and waterways.
  

• Environmental Systems: To understand human life in its physical environment, geographers require a solid grasp of ecological systems. You can study soils, plants, atmosphere, water, or geomorphology from the basics to more advanced concepts.
  

• Environmental History and Philosophy: Competing views of the physical world set the stage for current debates and issues. Geography is a field where history and philosophy are fundamental to contemporary science.
  

• Field Research in Environmental Issues: Geographers often practice their craft in the field, working with resource users, measuring ecological systems, and mapping environmental phenomena. You can learn to use field tools like Global Positioning Systems (GPS), focus group interviews, and ground truthing in a hands-on research project.
  

• Rural Livelihoods: In the process of making a living, rural households both respond to and catalyze environmental change. Studying these interconnections offers crucial insights for how to improve the well-being of rural peoples and the health of the environments on which they directly depend.