UNT Geography Department: Research

Research Facilities

The Geography department operates or is affiliated with several research centers and labs. These facilities are housed both within the department and within the Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), a center for interdisciplinary research of which the department is a member.

Center for Spatial Analysis and Mapping (CSAM)

The Center for Spatial Analysis and Mapping (CSAM) provides instructional and research support in the areas of geographic information systems (GIS), computer cartography, spatial analysis, and environmental modeling. Beyond its immediate instructional and research mission, CSAM is envisioned as the facility to provide GIS support for institutional planning and facilities management at UNT, and to work with Government Documents in the University of North Texas Willis Library to provide access to spatial data bases such as the U. S. Census Bureau's census of population which is now distributed in digital format.
Geographic Information Systems Lab

For more information, contact Bruce Hunter at hunter@unt.edu or by phone at 940 565-2991.

Geomorphology Lab

For more information, contact

Dr. Harry Williams
e-mail: williams@unt.edu
phone: (940) 565-3317
URL: http://courses.unt.edu/hwilliams/index.html

Hydrogeology Lab

The hydrogeology lab supports teaching and research in groundwater supply and contamination issues. It includes computing equipment, visualization software, various groundwater sampling devices, instruments for measuring water quality characteristics of groundwater, equipment for measuring the ability of earth materials to transmit fluids, and seepage tanks for studying the movement of groundwater through porous media.

Recent projects supported by the lab include developing new equipment for measuring the hydraulic conductivity of rock aquifers, determining chemical ratios in water from animal feedlots, monitoring water quality at a field station near the Denton Airport, quantifying the composition of residential and commercial solid waste in Denton, devising groundwater monitoring strategies near landfills, studying groundwater-surface water interactions at local wetlands, building filter cartridges to remove contaminants from groundwater, and visualizing subsurface contamination at toxic waste facilities.

For more information, contact Dr. Paul Hudak via e-mail at hudak@unt.edu or by phone at (940) 565-4312.
Institute of Applied Sciences Research Facilities

Center for Environmental Archaeology
The Center for Environmental Archaeology maintains fully equipped laboratories in archaeology, geoarchaeology and zooarchaeology. These facilities include instrumentation for analysis of sediments, soils, petrographic thin sections, lithic and ceramic artifacts. The zooarchaeology laboratory houses over 700 curated skeletons of recent vertebrates as well as large collections of Holocene and Pleistocene archaeological faunas. Extensive research includes current projects of Upper and Middle Paleolithic sites in Portugal and Ukraine, the 1.7 million year-old site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, environmental impacts resulting from human colonization in New Zealand, and several projects in Texas.

For more information contact Dr. Reid Ferring, Dr. Lisa Nagaoka or Dr. Steve Wolverton.

Center for Remote Sensing and Landuse Analysis

http://www.ias.unt.edu/departments/crsla.html
The Center for Remote Sensing and Landuse Analyses (CRSLA) was established as a means of addressing important natural resources issues. Dr. Samuel F. Atkinson is the Director. CRSLA serves as a primary mechanism to integrate and enhance the expertise at UNT for digital image processing, remote sensing, geographic information systems and environmental analyses to effectively address most land management questions.

Environmental Modeling Lab

http://www.ias.unt.edu/~acevedo/research/eml.htm
This laboratory develops and uses mathematical models and computer simulations for the assessment of impacts of anthropogenic stressors on environmental and ecological systems. Research interests span the local, landscape, regional and global scales. The main research themes are: linking environmental models to remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) for application to landscape and regional dynamics; global change effects on tropical ecosystems; integration of modeling with other technologies like optical sensors and data acquisition electronics. The laboratory is directed by Dr. Miguel F. Acevedo.

University of North Texas
Department of Geography
P.O. Box 305279
1704 W Mulberry
EESAT 210
Denton, TX 76203

Phone: (940) 565-2091
Fax: (940) 369-7550
E-mail: geog@unt.edu