Research in the School of Geography and Environmental Science

The School has long been recognised, nationally and internationally, as one of the leading centres of geographical and environmental research within Australia. The School has designated five main areas of research - environment and society, geographic information science, indigenous archaeology, physical geography, urban and economic geography, and a summary of activity for each of these research groupings follows;

Environment and Society

Research is undertaken in the areas of:

• international development and environmental analysis (focussed geographically in the Indo-Pacific rim)
• urban water sustainability and governance through the National Urban Water Governance Program
• social, economic and environmental change in rural Australia through the Monash Regional Australia project (focussed on the changing dynamics of agri-environmental governance in Australia
• corporate governance and socially responsible investment through Monash Sustainability Enterprises who provide contract research services to the Australian finance sector

Geographical Information Systems

The GIS research group main fields of research include:

• Spatial data integration in aid of bringing environmental sustainability policies to practice
• Design, development and implementation of spatial decision support systems
• Geodemographic analysis

for social, economic and environmental applications.

Indigenous Archaeology

Under the broad umbrella of ‘Indigenous Archaeology & Heritage’, this team presents the new face of Indigenous archaeology in Australia informed by anthropology, history and post-colonial theory, emphasizing Indigenous community partnership research and the development of a decolonized practice. The Group interests include the archaeology of history and identity and the meaningfulness of objects in past and present land- and seascape perception, construction and engagement.

Physical Geography

The group of physical geographers is distinguished by its scientific focus on environmental processes and change that contributes to the understanding of the present landscape and to prediction of future changes within it. It incorporates the fields of climatology, biogeography, geomorphology and pedology and their integration within the general area of Earth System Science.

Urban and Economic Geography

The group’s research is broadly concerned with the uneven geographies of the urban and economic realms and include areas such as:

• regional sustainability and resilience from the perspectives of economic geography, development, and political ecology
• environmental transformations and their causes
• historical geography, environmental history and historiography. I am fascinated by the interpretation and portrayal of the relation between humans and nature, and how and why those interpretations have changed over time
• ethnicity, gender and sexuality studies

See also:

• research interests of individual staff members
• current and completed student research topics
• our in-house publications (Monash Publications in Geography and Environmental Science)
• Honours and Postgraduate Thesis Topics
• Graduate Research Reports
• Research student profiles in the School of Geography and Environmental Science