Undergraduate Major and Minor Requirements

Please contact our undergraduate chair for any questions regarding the following requirements.


Major Requirements

The geography major requires at least 31 credit hours including:

1) Core Required Courses (19 credit hours)

  • GEO 101: The Natural Environment (3) DP
  • GEO 101L: The Natural Environment Lab (1) DY
  • GEO 102: World Regional Geography (3) FGB
    or GEO 151: Geography & Contemporary Society (3) FGC
  • GEO 104: Digital Earth (3)
  • GEO 325: Geography, Environment and Society (3) DS
  • GEO 380: Statistical Methods in Geography (3) 
  • GEO 493: Capstone Undergraduate Seminar (3) 

2) Optional Upper Division Specialization Courses (12 credit hours)

At least 12 credit hours (6 credits at the 400 level) drawn from the following list of courses. Students are encouraged to focus on courses within geospatial technology, human geography, or environmental geography or to develop an appropriate level of specialization within their area of interest.

Geospatial Information Science

  • GEO 370: UAV and Aerial Photography (3)
  • GEO 376: Map Design and Production (3)
  • GEO 388: Introduction to GIS (3)
  • GEO 470: Remote Sensing (3) 
  • GEO 472: Field Mapping (3) DS
  • GEO 476: Web Mapping (3)
  • GEO 487: GIS and Spatial Analysis for Social Sciences (3)
  • GEO 489: GIS for Environmental Sciences (3)

Human Geography

  • GEO 320: Economic Geography (3) DS
  • GEO 322: Globalization and Environment (3) DS
  • GEO 324: Geography of Global Tourism (3) DS
  • GEO 330: Culture and Environment  (3) DS
  • GEO 335: Politics, Nations, and States (3) DS
  • GEO 421: Urban Geography (3) DS
  • GEO 422: Agriculture, Food and Society (3) DS
  • GEO 423: Marine Policy (3) DS
  • GEO 424: Regional Analysis (3) DS
  • GEO 425: Geographies of Popular Culture (3) DH
  • GEO 426: Environment, Resources and Society (3) DS
  • GEO 432: Tea and Culture (3) DS
  • GEO 435: Political Geography of Oceans (3) DS
  • GEO 436: Geography of Peace and War (3) DS
  • GEO 453: Environment and Society in China (3) DS

Environmental Geography

  • GEO 300: Introduction to Climatology (3) DP
  • GEO 302: Global Environmental Issues (3)
  • GEO 303: General Geomorphology (3) DP
  • GEO 305: Water and Society (3) DS
  • GEO 309: Introduction to Biogeography (3) DB
  • GEO 400: Vegetation and the Climate System (3) DP
  • GEO 401: Climate Change (3) DP
  • GEO 402: Agricultural Climatology (3) DP
  • GEO 403: Fluvial Geomorphology (3) DP
  • GEO 404: Climate, Air Quality, and Policy (3) DS
  • GEO 405: Water in the Environment (3) DP
  • GEO 408: Conservation and Evolutionary Biogeography (3) 
  • GEO 409: Cultural Biogeography (3) DS
  • GEO 410: Human Role in Environmental Change (3) DB
  • GEO 411: Past Global Change and the Human Era (3) DP
  • GEO 412: Environmental Impact Assessment (3) 
  • GEO 413: Resource Management (3) DS
  • GEO 415: Nature-Based Tourism Management (3) DS

Asia-Pacific Region

  • GEO 340: Geography of North America (3) DS
  • GEO 352: Geography of Japan (3) DS
  • GEO 353: Geography of China (3) DS
  • GEO 355: Geography of South Asia (3) DS
  • GEO 356: Geography of Southeast Asia (3) DS
  • GEO 365: Geography of the Pacific (3) DS
  • GEO 366: Geography of Honolulu (3) DS
  • GEO 368: Geography of Hawai’i (3) DS

Directed Studies (with approval and under the supervision of faculty)

  • GEO 399: Directed Reading (V)
  • GEO 468: Topics in Geography (3)
  • GEO 490: Senior Thesis (3) 
  • GEO 492: Practicum in Geography (V)

Minor Requirements

The minor in geography requires 15 credits in upper-division course work that includes at least one upper-division course in human geography, one upper-division course in environmental geography, and one upper-division course in geospatial technologies.


General Education Designations

  • DA: Diversification-Arts
  • DB: Diversification-Biological Science
  • DH: Diversification-Humanities
  • DP: Diversification-Physical Science
  • DS: Diversification-Social Science
  • DY: Diversification-Laboratory (science)
  • FGB: Foundation-GMP Group B
  • FGC: Foundation-GMP Group C

See the UH Catalog for more information.