Events

Join us for the final GES seminar of the academic year featuring five graduate student presentations:

• Anisha Jayadevan: Planting trees in open natural ecosystems leads to limited carbon gains
• Hasan Ahmed: Tropical forest structural responses to fragmentation vary regionally and along biophysical gradients
• Megan Curtiss: Differential Tree Growth Responses Across Urban Site Types
• Leo Pecora: Looking Ahead: Digital Extraction of Geomorphic Metrics for Stream Assessment
• Felipe Saad: Persistence of Tropical Giants Across Disturbed Landscapes

Please join the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems for our Spring Seminar Series.

Dr. Sarah Paige (University of Heidelberg) will present:

"How a Medical Geography Research Program Informed a Global Policy to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Novel Zoonotic Disease Outbreaks."

This talk highlights how geographically informed research, particularly from the Kibale EcoHealth Project (KEP) in western Uganda which helped shape global health security frameworks. KEP supported interdisciplinary research from 2005–2017 on bat behavior, microbiomes, and zoonotic spillover risk in a region with high levels of human–animal contact. The project's findings contributed to the formation of a One Health Committee and influenced global policy approaches to emerging infectious diseases.

All GES Spring Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12–1 PM in Sondheim Hall, Room 001.

Faculty, students, and guests are welcome.

Please join the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems for our Spring Seminar Series.

Dr. Sarah Paige (University of Heidelberg) will present:

"How a Medical Geography Research Program Informed a Global Policy to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Novel Zoonotic Disease Outbreaks."

This talk highlights how geographically informed research, particularly from the Kibale EcoHealth Project (KEP) in western Uganda which helped shape global health security frameworks. KEP supported interdisciplinary research from 2005–2017 on bat behavior, microbiomes, and zoonotic spillover risk in a region with high levels of human–animal contact. The project's findings contributed to the formation of a One Health Committee and influenced global policy approaches to emerging infectious diseases.

All GES Spring Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12–1 PM in Sondheim Hall, Room 001.

Faculty, students, and guests are welcome.

How Cool Are Your Trees? Heat and Vegetation in Cities

Every year people die because of extreme heat. Trees help combat the lethality of an increasingly warm planet, where cities are even warmer. Vegetation provides shade and evapotranspirative cooling, which lower temperatures and may save lives.

This talk draws from a review of more than 115 research papers from across the globe on urban vegetation and heat from 2018 to 2024. The When, Where, and How of urban cooling will be discussed, with attention to current knowledge and knowledge gaps.

We will also zoom into New Haven, CT to examine how bike mounted temperature sensors better reflect lived experience and demonstrate local level cooling from tree canopy cover with and without cloud cover. Ongoing bike based heat research in Baltimore will also be shared.

The goal is to describe the state of the field and provide a specific place based example of how trees provide cooling at the human scale.

Please join the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems for our Spring Seminar Series.

Dr. Dexter Locke (United States Forest Service) will present a talk titled:

"How Cool Are Your Trees? Heat and Vegetation in Cities."

This seminar examines the relationship between urban vegetation, tree canopy, and heat exposure, highlighting how green infrastructure can shape environmental and social outcomes in cities.

All GES Spring Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12–1 PM in Sondheim Hall, Room 001.

Faculty, students, and guests are welcome.

Please join the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems for our Spring Seminar Series.

Dr. Dawn Biehler (UMBC) will present a talk titled:

"Reordering the more-than-human city: Stories of animals, urbanization, and green space in nineteenth-century New York."

This talk explores historical relationships between animals, urban development, and green space, and how these interactions shaped the modern city.

All GES Spring Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12–1 PM in Sondheim Hall, Room 001.

Faculty, students, and guests are welcome.

Join us tomorrow morning for a special GES 286 balloon launch across campus. Weather balloons equipped with downward-facing cameras will be floating up to 450 feet above campus as students collect geospatial images for their environmental data projects.

This hands-on activity is part of the course "Exploring the Environment: A Geospatial Perspective" taught by Dr. Charlie Kaylor. Students will be deploying balloons from six different locations around campus, all centered on the Quad.

If you're walking across campus between 9:15 and 10:30 a.m., look up and you'll see the balloons in action.
To learn more about how these launches support geospatial learning, check out this UMBC Magazine feature:

Getting Your Research Off the Ground—Balloons Give Students New Perspectives

Come by, watch the launches, and see geospatial science in action!

Join us for a Guest Speaker Session with Dr. Shannon Lyons, East Coast Regional Director of the Surfrider Foundation.

The Surfrider Foundation works to protect and preserve the world's oceans — focusing on plastic reduction, water quality, beach access, and sustaining marine ecosystems.

Dr. Lyons will share insights into Surfrider's national and local initiatives, community organizing, and environmental justice efforts. Students will also learn about opportunities to engage through Surfrider's student club networks and advocacy programs.