News

An Analysis of Local and Combined (Global) Scours on Piers-on-Bank Bridges. The Chaven et al. article has been selected for the cover page of the journal Civil Engineering. The research derives from the NCDOT funded DeepHyd project (Wenwu is the PI, Diemer, S-E Chen (CEEG) and Allan are co-PI’s) (Shukla, Slocum and T. Chen) are […]

Director of research and outreach Douglas Shoemaker was recently featured in the Charlotte Observer’s multipart story on tree canopy loss in the City. Despite a canopy coverage exceeding the national average, Charlotte has been losing more than 3 football fields of forest per day since 2012. The region remains a real estate draw for its […]

Dr. Jean-Claude Thill is Knight Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Thill is highly regarded for his substantial research and training contributions to quantitative human geography and GIScience sub-field. He has an impressive record of sustained and diverse service to the discipline. For ten years, he served as the editor-in-chief of […]

Dr. Colleen Hammelman’s book “Greening Cities by Growing Food, A Political Ecology Analysis of Urban Agriculture in the Americas” was officially release/published. This book examines how urban agriculture (UA) is valued in the sustainable city. Through a comparative examination of UA projects in four cities across the Americas – Rosario, Argentina; Toronto, Canada; Medellín, Colombia; […]

Terry Shirley, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences wins two National Forecasting trophies in the 2020-2021 contest. Known as the WxChallenge (Weather Challenge), this national annual contest includes over 1,100 forecasters from all over the United States. Meteorology faculty and students, as well as professional forecasters compete across 10 cities […]

Congratulations to GES alums Connor Wood (BS Geography 2020) and J. Claire Schuch (PhD Geography and Urban Regional Analysis 2016) on their co-authored publication in the inaugural edition of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal. Connor and Claire’s full article titled “Crisis for the University Student: Changing Student Housing and Growing […]

Ph.D. Candidate Paul Jung received the first place award in the Graduate Student-led Paper Competition and Yimin and Xiao Zhuang Travel Award at the 2021 Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in Denver, CO. The awards were for a paper co-authored with Drs. Jean-Claude Thill (UNC Charlotte) and Luis Galvis-Aponte (Central […]

A significant proportion of Gaston County residents get their drinking water from private wells and other unregulated sources, particularly in the county’s northern and western rural communities. Yet, only a small fraction of residents test their water regularly. A UNC Charlotte team of researchers and students will work with residents and county health officials to […]

A team including UNC Charlotte urban planning researcher Katherine Idziorek has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to advance research on how urban social and spatial systems can be organized to be more resilient and efficient. Read the full article here.

When major public investments are proposed in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods, it’s common to hear concerns about gentrification and displacement: Will the new rail line, park, or bike lane benefit the people who currently call the neighborhood home, or will it only lead to the displacement of existing residents and their replacement by higher-income households? […]

In a recent interview, Professor Magi described a network of low-cost air pollution sensors in North Carolina that he helped deploy in collaboration with non-profit CleanAIRE NC. The sensors are contributing new data to the network of Environmental Protection Agency regulatory air monitors around the country, and the low-cost sensor data is also helping to […]

GES Alumna Claire Schuch and PhD student Tonderai Mushipe publish article on perceptions of Charlotte light-rail expansion. Rail transit impacts on adjacent neighborhoods are contested. Through the lens of New Urbanism and sustainable urban development, this article offers a critical analysis of different perceptions of neighborhood changes occurring after the opening of a new light […]

In the 1960s and ’70s, a hypothesis took hold among researchers that African Americans in poor neighborhoods in big cities did not have easy access to low-wage jobs that were quickly moving to the suburbs. It was called spatial mismatch hypothesis. There were transportation challenges and Black families often couldn’t move to the suburbs because […]

Many Charlotteans enjoy the natural amenity provided by its prominent urban forest, so much so that we’ve become known as “The City of Trees.” However, this lush urban tree canopy is under threat and losing hundreds of acres per year, mostly in residential areas, leaving the City hotter and more prone to flash floods. And […]

As Charlotte grows rapidly, concerns about gentrification and displacement have become key issues for city government to address. Tracking gentrification and displacement can be challenging, as this process of neighborhood change is slow and takes many forms across space and time. However, when analyzed with viable data sources, areas that are potentially vulnerable to gentrification […]

Geography and Earth Sciences professor Jack Scheff explained the factors that have led to record heat in the Pacific Northwest in an article titled “Why the latest Western heat wave will be so oppressive” at https://mashable.com/article/heat-wave-west-us-why-so-hot

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. David Hartgen, Professor Emeritus. From 1989 to 2006, Hartgen was Professor of Transportation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. While here, he established the University’s interdisciplinary transportation studies center and conducted numerous studies of transportation systems throughout the nation. He conducted […]

We have some exciting news to announce. The GES department would like to welcome Dr. Hoover, Dr. Idziorek and Dr. Zuniga to the university starting this fall. Dr. Fushcia-Ann Hoover is an interdisciplinary researcher specializing in environmental justice, urban planning and green infrastructure. Her questions engage the social processes that drive relationships between people, place […]