Physical Geography

Physical geography focuses on man-environment interactions in the context of a changing environment and climate.

News in the spotlight

25-04-2023

Two vacancies for a full-time assistant in the department

The UGent Department of Human Resources published two vacancies for a full-time assistant in the Department of Geography, Ghent University (ID:25891, ID:25892). The vacancies are in the research areas of Social and Economic Geography on the one hand and Physical Geography on the other. The deadline for application is May 23.

https://jobs.ugent.be/go/Assistant-academic-staff/8808502/

Read on

Research themes

Physical geography focuses on the interaction between geomorphological processes and human impacts. This mainly involves the effect of changes in land use, land management, hydrology and climate on the surface of the Earth. Focus is given to spatial scales of small (50-150 ha) to medium-sized catchments (15,000 km2) and on dynamics on short (present-day processes) to medium terms (<200 years).

Geomorphological processes are investigated using the latest research methods, often in collaboration with developments in the Geomatics research domain.

Will our farmers soon be without usable land?

On fertile soil and soil erosion

According to geographer Amaury Frankl (UGent), it is not the gold or iron that we extract from the ground that is the most valuable resource, but rather the soil itself. Without realising it, we have been losing many years of our soil for many years. What dangers that poses and how we can solve it, he comes to tell us.
(In Dutch)

Geomorphological survey in the Global South

On land degradation in Ethiopia

Land degradation, and the impact that this has on the geomorphological functioning of the earth's surface, is a global problem, but in countries of the Global South it is particularly severe. With our research at the Department of Geography of Ghent University, we have been active in Ethiopia and are joining forces to restore the country.