COURSES

NEWS & EVENTS

 

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Courses leading to the degree of BSS Honours in Geography and Environmental Studies shall extend over four academic years and each year is comprised of three semesters. A candidate for the Honours degree in Geography and Environmental Studies will be required to complete a total of 41 courses of 123 credits in 12 semesters.

It should be mentioned that three courses of English, two courses of Developing Computer Skills and one course in Bangladesh Studies in the first year Honours are compulsory for all students in this university.

The distribution of the courses in different semesters and their objectives are given below.

First Year

First Semester (9 Credits)

BDS:101 Bangladesh Studies (3 Credits)

Course objectives:
This course provides students with a general understanding of various topics covering the overall concept of Bangladesh History, Geography, Society, Politics and Environment.

ENG:101 Communication Skills (3 Credits)

Course objectives:
This course is designed to help familiarize students with different types of sentences, transformation of sentences, tense, right form of verbs, appropriate prepositions, adjectives, voices, etc. Another objective of this course is to develop students’ competence in reading skill for academic purpose. Students will be exposed to different types of passages to develop efficient reading skill. They will be taught vocabulary to increase their words stock.

COM:101 Developing Computer Skills-I (3 credits)

Course Objectives:
This course is designed to introduce students to be able to effectively use information and communications technology in today’s world. It will provide students the basic knowledge of computer such as hardware, software, computer languages, operating systems, compilers and data communication as well as practical knowledge of different types of operating systems and application packages.

Second Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:101 Introduction to Geography and Environmental Science (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:
he aim of this course is to provide a general idea about the Geography and Environmental Studies as a discipline, development of geographical knowledge, meaning of environment and man-environment relationship to be familiarized with the core subject matter.

ENG:102 Academic Skills-I (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The course is designed to enable students to develop their competence in speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar for academic purposes. The course will emphasize on writing different types of essay, Individual and collaborative oral presentations, reading a wide range of texts and taking and summarizing class lecture notes effectively. .

COM:102 Developing Computer Skills-II (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The aim of this course is to ensure that the students should have a basic idea for developing static and dynamic web pages using HTML, JavaScript and PHP, creating simple database and manipulation & store any kinds of data. This course is designed to provide ideas of web technologies, tools concerns relating to information systems, to enable students to create or develop a web page and issues of emerging web technology infrastructure and multimedia application used worldwide.

Third Semester (12 Credits)

GES-Th:102 Introduction to Physical Geography and Environment (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

Being one of the two main branches in Geography and Environmental Studies, this course will give an idea about the physical environment, solar system, origin of the earth, lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.

GES-Th:103 Introduction to Human Geography and Environment (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course covers human geography: earth and human-environment relationship, economic activities of people, consumption and production, human population and human settlement.

ENG:103 Academic Skills-II (3 Credits)  

Course Objectives:

The main focus of this course is writing and reading. This course aims to develop students’ analytical abilities. It will enhance students’ writing abilities through argumentative writing, expository writing, writing reviews of books or movies, and writing longer essay or dissertation. Besides, the course attempts to build schematic knowledge and to take a critical stance to context through reading a wide range of texts.

ECON:101 Fundamentals of Economics (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The objective of the course is to impart knowledge about the basic concepts/principles of Economics. The course will also throw light as to how various economic Systems or Institutions operate.

Second Year

First Semester (12 Credits)

GES-Th:201 Geomorphology-I (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course introduces the materials of earth’s crust, movement of the earth’s crust and the geological time scale.

GES-Th:202 Economic Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The course explores economic geography; distribution of various economic activities in different parts of the world; and the production, consumption and exchange of agricultural and industrial products around the world.

GES-Lb:203 Cartography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to learn about the history of map making, techniques and methods.

SOC:201 Principles of Sociology (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to learn about the history of map making, techniques and methods.

Second Semester (12 Credits)

GES-Th:204 Geomorphology-II (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The course includes geomorphic process, glaciations, landforms, fluvial landscape and cycle of erosion.

GES-Th:205 Population Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about population geography and demography; population structure, change; population growth, and population policies of some countries.

GES-Th:206 Cultural Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

It will explore the concept of culture; evolution of culture; cultural process and changes; theories of culture; and cultural regions and landscapes in the world.

GES-Lb: 207 Principles of Surveying (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about map making surveying as the basis of large scale maps and methods and uses of different surveying appliances.

Third Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:208 Climatology-I (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to understand the elements and factors of weather and climate, temperature, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric circulation, major wind system, and local wind system.

GES-Lb:209 Quantitative Techniques in Geography and Environmental Studies-I (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the basic mathematical and statistical concepts, number system, set theory, levels of measurement, frequency distribution, central tendency and dispersion.

GES-Lb:210 Principles of Map Interpretation (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to enable the students read maps, representation of relief, understanding of weather maps with filed work.

Third Year

First Semester (12 Credits)

GES-Th:301 Modern and Contemporary Geographical Thoughts and Concept (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course includes the development of modern geography; contemporary geography; explanation in geography; the role of theory and model in geography; analytical techniques in geography; and development of geography in South Asia, especially Bangladesh.

GES-Th:302 Climatology-II (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The main objective of this course is to teach about humidity, air mass, fronts, climate types, local climate and micro climate, and Green House Effect.

GES-Th:303 Environment and Ecology (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The aim of this course is to understand the definition and scope of environment and ecology, environmental geography and its relation with ecology, concept of ecosystem and habitat, and various aspects of environmental degradation.

GES-Lb:304 Quantitative Techniques in Geography and Environmental Studies-II (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to know about the elementary probability theory, samples, correlation and regression, and various spatial measures.

Second Semester (12 Credits)

GES-Th:305 Soil and Bio-Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:   

The core matters of this course is the definition of soil, physical properties of soil, organic properties of soil, soil classification, environmental factors of plant growth, plant succession and climax, and plant communities.

 

GES-Th:306 Bangladesh: Physical and Human Environment (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course explores the locational characteristics, major resources, major economic activities, population and settlement, problems and issues of development, and major environmental problems of Bangladesh.

GES-Th:307 World Regional Pattern (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The main objective of this course is to teach the concept of region, types of region, regionalization, and world regional pattern.

GES-Lb:308 Introduction to Geographical Information System (GIS)-I (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to know about the overview of GIS concept, nature of geographic data, spatial data structure, and data automation using Arc/Info.

Third Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:309 Environmental Management (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course explores the basic concept of environmental studies and environmental perception; natural and man-made hazard; impact assessment; environmental management plan; environmental protection and preservation.

GES-Th:310 Agricultural Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the origin of agriculture, different agricultural systems, models in agriculture, classification of agriculture, and agriculture in Bangladesh.

GES-Lb:311 Principles of Geographical Information Systems-II (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course includes various views of GIS, database management, data quality and evaluation errors, output and representation of data, implementing a GIS, GIS application areas, and the status of GIS in Bangladesh.

Fourth Year

First Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:401 Geography of Settlement (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course includes the structure of settlements, nature of settlements, rural and urban settlements, and settlements in Bangladesh.

GES-Th:402 Transport Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

The aim of this course is to acquire knowledge about the morphological and climatologial basis of transport development, location theories and transport, characteristics of transport, and patterns of transport of some countries including Bangladesh.

GES-Lb:403 Hydrology (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the scope and field of hydrology, hydrological cycle, precipitation and measurement, surface runoff, ground hydrology and snow hydrology.

Second Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:404 Urban Geography (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the origin and history of urban centre, urban growth factors, internal structure of the city, CBD and rural-urban fringe, hierarchy of urban areas and cities in Bangladesh.

GES-Th:405 Regional Geography and Environment of South-Asia (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course gives knowledge about South Asia as a geographical region, physical environment of South Asia, cultural environment of South Asia, SAARC, and major problems and cooperation of South Asia.

GES-Lb:406 Environmental Analysis (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the measures of water, soil, air   and noise pollution, environmental problems of Bangladesh, natural hazards in Bangladesh, impact assessment techniques, coastal management technique, vulnerability and risk assessment, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Third Semester (9 Credits)

GES-Th:407 Resource Management (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the concepts of resources, resources system, resources appraisal, carrying capacity and resources, and technique of resource management.

GES-Th:408 Climate Change and Society (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about climate change in the past, present and future as the result of Green House Effect; ecological effect of climate change; effects of climate change in human society; and mitigation and adaptation.          

GES-Lb:409 Research Methods and Field Survey (3 Credits)

Course Objectives:

This course is about the elementary aspects of socio-economic survey and field study of a typical area and preparation of a field report.