UTM Geography, Geomatics and Environment

From tree rings to lake sediments, Dr. Elsa Dejoie is uncovering environmental stories hidden in natural archives. Supervised by Professor Igor Lehnherr, Dr. Dejoie’s research helps reconstruct past pollution events and environmental changes.

🎉Congratulations to our PhD candidate Lilian Dart on receiving the department’s First Paper Award, recognizing the publication of her first academic paper.

Her article, Using Community Values and Evidence to Respond to Homelessness Together: A Case for Methodological Flexibility, was co-authored with N. Nichols and M. A. Martin and published in Evidence & Policy. Lily is supervised by Professor Andrea Olive. Check out her paper here:

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🎉 Congratulations to Frances Leung on winning the Esri Canada Centres of Excellence 2026 Winter Blog Award. As a regular contributor to GIS and remote sensing related content to the Esri blog, her article (https://buff.ly/r88sxV6) on creating planetary timelapses using satellite imagery has inspired the mapping community to use similar workflows to explore land and environmental changes on our planet. You can find her Esri column here: https://buff.ly/zAOlCbY.

ecce.esri.ca

🌟Highlights from GGE members participating in the XXV ISPRS Congress and the 47th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing.

Our graduate students presented their research, attended student paper sessions, volunteered at conference booths, and connected with researchers from around the world. The conference also provided a valuable opportunity to reconnect with former graduate students who are now professors and researchers at universities around the world.

It was wonderful to meet our alumni including Professor Bing Lu from Simon Fraser University, Professor Scott Mitchell from Carleton University, and Professor Cameron Proctor from the University of Windsor, along with their students and many other members of our wider community.

The department is especially pleased to celebrate two awards received during the conference. PhD student Haoxuan (Peter) Ge received 2nd Place in the CRSS-SCT 2026 Best Student Oral Presentation Competition for his presentation, co-authored with Professor Yuhong He.

We also congratulate Dr. Mitchell Bonney, who graduated from our PhD program in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Yuhong He, on receiving the Second Best Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing Paper Award. The award recognizes research from his PhD examining nearly 50 years of tree canopy change in southern Ontario.

We were pleased to have supported graduate student participation in this event through the GGE Graduate Expansion Fund (GEF), helping students present their research, build professional connections, and engage with international research communities.

A huge shout-out to Professor Yuhong He, who served as one of the local organizers and contributed to hosting such a successful conference. It was a wonderful week of research exchange, service, learning, and renewed connections across the remote sensing community. 🎉

We are excited to share that the annual newsletter from the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment is now available!

Check out this year’s highlights of achievements, updates, and stories from our students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

Read more here: https://buff.ly/Oi2aTxV

Professor Mei-Po Kwan, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Geography and Resource Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, will be visiting us and deliver a guest lecture on July 6 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The lecture will take place in DV 3130 at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

The lecture is titled “GeoAI for Sustainable Cities and Health Research.” Please help spread the word. Students, faculty members, and researchers across the university are welcome to join us.

Imran Smlatic presented his JEG417 undergraduate thesis (supervised by Professor Alanna Bodo) yesterday at the Canadian Geophysical Union (CGU) Annual Meeting 2026 in Halifax. Congratulations, Imran!

We were honoured to take part in UTM’s recent Governing Council tour with President Melanie Woodin and members of Governing Council, highlighting land-based, field-based, and experiential learning across campus.

Alexander Axiotis, GGE Lab Technician, and Peter Ge, PhD student and Drone Remote Sensing Course Instructor, were delighted to share work from Professor Yuhong He’s RSSEM Lab, with her support and guidance.

As part of the visit, we demonstrated how drone remote sensing is used to support climate science, sustainability research, environmental monitoring, and hands-on teaching. The demonstration also highlighted the use of drone technologies in experiential education and our ongoing collaboration with researchers and external partners.

Thank you so much to Principal Alexandra Gillespie, members of the governing council, the Office of the Vice-President and Principal, and everyone who helped make this visit possible. We are proud to contribute to UofT’s growing strengths in land-based, field-, and experiential-based education.

Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn

🎉 We are very pleased to share that GeoTrio, a student team from the Geospatial Data Science program in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga, won the Second Runner-Up Award in the Esri Canada GIS Centres of Excellence (ECCE) App Challenge 2026.

Congratulations to Jad El Asmar, Blaeden Kohout, and Hari Patel for their creativity, teamwork, and thoughtful use of GIS skills in developing their app. Their project calculates the emissions cost and calories burned across different transportation options, showing how geospatial thinking can support real-world decision-making in transportation, sustainability, and health.

It is wonderful to see our GDS students representing UTM so well in this national competition.

Many thanks to Esri Canada for organizing this valuable opportunity for students to apply geospatial skills to real-world challenges.

📲 Explore GeoTrio’s app here:
https://buff.ly/rm0Vc2Q

🗺️🩺 Announcing another NEW upper-year course in the Health, Environments, and Society series: GGR380H5, Geographic Approaches to Health Research: Methods and Ethics

How can researchers study health not only through numbers and interviews, but also through the places, movements, and daily experiences that shape people’s lives?

This course introduces students to the geographic approaches and research methods used to study health, environments, and society. Students will explore how place-based methods can help us better understand health inequities, lived experiences, and the relationships between people, communities, and environments.

Students will also learn about ethical research practice, with attention to decolonizing methodologies, anti-racist research approaches, and the power relationships involved in producing knowledge.

Through hands-on exercises, case studies, and one field day, students will learn how to design thoughtful and socially responsible research projects that address health disparities and support health equity.

Come learn how geography helps us study health, place, methods, and ethics together. Check the timetable planner and the 2026-2027 academic calendar for enrolment details.