UTM Geography, Geomatics and Environment

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.

🌎🩺 Announcing our upper year course in the Health, Environments, and Society series: GGR364H5, Geographies of Global Health

Why do health inequities continue to grow between and within countries, even when global health aims to improve health equity for all?

This course introduces students to global health through a geographic lens. Students will examine how spatial processes, environmental conditions, political systems, social structures, and international connections shape uneven health outcomes across different regions of the world.

Through theoretical frameworks and case studies, the course explores health problems that cross national borders, the role of international organizations in setting health priorities, and the effects of colonial legacies and neoliberal policies on health and disease.

Students will also critically examine why some global health initiatives fail despite good intentions, and discuss ethical issues surrounding global health policies, priorities, and practices.

Come learn how geography helps us understand global health, health inequities, and the connections between people and places. Check the timetable planner and the 2026 academic calendar for enrolment details that will be updated soon.

Last group of amazing GGE 2026 Awards of Excellence recipients! 🎉

These awards recognize the outstanding hard work, dedication, and contributions our students have made throughout the academic year in academics, research, and leadership. We are very proud of all that they have achieved and grateful for the positive impact they have made in our community.

For full details about all the awards and recipients, please visit our webpage: https://buff.ly/iMbEDEO

🌎🩺 New course offering this Fall: GGR253H5, Health, Environments, and Society

How do the places we live, work, study, and receive care shape our health and wellbeing?

This course introduces students to geographic perspectives on health outcomes, wellbeing, and access to health care. The course explores how social, economic, political, physical, and health care environments shape individual and societal health.

A major focus of the course is health inequity, with special attention to marginalized populations and people living in vulnerable circumstances.

✨ This course also serves as the gateway course for the new Minor in Health, Environments, and Society.

No course prerequisites are required, and all students are welcome to enroll. Come learn how geography helps us understand health, environments, and society together. Check out the timetable planner and academic calendar, updated in mid-May.