Connect climate science with sustainable solutions

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Science helps us understand environmental change. Planning and design help communities visualize and respond to it.

The Department of Earth Sciences, Planning, and Design brings these disciplines together. Our students pursue degrees in either geosciences or landscape architecture, with each program maintaining its distinct curriculum and accreditation. So whether your goal is to study Earth’s systems, shape communities through planning, or design resilient landscapes, you’ll have the opportunity to develop specialized expertise while engaging with the broader environmental challenges that connect both fields. The world needs people who can bridge knowledge and action–here you’ll learn how.

Academics

Explore undergraduate and graduate degrees in geoscience and landscape architecture, an accelerated BLS to master’s, and graduate certificates.

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People

Our faculty in both landscape architecture and geosciences spread their teaching and scholarship across the region, the country, and the world.

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Research

Areas of expertise among our faculty include topics such as climatology, geobiology, hydrology, solid earth, and more.

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News

URI landscape architecture capstone earns statewide recognition for its vision of Jamestown’s waterfront - As rising seas and stronger storms reshape Rhode Island’s coastline, URI students transformed a vulnerable stretch of Jamestown into an award-winning vision for coastal resilience.
URI climate scientist contributes to research illustrating future impacts of Antarctic ice sheet melting - Geosciences professor Ambarish Karmalkar is part of team using interactive modeling to predict impact of ice sheet meltwater discharge on climate and sea level

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