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

CELS Summer Research Fellows examine flooding, pollution, and stormwater in Rhode Island - Carissa Sherman and Jaired Flanagan '26 used GIS, hydrologic modeling, and environmental data to investigate how water moves through Rhode Island communities — and how better stormwater management can protect local waterways and Narragansett Bay.
Designing for People, Plants, and Place: Q&A with Nadine Soubotin - Nadine Soubotin brings a background spanning landscape architecture, urban design, and architecture to her work at the University of Rhode Island.

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