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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.
News
Bridging Earth Science and Community: Q&A with Carolina Michel - Dr. Carolina Michel is excited to explore how Indigenous knowledge and Western science can inform each other, how arts-integrated and place-based learning shape students' sense of belonging in the geosciences, and what it means to build a department where interdisciplinary work is the starting point, not an afterthought.
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.