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

Geology underfoot: Public invited to join field trips focused on Rhode Island landscape - URI is hosting the 117th annual New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, Oct. 2-4, offering attendees the chance to get outside and experience geology in the field.
Designing With Communities - This summer, URI landscape architecture students worked with Rhode Island communities to imagine new possibilities for parks, public spaces, and places to gather.

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