Skip to content Skip to navigation

Academics

Geography ( M.S. )

 Nanjing Normal University   April 08, 2016

1. Training/Research Orientation

  • Physical Geography
  • Human Geography
  • Cartography and Geographical Information System
  • Remote sensing for Geographical Environment
  • Environmental Geography
  • Ocean Geography

2. Program Duration and Credit

Three years generally, the maximum school years are not longer than 5 years (including the extension time). Students, who are able to complete the course and master thesis in advance, can apply for thesis oral defense and early graduation.
30 credits of courses in total, at least 20 credits of academic courses.

3. Core Courses and Introduction

Modern Physical Geography
Objectives of the course: Experimental method is the basis for the study of physical geography. It provides evidences (data) for scientific research through the combination of field investigation and laboratory analyses .This course lecture introduces field work methods and various types of experimental projects, to learn about the different purposes and projects experimental principles, methods ,application and the latest progress of the experiment of physical geography, which are through lectures, discussions combined with the fields and laboratory experiments, making the students grasp the main natural and geographical experimental means, and training their creative thinking and research skills through the study, exploration and practice.
The content of the course: The course takes the scientific research necessary basic course in physical geography practice and the latest development of science and technology as the guide, with a special focus on the experiment purpose, use, the experiment theory, and the analysis of the experimental process, especially, on training students' practical operative ability and the ability of mastering experiments, enhancing students’ understanding of experimental methods. 
The main contents include: introduction, field investigation method, sedimentary environment and sedimentary facies analysis, granularity analysis, micro biological analysis, oxygen carbon isotope analysis, chromatographic analysis, element analysis, laser ablation system, tree rings, soil erosion analysis method and the spectral analysis.

Principle of Human Geography
This course aims to help students understand and master the basic principles, methods, understand and grasp the modern human geography in the field of practical application. The content of the course includes:

  • the core concepts, research methods and subfields in human geography
  • the teachers of teaching group introduce typical research topics of the recent research progress and research methods
  • retrospect and prospect of the development of Chinese human geography
  • research paradigm of human geography, including people relations research paradigm, regional research paradigm, space research paradigm, the social research paradigm
  • case study

Principles of Geographic Information System
This course is the basic GIS course to help students master the basic theory, knowledge and skills as well as understands the main applications and directions of geographic information system. Graduate students are normally expected to obtain the research methods and cultivate thinking of GIS learning and the ability of scientific thinking. The contents include:

  • introduce the basic concepts and learn the basic theory of GIS
  • GIS key technologies (data model, spatial data structures, computing model, analysis methods), master the basic architecture of GIS
  • GIS basic methods (data collection methods, spatial data organization and management, data query, spatial analysis, data output and quality control), master the method of handling and processing of GIS data
  • GIS applications (GIS design and development, GIS application status), master the application fields and development directions of GIS

Experiment and Practice of Physical Geography
The main purpose of this course is to introduce students to the basic theories and methods of physical geography, to enable them to fully grasp the discipline system of it and learn about the domestic and foreign research frontier and hot issues, under the circumstances, it can cultivate students’ physical geography thinking and the ability of discovering , analyzing and solving problems.
This course is divided into four parts, including 17 chapters. Part 1 mainly introduces the concept, properties and characteristics of physical geography and relationships with other disciplines, the overall structure and characteristics of the earth’s surface system and its inner link with extraterrestrial and interior system. Part 2 mainly discusses the composition, the structure, regional characteristics, variation rules, the operation mechanism and the close connection with human beings of the four circles, which are closely related to the earth’s surface system. Part 3 mainly focuses on the interaction and mutual influence between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere and discusses the formation mechanism and variation rules of the earth’s surface system, the formation mechanism of the landform and soil, and the causes of natural disasters from the view of interaction. Part 4 mainly talks about the methods and principles within the application of physical geography from the aspect of assessment, forecasting, planning, management, optimization and the control of the earth’s surface environment, combined with the real examples.

GIS Progress
Through the teaching and explaining of this course, the course can help students get a preliminary understanding of GIS development in theory, methods, techniques and industrialization in recent five years. The main contents of GIS Progress course include geographic information recognition, excavation and improvement of GIS data, GIS technologies and challenges, geographic language and geographic scene construction, problems and solutions of geographic information industrialization, problems and thinking of GIS socialization, development and running of Beidou navigation system, innovation of geographic information sharing, methods of geographic modeling and simulation, development of digital city and smart city, geography national condition monitoring and analysis, video GIS,WSN and GIS technology, GIS unified data model based on geometric algebra, GIS data organization and index based on geographic law, 3D data special index based on geographic interaction, principles and methods of GIS virtual reality and virtual reality through GIS, photogrammetry and on-demand access of spatial data, terrain data acquisition and digital terrain analysis, 3D modeling methods of the objects on land etc.

Quantitative Remote Sensing
The students are required to master the quantitative remote sensing theory, methods and applications, and to understand the latest application and the hot research field of remote sensing through the class teaching. The specific contents include:

  • basic theory of quantitative remote sensing
  • the application model of vegetation remote sensing
  • the application model of water environment remote sensing
  • atmosphere effect and atmospheric correction
  • the scale effect

4. Supervisors

Zucong Cai, Yong Zha, Suozhong Chen, Bin Fang, Zhenfang Huang, Genlin Ji, Nan Jiang, Xinggong Kong, Jijun Li, Yunmei Li, Zhenshan Lin, Hongyu Liu, Jian Liu, Xuejun Liu, Yi Long, Yuqi Lu, Guonian Lv, Yehua Sheng, Zhongchao Shi, Zhiyao Song, Jiulin Sun, Yizhong Sun, Guoan Tang, Zhuomin Tao, Min Wang, Yongjin Wang, Guoxiang Wang, Jian Wang, Qiao Wang, Zhenggui Wei, Qiyan Wu, Min Xu, Hao Yang, Shan Yang, Linwang Yuan, Jinbo Zhang, Maoheng Zhang, Shuliang Zhang, Xiaolin Zhang, Xueying Zhang, Qiguo Zhao, Yuan Zhao, Hongbo Zheng, Wenhui Zhong, Wei Zhou, Axing Zhu, Changqing Zhu, Shibiao Bai, Min Cao, Min Chen, Shitao Chen, Ye Chen, Yunxia Cui, Zhengshan Ding, Ping Dong, Weihua Guan, Fei Guo, Ruiming Han, Guolin Hou, Bin Hu, Changchun Huang, Kelong Huang.