Facilities

SGDE Facilities include computing resources for student training, dedicated research laboratories, and the Arizona Remote Sensing Center
 

Since 2015 the School of Geography, Development & Environment (SGDE) has occupied the fourth and fifth floors on the south side of the Environment and Natural Resources Building 2 (ENR2 Building), on the southern edge of the University of Arizona campus. In 1992, SGDE was awarded the first ever Parent's Association Departmental Award for teaching excellence. This award sparked a teaching technology revolution in SGDE.  Today, SGDE supports two state-of-the-art computer laboratories. The Spatial Analysis Laboratory (SAL), a 40 student seat facility located on the 5th floor of ENR2, is primarily used for teaching of undergraduate and graduate geospatial technologies and hosts the MS-GIST program. The Majors lab, a 12 seat facility located on the 4th floor of ENR2, is solely dedicated to students for course work and research.  The  SAL and Majors lab  are refreshed on a 4 year cycle allowing them to be current with technology. Both include the latest remote sensing, GIS, statistical analysis and other software.  Specialized hardware and software related to video, GPS, mobile/web GIS, 3d visualization are found in both facilities.

Click here for SAL Hours.

Applied Climate for Environment and Society Laboratory

Climatologist Andrew Comrie runs the Applied Climate for Environment and Society (ACES) laboratory. The ACES lab focuses on a wide variety of climate research that intersects with other environmental sciences and with social sciences. The primary focus of the lab at present is on climate and health, including links to disease ecology. Other foci include impacts of climate variability and global climate change. The ACES lab is home to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and undergraduate interns working in these areas. It provides access to university high-performance computers, as well as a range of climate visualization and analysis software tools. ACES is located off campus in the Geronimo Building on University Ave, Room 102. 

Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

SGDE paleoclimatologist Connie Woodhouse maintains a dendrochronology laboratory at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in the Bryant Bannister Tree-Ring Building. Laboratory facilities include measuring machines, microscopes, computers, equipment for field collections, and a wood shop for sample preparation necessary to process and analyze the wood samples. Facilities for tree-ring isotope analysis and image analysis are also available.

The Arizona Remote Sensing Center

The Arizona Remote Sensing Center (ARSC) was established in 1972 and since its inception, ARSC has worked on a wide range of international, national, regional and local projects in which advanced airborne and satellite remote sensing data and other geospatial information technologies are utilized to help address both fundamental and applied issues in natural resource management. ARSC’s mission is to employ remote sensing and geospatial technologies to solve natural, agricultural and cultural resource problems in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. This mission involves both basic and applied research in support of the operational application of geospatial technologies and their extension to stakeholders, the integration of field and remote sensing data and analysis, modeling of coupled human and natural systems, and the deployment of decision support systems.

The primary activities of the center focus on research supported by basic and applied research contracts and grants to develop and apply remote sensing and GIS technologies to problems in agriculture, natural resource management, and the environment. ARSC develops and maintains a number of scientific web sites in response to a large demand for information and data and the need to integrate computer technology into decision support. ARSC is also dedicated to providing graduate and undergraduate students with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills in remote sensing and geospatial analysis. ARSC research projects are staffed by students from a variety of campus Departments including: the Arid Lands Resource Sciences Ph.D. Program, Electrical and Computer Engineering, the School of Geography, Development & Environment, Geosciences, Hydrology and Water Resources, Management and Information Systems, as well as the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Contact:
Wim van Leeuwen
Email: leeuw@arizona.edu
Phone:520-626-0058

Address:
Office of Arid Lands Studies
1955 E. Sixth St. #205
Tucson, AZ 85721 US