Geography Department

The guiding philosophy of the programme is to produce graduates in a variety of specialties ranging from social, economic, environmental and earth sciences, with emphasis on spatial analysis and integration, so that they can play key roles in environmental and areal analysis and planning.

Geography is rightly referred to sometimes as the “spatial science”, that is a discipline that is concerned with earth space and how it is being used. Geography’s name is reputed to have been coined by the Greek Scientist Eratosthenes around 200 BC from the word “geo” which means “the earth” and “graphein” which means “to write”. Thus from its formative stages as a discipline geography’s concern was “writing about the earth”. From the very beginning, geographic writing concentrated on both the physical structure of the earth as well as the nature and activities of the inhabitants of different parts of the earth. As a matter of fact, it is curiosity about the nature of the earth and its inhabitants that fuelled explorations of “our home” by men through the centuries.

Geographers study spatial variations. They seek to understand how and why things differ from place to place and over time. Geography is about space and the content of space. This interest developed as a formal discipline over time beginning with Greek and Roman scholars who did much to map the Mediterranean world, devising techniques such as the grid of parallels and meridians. They studied climates, landforms, animals and peoples. The Chinese similarly developed interest in geographic information. Modern geography owes its rebirth from the surge of scholarship that followed the European Renaissance. From the beginning the discipline was recognized as being broad and integrative in nature.

Initial interests were with patterns and processes of change in physical landscapes. This was combined with an interest in variations in people and customs and how this interplayed with the physical environment. As the discipline matured, there was a proliferation of subdivisions in the discipline ranging from physical sciences oriented subdivisions like climatology, biogeography, geomorphology and water resources, soils to the more human subfields such as economic geography, human geography, urban geography, political geography and so on. But these subdivisions are closely related and are characterized by three overarching interests: first, they are all concerned about spatial variation of physical and human phenomenon on the surface of the earth and the interaction between them; secondly, they are interested in spatial systems that link man-environment interactions in one area with interactions in another; and thirdly, growing out of the first two is concern with regional systems of human ecology.

At CUSTECH we recognize that this broad geographic interest can be organized in a number of unifying categories or traditions. These include:

1. Earth science tradition which covers studies in landforms and its derivatives; weather and climate.
2. Culture-environment tradition which covers studies in areas such as population, cultural, political geography and the geography of spatial behaviour.
3. Locational tradition which would include areas like economic and urban geography and the geography of natural resources and area analysis focusing on regional concepts.

Our programme therefore begins by building a foundation in skills such as maps and map making, surveying and computer-aided strategies including familiarity with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We also include in the foundation basic knowledge of the earth systems: climatic, geomorphic, environmental, human and social. This foundation is required for all students before they can graduate from our programme. We regard the first two years of university as foundational. The last two years of the programme allow the students more choice in direction and concentration. While they must still continue to be familiar with material in all traditions, they are allowed to take electives such that they can have a concentration, first by including towards a focus on human or physical geography and then within this broad category focusing on a sub-discipline from which their project or capstone essay is derived.

Being located in the southern Guinea Savannah biome, along a major river, with a state that houses the meeting point of River Niger and River Benue and several other river basins and a population that is primarily agrarian, our programme aims at relevance by increasing electives in areas that can address our unique environment and be relevant to the emerging needs of the populations in the immediate environment.

OBJECTIVES

The B. Sc Geography programme at Confluence University of Science and Technology Osara is based on the following objectives:

1. To give students a sound knowledge of the principles of spatial organization of natural and human phenomena on the earth’s surface.
2. To make students appreciate the nature and distribution of natural resources and the impact of these on human activities and problems.
3. To equip students with suitable analytical and technical skills required for tackling problems of spatial planning and development.
4. To enable students to specialize in areas of relevance.