The Department of Geography has a vibrant community of scholars – most are members of one of six research groups: Contested Development, Earth Observation & Wildfire, Physical & Environmental Geography, Political Ecology, Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, Risk, Hazard & Society and Urban Futures. Staff research also ranges well beyond those groups and involves both individual scholarship and colleagues in other institutions, as well as the department. These groups operate through staff-funded research and PhD student collaboration on research projects. The research themes provide the central focus of our international reputation centre on: cultural, political and social change in cities urban governance and public policy in cities urban sustainability environment and development in low-income locations monitoring and modelling of terrestrial environmental processes and investigations of the politics of environmental policy. In addition, we have thematic research specialisms in historical geography, geographies of disability, architecture and the built environment, rural development, and remote sensing of the environment.