About the Department

 The Department of Geography at the Madras University is one of the oldest Departments in this country and celebrated its Golden Jubilee in the year 1983. The Department has built high traditions of teaching and research in the past 68 years. The academic efforts received a great fillip in 1976 when the faculty was strengthened and new courses for M.Sc. Applied Geography was introduced. The department has periodically updated the curriculum. The department was in the fore front of implementing the Credit Based Semester System (CBSS).

The Department currently has academic programmes for M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degrees. The M.Sc. Applied Geography Programme is a very specialised one with heavy inputs on applied aspects of the discipline especially GIS, EIA and Remote Sensing. The intake of students is limited to 10. The success of the training imparted to the students is reflected in their ready absorption in jobs and in specialised programmes. From the academic year 2000-2001 onwards a new need based industry oriented programme viz. M.Sc. Spatial Information Technology is offered in addition to the existing course. This course is to promote GIS technology and mapping science in our country. PG Diploma in GIS Management is yet another need based course offered as University - Industry and Community Interaction Centre (UICIC) programme. It is offered as an evening programme from the academic year 1999-2000 onwards. The Ph.D. programme is a specialsed one with emphasis on socially relevant research such as agricultural and rural geography, watershed management, integrated area of planning, marketing geography, urban and metropolitan problems, quantitative and spatial analysis in geography, social and area analysis, heath care delivery systems and environmental problems.

The Department has been assisting the State Planning Department, Ground Water Department of Tamil Nadu, Water Institute of Government of Tamil Nadu and Institute of Remote Sensing (Anna University) in research prgraommes and has developed good academic contacts with ISRO, Bangalore; NRSC,NATMO' Survey of India, Hyderabad Land and Survey Records of Tamil Nadu, Town and Country Planning of The Government of Tamil Nadu and CMDA, Chennai to name a few.

The Department has also been alive towards strengthening the teaching of geography in the affiliated colleges and to that end, has been organizing Refresher courses, Workshops and Curriculum Development Programmes.

 In recent years, faculty members are involved in advising and undertaking socially relevant and industry oriented projects.  Some prestigious consultancy projects were successfully completed. Collaborations with overseas scholars, universities and research institutes are progressively added.  At present the Department of Geography, University of Madras offers Ph.D.,  M.Tech, M.Sc., and M.Sc International Online Programmes with focus on Geo-spatial Technology and its applicatios in sustainable resource planning and management 

Objective

The Department of Geography at the Madras University, is one of the oldest Departments in this country. The Department celebrated its Golden Jubilee in the year 1983. The Department has built high traditions of teaching and research in the past 85  years. The academic efforts received a great fillip in 1976 when the faculty was strengthened and new courses for M.Sc Applied Geography was introduced.

• To impart quality education in Geography and Geoinformatic disciplines both in theory and practical aspect.
• To train both the students and teachers in the constituents colleges in areas of Geoinformatics.
• To undertake socially relevant projects both national and international level.
• To adopt deprived areas for extension activities.
• History In A Nutshell
• 1932 - Inception of the Department with Diploma Course.
• 1940 - Beginning of Enrolment for M.Litt in the Department
• 1948 - B.A./B.Sc. Honours Courses started under Inter-Collegiate Co-Operative Scheme(QMC,Vivekannada College and University Department)
• 1964 - Beginning of Enrolment for Ph.D
• 1973 - Orientation Courses for college Teachers
• 1976 - Award of 1st Ph.D Degree in the Department
• 1976 - Introduction of M.Sc Applied Geography in the Department under Semester System
• 1976 - Introduction of the M.Phil Degree
• 1976 - All India Symposium on Resource Development and Planning
• 1977 - Award of 1st M.Phil Degree
• 1979 - All India Advanced Summer Institute in Geography
• 1979 - Indo-British Seminar on Regional Development Policies in Developing Countries
• 1980 - Inter-Institutional Workshop on optional of Services
• 1981 - IGU working Group on Geography and Health- Symposium on "Incidence of Infectious and Chronic Diseases: Geographical perspectives".
• 1982 - The fourth National Cartographic Conference
• 1985 - Instituting Pro. V.L.S.Prakasa Rao Geography Award
• 1987 - Introduction of M.Sc. Cartography course.
• 1987 - Indian Geographical Society Diamond Jubilee Celebration -National seminar on urban Growth . Water Supply and sanitation.
• 1987 - Instituting Indian Geographical Society Awards (1) Prof.B.M.Thirunaranan Award and (2) Dr. A.R. Irawathy Award
• 1989 - Indian Geographical society seminar at Coimbatore centre on "Women and Job Resources"
• 1990 - Indian Geographical society seminar at Thuvakudi centre on "Land and Water Resources".
• 1991 - Seminar on Environment impact assessment sponsored by UGC and the Department of Geography.
• 1991 - Indian Geographical society seminar at Kumbakonam Centre, on Environment and Rural Development.
• 1991 - MOU signed between the University of Madras and University of Waterloo, Canada for linkage programe,sponsored by CIDA,Canada.
• 1992 - Workshop on Introductory Remote Sensing and Geographic Information system conducted by Madras-Waterloo linkage programme.
• 1993 - National Workshop on Digital image processing.
• 1993 - Workshop on GIS for college Teaching.
• 1994 - Introduction of UGC-SAP(DRS)
• 1994 - Workshop on Application of GIS for Aquaculture Development,Bay of Bengal project, M
• 1995 - Workshop on Slum Ecology
• 1995 - Workshop on Conflict Resolution.
• 1995 - Workshop on Digital image processing at intermediate level.
• 1995 - Workshop on prioritization of action for gender justice.
• 1995 - Workshop on multivariate analysis: Prospects and Applications.
• 1995 - International Seminar on GIS application for resource management sponsored by CIDA
• 1996 - Indo-Australian symposium on tourism, culture and hospitality, sponsored by RMIT, Australia
• 1996 - Focus group workshop on malaria prevention and control.
• 1997 - Focus group on workshop on building sustainable urban communities.
• 1998 - Workshop on Indigenous Knowledge System.
• 1998 - Refresher Course on Environmental Studies.
• 1999 - UGC-SAP(DRS) Phase 2
• 1999 - Introdcution of PG Diploma in GIS Management Under Industry Consultancy Programme.
• 1999 - Workshop-Basic of GIS and Remote Sensing
• 1999 - Workshop-Spatial Data Management and Mapping
• 2000 - Sixth Asian Urbanisation Conference- International Conference.
• 2000 - Introduction of M.Sc. Branch VIII - B - Spatial Information Technology - A new need based IT programme for spatial data analysis and planning management.
• 2001 - DST-FIST phase I
• 2001 - M.Sc Geography offered by the Institute of Distance  Education, first of its king in India, where in projects in the form of workshop compulsory apart from rigorous practical.
• 2001 - National Seminar-alternate Environment Impact Assessment -Rationale, Concepts and practice.
• 2002 - Workshop Women and Poverty in the context of Globalisation in Tamil Nadu.
• 2002 - National Seminar on Indigenous Knowledge and Innovations, sponsored by UGC.
• 2002 - UGC-SAP National Seminar on "Challenges in Digital Mapping of socio-economic Resources"
• 2003 - Introduction of First Endowment for the Department students by Dr. Lakshmi Kara, one of the old student.
• 2003 - Organised an International Conference on ?Health and Environment? in association with York University, Canada.
• 2004 - UGC SAP Sponsored National Seminar on GIS Development: Methodologies, Prospects& Applications 
• 2004 -  Workshop on GIS based Modelling and WebGIS 
• 2005 - M.A Sustainable Development Programme for Indian Ocean Students in association with Staffordshire University, UK funded by Commonwealth.
• 2006 - National Seminar on Geo Informatics for Natural Resources Management
• 2007 - International Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development in association with Common Ground, Australia.
• 2008 -  National Level Workshop on “Emerging Trends in Geo – Spatial Analysis – Modeling and Management
• 2008 - National Seminar on Urban Sustainability and Issues 
• 2009 - MoU with Staffordshire University and University of Northampton for offering Joint Award Online Programmes
• 2010 - National Seminar on Water Resources on World Water Day
• 2010 - National Seminar on Geo-literacy for Sustainable Development on World Earth Day
• 2010 - National Seminar on Better city Better Life on World Habitat Day
• 2010 - Eurasia – Pacific Uninet supported International Train –the– Trainer Workshop on GIScience  
• 2010 - Eurasia – Pacific Uninet, International Workshop on Problem Analysis and Integrated Water Resource Management
• 2010 - International Workshop on Geospatial Technology for Natural Resources and Environmental Management
• 2011 - M.Tech in Geoinformatics 
• 2011 - M.Sc. Geoinformatics (Under Private Study) 
• 2011 - MoU with Salzburg University, Austria for offering M.Sc. Geographic Information Science  and Systems (Online Programme  and Evening Programme)
• 2011 - International Seminar on Climate change and Sustainable Resource Management
• 2011 - Two-day Faculty Development Workshop on GIS for college level Geography Teachers
• 2011 - National Seminar on Cities and Climate Change on World Habitat Day
• 2011 - International Seminar on Sustainable Development : Issues and Strategies 
• 2012- Workshop on “Environment and Waste Management : Problems and issues
• 2012 - Professional development workshop on “GIS and Spatial Modelling”,Department of Geography  University of Madras (Jointly with Salzburg University, Austria)
• 2013- 35^th Indian Geography Congress Theme " Sustainability,Environment and Society"
• 2014- Refresher Course on Disaster Management
• 2017- UGC-CPEPA Workshop on Sustainable Development of Mangrove Ecosystem
• 2020  Development of Geographical Institutions in India,IGS(4-7 September,2020