AT UMD Geography is the study of place, or space, in the same sense that history is the study of time. Its study of human-land relationships and spatial interactions has always been of general interest, but Geography has added importance today due to the many environmental and economic challenges faced in today's world. Geographers perform a wide variety of jobs in geographic subfields such as cartography, remote sensing, urban and regional planning, housing and community development retail site location, computer mapping, environmental analysis, climatology and resource conservation. Geographers collect and analyze data to search for solutions to a variety of spatial problems related to each subfield. A knowledge of Geography helps us understand the characteristics of space, location and place in the broader context of how people interact with both physical and human environments.
Geographers identify and analyze the global patterns that shape our lives.
The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment of geographers to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations. Some career fields, such as computer assisted cartography, will grow faster than others. Some bachelor's degree holders may teach at the high school level with proper certification in the Social Sciences. Individuals with geography backgrounds are needed in governmental research and planning agencies at the federal, state and local levels, in the research departments of many economic development units, both public and private and in business. Opportunitiies in business and service sectors are available in urban and environmental management and planning, including such fields as market and location analysis, land and water resources planning, and health planning.