Faculty at the University of Utah are particularly interested in the interface between urban processes and the broader economic system within which cities are embedded.
Faculty are interested in urban processes both in developed and developing regional settings.
Economic geography is the study of the spatial dimensions and implications of production, distribution and consumption activities. The economic geographer wishes to understand not only the spatial variation in these activities, but also why these processes are located where they are and how to locate them in order to improve efficiency as well as societal and environmental welfare. Economic geography specializations at the University of Utah include location theory, facility locational analysis and transportation. Activities in these areas are closely allied with the department's geographic information science specialization. Current abilities allow for data acquisitions by 32 bit large format color scanning, tablet-based digitizing, and numerous digital data format filters.