环境研究课程至少需要15个小时。该课程是为从物理和社会文化角度对环境感兴趣的学生而设计的。这些学生可能对资源管理，自然地理，气候学，环境政策或法律，全球环境变化，可持续发展或其他复杂的环境问题抱有职业期望或个人兴趣。职业目标可能涉及环境专业之一，例如景观生态学或气候学，环境规划与法规或环境法律，政策和政治。该计划强调影响环境的社会和自然过程之间的相互关系。环境研究的学生可以在环境变化，环境政策和决策支持，用于环境研究的GIS，遥感，景观生态，现场方法和统计分析以及环境正义方面建立专业知识。
Geography is concerned with places or environments and the physical, social, economic, and political processes that change them. It is a composite science, requiring a broad base of knowledge from many related disciplines. Geography also is an analytical science that seeks answers to specific questions from a geographic perspective. To achieve their aims, geographers develop and use advanced geospatial methods, including computer-based mapping, global positioning, and satellite sensing. The importance of geographical and sustainability sciences is rooted in the complexity of social and environmental problems. We live on a dynamic planet, one that is constantly changing in response to human and natural processes that are highly interconnected. Geographers study the interactions between people and their environment to better understand these intricately related processes. At the University of Iowa, the department teaches and conducts research on human and natural systems and how interactions between these systems shape the world we live in. Cutting-edge technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imagery, and Global Positioning System (GPS), are used to help inform decision making at geographic scales and to analyze and visualize geographic processes.