The faculty members taking the environmental geographical approach will help students find effective solutions to environmental issues, conserve and protect geoecological diversity, understand geoecological systems in areas that has been developed on geomorphological and geological bases, develop measures to establish a society rich in sustainable ecological system services, and confront environmental challenges associated with resource use. As a result, an interdisciplinary perspective of the relationship between the environment and society is fostered, with an emphasis on mapping spatial and environmental systems.

Field areas focused on are: alpine areas in the Himalaya and Karakorum; northern regions and Antarctica; transboundary areas such as the Pamirs and the Sea of Okhotsk and the Russian Far East; and Hokkaido, from the headwaters to the ocean, in the context of human-ecological systems.

Prospective students will benefit by familiarizing with the following keywords: developing countries, Hokkaido, sustainable development, local communities, transboundary environmental conservation, land-ocean ecological interaction, GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood), natural history of terrestrial environmental structure, land use/land cover change, ecotourism, geotourism, national park management, PAs (protected areas), geoecology, GIS, and remote sensing.