Brief History

Geography department is one of the first scientific departments within the college of Arts since its establishment where History and Geography were in one department within the humanities body known as the department of Social Sciences in the period 1964 – 1968. After the last year, this department obtained its private status as a special department.

Vision

Scaffolding the practical scientific level in the corresponding research via studying the phenomena starting from the part to the whole. This is done through the senses or using intuition and verifying the truth of such predictions by using new technology. Using the lab is followed to achieve the best scientific results for scientific competitiveness in fulfilling the scientific research projects for researchers and postgraduates. These involve treating the openness towards the efficient cadre to ensure excellent vocational performance and collaborating with the other governmental institutions in  a way that ensures a perfect performance.

Organizing monthly symposiums dealing with the economic, planning, and developmental issues in the province in particular and in Iraq in general.

The department of geography is considered as a consultative bureau to prepare lots of practical studies when local projects are intended to be done. It is the nucleus for a scientific center within developmental field and on both regional and urban levels and activating the studies related to the urban and natural environment.

Message

Achieving quality and distinctiveness in education and scientific research by developing the student's ability to innovate and self- education.

Managing to match the scientific progress in the field of solving the human and the natural problems that face our country and the world.

Conducting accredited research and holding symposiums, conferences and workshops to make this technology familiar by which spatial information bases can be constructed in the processes of human planning and development and exploiting the natural resources and finding ideal solutions for the ecological problems.

Highlighting the role of the scientific technologies in our universities and local governmental institutions by training researchers and teachers who can be able to solve these problems by using new technologies and practical and quantitative approaches to be adopted in our institutions that should be developed to use the practical approaches instead of the descriptive ones.

Conducting studies that help taking the political, planning, and developmental decision and achieving social justice.

Goals

Putting practical studies whose results are beneficial in planning and evaluating social services sectors, infrastructure services, population services, and need assessment according to sound planning and their future horizons plus identifying their patterns of spatial distribution. This can be done by utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) due to its concise outputs, easiness of achievement and the degree of its relatedness to population distribution and architectural extension.

Conducting the accredited practical research, studies and projects related to planning and developing natural, human, economic, and ecological resources plus making spatial and digital data bases.

Preparing objective maps for the planning and population problems by adopting the space visible and the possibility of identifying the location of each service by using Global Positioning System (GPS).

Scaffolding the scientific level and giving educational courses to train academic cadre able to manage developmental and planning projects plus developing the scientific level for the department of geography and shifting its interest from the theoretical into the practical side, which makes its graduates benefit the governmental departments interested in this specialization.

Graduating specialists in the fields of ecological and architectural planning, sustained development, climate, studying earth shapes, population, area and maps, transport and communication, tourism, GIS, remote sensing, general contributing in planning and implementing developmental programs and planning in Iraq.

Building updatable data base by using the ecological and the architectural GIS, which is automatically connected to the features on the map and analyzing the statistical data to give detailed information for decision makers in planning field.

Issuing a series of research and studies related to water resources in the province and others related to ecology and development signs in Iraq.

Holding symposiums and conferences nationally and internationally plus publishing research papers in international journals.

Building geographic data bases that are digital, general, natural, human, and economic, which contribute facilitating decision making especially for planners, strategists, and decision makers whether it is architectural, service, security, ecological and natural resources. Thus these contribute to making sound decisions to achieve projects by identifying feasibility and economic benefit on one side and identifying locations that need such projects and services in reality.

Contributing in treating what the country suffers from in general and Basra and the south area in particular especially in making multi -  purpose topographic screen.

Building digital, spatial geographic information data that contribute in facilitating decision making especially for planners and decision makers.

Maintaining the scientific, field, and practical side in geographic studies in that the earth is the first field for geography through the field and scientific journeys and utilizing the devices, drawing labs, and the labs in the department.

Utilizing quantitative, arithmetic, statistical, and natural studies to develop the science of geography in a away matching  the international progress in the field of geographic studies.

Introducing the science of geography in its modern form, which is based on induction, analyzing, explaining the existence and distribution of geographic phenomena and predicting of the geographic phenomenon.

Training students on using the modern methods in Geography such as the quantitative approaches, GIS, and remote sensing.

Graduating students of limited specializations who are able to actively contribute in maintaining the environment and evaluating its human and natural potentialities via working in jobs related to their exact specialization.

Providing qualified human cadre like teachers and technicians.

Giving educational courses in GIS and remote sensing for geography teachers and postgraduates in the Iraqi universities and those interested in applying these techniques in the government departments.

Encouraging students to contribute in the scientific, social and cultural activities and holding weekly meetings with them to identify their problems, needs, and projects and urging them commit to their work.