VIU Geography Department

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Nanaimo, BC
VIU Geography Department

The VIU Geography Department at VIU offers a BA Major and Minor, a BSc Major and Minor in Geoscience

08/31/2026

Aili Forrest has won the Geography Department’s Student Service Award! Many sincere thanks for all the work you’ve done for the Geography students at VIU! 🏆🌎🎉

This award is granted to recognize a geography student who has significantly contributed to the geography department and promoted excellent learning experiences for all the students in the geography program at VIU.

08/29/2026

The winner of the 2026 Lady Rose Prize is Rachel Davidson! 🏆🌎🎉

This prize is awarded to the top-ranking student graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a major in Geography.

The prize includes two round-trip tickets on a sightseeing tour of the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound with Lady Rose Marine, aboard the MV Frances Barkley, from Port Alberni to Bamfield.

Many thanks to Michael Tripp for continuing to make this award possible!

08/26/2026

The winner of the 2026 Carto Cup!
Our very own Maddy Dickey has won the 2026 Carto Cup Competition with her map “Post Wildfires Burn Scar Analysis: Jasper, Alberta 2024,” which she created for a GEOG 326: Remote Sensing lab assignment.🏆🌎🎉

She is also the 2026 VIU winner of the ESRI Canada GIS Scholarship
Congratulations! Keep up the great work, and we can't wait to see what you achieve in the future! 🙌🎉

06/12/2026

GEOG 467: Field Studies, Day 8 📚🗺️

We wrapped up this year’s field studies course with a new assignment at the Nanaimo Archives. Students explored historical maps, photographs, reports, and other archival records to discover how historical documents can provide valuable data and context for geographic research projects.

A great reminder that fieldwork doesn’t just happen outdoors — sometimes the most important clues about landscapes and communities are found in the archives.

Special thanks go to Danica at the archives for letting us explore their treasures!

06/08/2026

Day 7 of GEOG 467 brought us back to the Nanaimo River to measure channel characteristics and calculate stream discharge. Working in groups, students applied field methods to better understand Nanaimo river hydrology.

06/03/2026

“What did you get for bank full discharge?” 💦📏

Day 7 of GEOG 467 brought us back to the Nanaimo River to measure channel characteristics and calculate stream discharge. Working in groups, students applied field methods to better understand Nanaimo river hydrology.

06/01/2026

GEOG 467: Field Studies in Geography — Day 6 📸

This year’s field trip took us to downtown Duncan, BC, where students explored the relationships between urban space, infrastructure, power, and colonialism through a photo essay assignment.

As we moved through the area, we examined how historical and ongoing colonial processes are reflected in the built environment, transportation networks, and patterns of development across unceded Quw'utsun territory.

Through photography and field observations, students documented how landscapes can reveal stories of displacement, resistance, and Indigenous resurgence — while reflecting on the role geography can play in understanding processes of decolonization.

05/29/2026

GEOG 467: Field Studies — Day 5, 2026 🌊🦀

We spent day 5 of the course at Piper’s Lagoon Park, exploring the fascinating ecology of intertidal tide pools. Students applied concepts from island biogeography while documenting patterns in tide pool biodiversity and species distribution along the shoreline.

Address

900 Fifth Street
Nanaimo, BC
V9R5S5

Telephone

+12507533245

Website

http://www.viu.ca/geography

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