Resources Environment and the Management of Urban and Rural Planning

Academic Honors:
2004, Famous Brand Major of Shaanxi Province
2008, Provincial Experimental Innovation Zone of Talent Cultivation
2009, Distinctive Major of Shaanxi Province
2010, Distinctive Major of China
2004-now, A++ Major ranking Top 3 in more than 160 universities across China
2012, Pilot Discipline in Colleges and Universities’ Comprehensive Reform

General Information:
Resources Environment and the Management of Urban and Rural Planning is an integrated major of Physical Geography and Economic Geography in Northwest University. Geography in our school enjoys a solid foundation and long history, which is one of the earliest established in our nation. Since the 1980s, a great number of researches and talent training programs have been conducted in many fields of this major, like the rational utilization and sustainable development of regional water and soil resources, environmental evolution and ecological construction, regional economic system’s regulation and development and etc., contributing greatly to geography development in China.

Teaching Platform:
There is a post-doctoral station for geography in our department. We are authorized to confer doctor degree in human geography and physical geography, master degree in 7 majors—physical geography, human geography, quantitative geography, environmental science, environmental engineering, urban planning and design and regional economics, and maser of engineering in environmental engineering. There are also 5 bachelor degree majors, namely resources environment and the management of urban and rural planning, quantitative geography, urban planning, environmental science and environmental engineering, covering three first-class disciplines in geography sciences, environmental science and civil engineering.
After many years of education and teaching reform and practice of talent cultivation, resources environment and the management of urban and rural planning in Northwest University has formed four distinctive features: First, we put great emphasis on basic training and the improvement of students’ comprehensive capabilities. Second, each research subject is decided according to the hot issues in geography science and resources and environmental science, and the urgent problems rising in our nation’s construction. And the teaching content and curriculum system are adjusted combining scientific research and talent cultivation together. Third, our teaching and study have kept abreast of the time, promptly adjusted to the trends of science development and the hot topics in research, which promote the reform of the subject and the construction of teaching. Fourth, in these years, good atmosphere of study—“Pragmatism, Innovation, Practice and Exploration” has been formed and a good tradition of helping each other has been witnessed among people of various ages.
In recent years, we have been awarded with 1 national quality project, 5 provincial quality projects and 14 field-grade ones. One teacher is elected as College Teaching Famous Teacher in Shaanxi Province. Two are elected as Advanced Individual for Noble Professional Ethnics in Northwest University. We have got 2 provincial Teaching Achievement Awards and 3 fields—grade ones. Five teachers win awards in the teaching competition of young teachers and two get prizes in the exhibition of teaching plans. Two of our courses are included in provincial quality courses and 3 are field-grade quality courses. The staff of our department have compiled and published 10 books used for teaching material, four of which are listed as planned textbooks in our nation’s eleventh five-year plan and two of which are listed in the twelfth five-year plan. 18 national university students innovative experiment projects and 30 field-grade ones are initiated. We now have 3 listed laboratories and experimental teaching demonstration centers and 5 listed practice bases of fieldwork.

Research Platform:
Cooperating with other institutes, we have established 1 key national research base for humanities, 1 mobile post-doctoral station, 2 doctor stations and 5 master stations. Meanwhile, we have a man-land relationship simulation laboratory, a surficial processes simulation laboratory, an information engineering laboratory, a remote sensing and GIS technology laboratory and an ecological environment laboratory. Since 2007, we (including some postgraduates) have made great progress in scientific research and accomplished more than 50 projects, for example, some major science and technology projects, national 973 Plan, natural science foundation of China, the ministry of education fund of humanities social sciences and Shaanxi provincial fund of natural science, etc. At the same time, we have accomplished many research achievements on theory and practice. More than 10 monographs are published. And more than 200 theses are posted in some core journals both at home and abroad, 19 of which are collected in SCI/SSCI/EI and 80 are included in CSCD/CSSCI.

Faculties:
     In our department, we have 25 full-time teachers. Among them, there are 8 professors, 10 associate professors, and 17 doctoral supervisors. 15 of them have got their doctor degrees and 5 of them are still working on them. 65% of the faculties get senior professional titles. Besides, we have Academician Changming Liu as our double-hired professor, and scholars like Zongxing Chen, Rong Zhao, Rui Li as our part-time supervisors.

Specialty Features:
(1)Our major is an interdisciplinary subject which focuses on both the nature circle on the earth’s surface and the humanity circle. The combination of arts and science makes our major distinctive among others. (2) It’s an applied major dedicated to multilevel and multi-dimensional urbanization, water and soil resource development and regional sustainable development. (3) Theories and methods in the major have influenced greatly the construction of other related subjects, like the science on agroforestry and water and soil, geology and mineral resources, urban planning, and economics and management.
After many years of practice, we have formed the talent training mode of “Extensive fields of vision, solid foundation of knowledge, particular emphasis on application”, and the structure of knowledge which is composed of one basic course and three modules. They are the basic course of geography (physical geography, human geography, economic geography, geography technology) and the module of land utilization, the module of real estate appraisal, and the module of urban and regional planning.

Graduation Orientation：
About 50% of the graduates choose to further their study as postgraduates；about 20% of them are admitted as national certified land appraiser or real estate appraiser; about 20% are admitted as national certified urban planner; and 10% or so are employed in related industries.

Construction Objective:
(1) The major is “Famous Brand Major of Shaanxi Province” and “Distinctive Major of China”. Since 2004, it has been successively marked as A++ Major, ranking Top 3 in more than 160 universities across China。Therefore, it’s necessary to carry out comprehensive reform to keep our major as a leader in the construction of similar disciplines in China and make it a first-class undergraduate major with international influence.
(2) Through the construction, we aim at forming a team of teachers who have high-level teaching ability, strong capacity for research and international vision. With the help of the provincial government and our school, we will draw in and cultivate more academic pacesetters and core teachers. Meanwhile, we will put more emphasis on hiring and training young teachers and optimizing the composition of faculties to make it more reasonable in age, title and the structure of graduation school.
(3) With the goal of cultivating more high-qualified talents specialized in resources environment and the management of urban and rural planning, we will strengthen our training mode of “Extensive fields of vision, solid foundation of knowledge, particular emphasis on application” and explore personalized programs, in order to make our students real talents in applied geography and meet the requirement of economic construction.
(4) With the progress of our major, we hope to drive the development of related majors in Northwest University and similar majors in China. Besides majors in geography, environment, and planning, like urban planning, quantitative geography and environmental science, we hope to promote the development of Regional Ecomonics, tourism management, historic preservation and other related majors in Northwest University. Meanwhile, we hope to be a leader in the reform and innovation of resources environment and the management of urban and rural planning in China.