●History
In 1996, in order to meet the needs of professional talents for sustainable development strategy in our country, absorbing the faculty of chemistry, chemical industry, management and other disciplines, the Department of Environmental Sciences of Northwest University was established based on the research direction of ecological environment in the former Department of Geography of Northwest University. It is combined with the Department of Urban and Resources Science, offering two programs of environmental sciences and environmental engineering. In October, 2009, Northwest University authorized the establishment of the College of Urban and Environmental Science and set up the Department of Environmental Sciences on the basis of the former program of environmental science.
●Survey
Now the department offer 1 bachelor’s program of environmental science and has the conferral right of the first level discipline of environmental science and engineering, the master and doctoral degree of physical geography. It is set up with two institutes of the research center of environmental science and the research institute of natural conservation and has obtained the B class certification of environmental impact assessment issued by the country.
● Staff
Now the department has 15 teachers, including 1 adjunct Academician, 4 professors, 6 associate professors and 3 lecturers. Among them, 7 staffs have obtained doctoral degrees. The academic leader is Academician Liu Changming.
● Education
The department provide specialized courses for undergraduate specialty of environmental sciences and related courses for specialties of environmental engineering, resources & environment and urban planning and management, urban planning. The staffs took in charge of an excellent course of Shaanxi province, a bi-lingual demonstration course of Shaanxi province, a provincial teaching reform course and 4 university-level teaching reform courses.
The laboratories for teaching and research have total gross area of more than 500 m², which is composed of environmental monitoring and analyzing laboratory, environmental biology laboratory, environmental ecology and environmental simulation laboratory. The department has fine conditions for experimental education.
● Researches
The staffs have engaged in researches of regional environmental planning and management, environmental monitoring and assessment, land use/ coverage changes, ecological protection and sustainable development for a long time. In the past 3 years, the department has obtained 2 subprojects of national basic research programs (‘973’projects), 4 projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation and 7 provincial/ ministerial research projects. More than 100 papers have been published on core periodicals at home and abroad.