School of Geography and Planning

The School of Geographical Science and Planning (SGSP) was founded in October 2002. It was established in 1929 as the Department of Geography, one of the earliest Geography Departments. There are 4 departments in the School now: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Territorial Resource and Environment, Department of Water Resource and Environment, Department of Remote Sensing and Geographical Informational System. There are also seven research centers and institutes in SGSP.

The Geography section at Sun Yat-sen University is one of the National First-Level Disciplines, and Human Geography is one of the two National Key Sub-disciplines in China. The two sub-disciplines, Urban Geography and Tourist Geography, are top-ranking in the country. The Tourist Geography Commission of the Chinese Geographical Society was established and functions under SGSP. About 300 research and consultancy projects have been completed over the last 5 years. Since 2002, the annual research funds have exceeded 20 million yuan RMB. Internationalization, communication, and serving local development are the key strategies of SGSP to enhance human geography, invigorate physical geography and greatly improve GIS. SGSP endeavors to establish itself as one of the top Geography Schools in China and to gain an international reputation in its field of studies.

Research Institutes/Laboratories
• Center for Urban and Regional Studies
• Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Research
• Center for Water Resources and Environment
• Center for Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Engineering
• Center for Tourism Planning and Research
• Center for Land Use Planning
• Research Institute of Plan and Design

Exchanges and Cooperation
SGSP has established regular academic exchange and research  collaborations with about 50 organizations and universities in USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and about 100 organizations within the mainland of China. In  November 2005, SGSP signed the Memo of comprehensive cooperation with the Department of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany. 17 international conferences were held and more than 20 international cooperative projects were accomplished by SGSP over the past 10 years.