The Department of geography and Environmental Studies (DGeES) at Addis Ababa University (AAU) is as old as third level education in Ethiopia. The teaching of geography at the tertiary level started in 1950 at the University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA). Initially, geography was offered as an important field of study to Arts students. Since 1958, the Department of Geography, now renamed Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (DGeES) as of 2002, has been offering undergraduate programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree in geography. The first batch of geography majors who numbered three graduated in 1963. Geography graduates work in the teaching (until five years ago) and non-teaching professions and contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of the country.  

 

Since its beginning, the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies continued to develop at a relatively rapid rate.  The broad sub-fields in the curriculum were Human Geography, Physical Geography and Cartography.  Cartography was offered as a tool course to strengthen the training of students at the undergraduate level. As was geography teaching in many parts of the world then, the program was biased towards regional studies. In the second half of the 1960s, the emphasis shifted to the study of geographic principles and quantitative methods.

 

The Department entered a new phase in its development when it introduced a Master's programme in 1978. The vertical expansion of the program made necessary and possible a further evaluation of its curriculum in the light of the fast emerging trend of the "New School of Thoughts" in Geography – the Quantitative Revolution. In consequence, the Department began to introduce a series of changes. The level and relevance of teaching and research both in Geography and cartography are considerably affected by the quantitative revolution.

 

Now we live at a time when computers are widely used to acquire and process geo-data, store, retrieve and manage spatial information. Geographic Information System (GIS) including Remote Sensing (RS) technologies emerged as one of the main tools of spatial analysis and graphical presentation in geographical studies. This is a new development to the field of geography. Environmental issues such as climate change: desertification & global warming, and environmental degradation are important issues of these days. Globlization in its environmental, cultural and economic perspectives is a recent and important development. The revision, which was effected, about six years ago attempted to embrace these changing situations. However, the current undergraduate curriculum which has been under implementation for more than six years now has to be revised in order to integrate new issues, principles and practices in geographical teaching research and applications.