Ph.D. Programme in Geo-environmental Informatics

The Ph.D. Programme in Geo-environmental Informatics includes the following specializations:

- Physical geography

- Human geography

- Resources and environmental monitoring and planning

- Cartography and geography information system

Study year:

The study year at WHU starts during the summer term:

Summer term: September-January

Winter term: February – July

The vacation between terms starts in July and lasts two months.

Generally, the Ph.D. program lasts three years, but is not to exceed six years.

Credits:

To obtain a Ph.D. degree, the students are required to earn 14 credits in the Wuhan University Credit System (of which at least 8 are for degree courses and 6 are for optional courses).

There is no fixed amount of credits required each semester. If the students select more courses, they can earn more credits.

One credit in the Wuhan University Credits System corresponds to 16 hours of classes.

Publication requirement:

The basic publication requirement for a Ph.D. degree is two refereed papers, with two indexed by SCI/SSCI (or specified journals), or one indexed by SCI/SSCI (or specified journals) and the other EI journal paper.

The first author of the paper should be the Ph. D degree candidate or the supervisor with the candidate as the second. The institution of first and corresponding authors should be signed as State Key Lab of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing (Wuhan University).

Doctor's Thesis:

A written thesis must be submitted and be defended in a colloquium.

(1) The Doctor's Thesis will be supervised by one WHU professor.

(2) A thesis proposal must be submitted at least one year before the defense. A committee will review this proposal to determine if the subject is appropriate and whether the topic is relevant to the field of study. If the committee does not see any value in the chosen topic, the proposal will not be approved.

(3) A status report must be submitted to supervisor every three months after thesis work begins. The status report must provide a summary of the work that has already been done and also must give an outlook on the anticipated outcome together with a schedule for the time until submission.

(4) The Doctor's Thesis must be defended in a Doctoral Colloquium at WHU. A doctoral candidate must submit an application for an area of study:

Curriculum in Geo-environmental Informatics

For the selected specializations the following optional courses are compulsory:

l Physical geography

² Global change and response

² Urbanization and sustainable development

l Human geography

² Global change and response

² Urbanization and sustainable development

l Resources and environmental monitoring and planning

² Global change and response

² Urbanization and sustainable development

l Cartography and geography information system

² Principles of Geovisualization

² Principles of GIS

Note: The above information is for reference only.