The Department of Geography at Ghent University is headed by Professor Frank Witlox and has more than 100 staff members who conduct in-depth research in a wide range of geographical disciplines. The research of the department, led by 11 professors, is organised in 5 research clusters: Social and Economic Geography (travel behaviour, urban logistics, urban policy, world city network, land use modelling and location decisions), Physical Geography (the interaction between geomorphological processes and human influences, more specifically the effect of changes in land use, land management, hydrology and climate on the earth's surface), Landscape Research (the holistic and essentially interdisciplinary approach to landscape, integration of a wide variety of subjects, characterised by a regional and spatial differentiation), Cartography and GIS (the use of modern methods and the development of innovative technologies in multidisciplinary projects in the field of cartography and geographical information science), 3D Data Acquisition (acquisition of terrestrial data with a wide range of topographic and photogrammetric instruments, remote sensing and photogrammetry, bathymetry).

The Department of Geography has an extensive track record. In the past ten years, researchers in the department have received +230 research grants from various funding agencies (at local, regional, national, European and international levels) and published nearly 1000 international publications in a variety of highly cited journals. During the same period, about 100 PhDs in Geography or in Geomatics and Surveying were defended. The PhD students of the Department come from different countries all over the world, which is a testimony to the internationally renowned scientific reputation of the professors of the Department.

The members of the Geography Department teach a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. They are, of course, responsible for the majority of courses in the Bachelor of Science in Geography and Geomatics and the Master of Science in Geography and Geomatics. In addition, they teach courses in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy and in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at Ghent University. The Geography department also co-organises the specific teacher training programme in Geography and the postgraduate hydrography course.