Environmental Historical Geographies
Matthew J. Hannaford, 2025, Geography Compass 18 (12), e70013
Environmental historical geography is a diverse, dynamic and active subfield with close connections to environmental history. Here, I examine developments in three overarching and overlapping themes within the subfield: environmental reconstruction, environmental knowledges and discourses, and environmental impacts and interventions. For each area, I highlight recent approaches to, and applications of, environmental historical geography. I also draw attention to several promising areas of research where environmental historical geography can build on its existing strengths and continue reinvigorating understanding of environment-society relations. These include contextualising environmental knowledge and data production amidst advances in big data and AI; illuminating the multi-directional interactions between environmental change, knowledges, and materialities; revealing the entangled physical and intellectual legacies of imperial and colonial projects; and enhancing comparative research.
