Under the direction of His Excellency the President of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Prof. Dr. Ahmed bin Salem Al-Ameri, the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Systems at the College of Social Sciences is organizing a student field visit to the city of Abha entitled (Natural and Human Components in the Civilized City of Abha), during the period from 13-22/10/2024.
The visit, which was supervised and followed up by Dr. Ibrahim bin Mohammed Al-Alawi, a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Systems, aims to provide students with advanced field skills in physical and human geography through an integrated study of aspects of the geographical environment in the city of Abha, with a focus on terrain, climate, natural resources, and human activities, in addition to enabling students to gain a deeper understanding of physical and human geography through direct interaction with the environment of the southern region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The ten-day visit includes field exploration and analysis of physical geography, study of human geography and economic-environmental relations.
In addition to organizing lectures and workshops to train on the use of GPS and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps, and exploring the local climate by collecting its data; such as: temperature, humidity, and winds in mountainous and valley locations, and analyzing weather phenomena with a focus on the climatic effects on the terrain; such as: erosion and mountainous meanders.
The visit also analyzed agricultural activities by visiting local farms and studying coffee production, identifying irrigation patterns used, the impact of terrain on agriculture, studying economic activities in the Al-Soudah Mountains, the impact of terrain on tourism development, and studying existing tourism projects.
Abha city was chosen for the field visit due to its geographical cultural importance, and its connection to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as it is one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and enjoys many natural and human components; which makes it an important hub for sustainable development, which will provide students with the opportunity to study and understand many natural and human variables.
