Rather than fixed geographies, Regions are spatial constructs shaped by dynamic relationships across multiple urban, rural, and ecological terrains. While planning and design disciplines have often centered urbanization as the dominant force of spatial transformation, this narrow lens obscures the broader systems of labor, land use, and ecosystem services that shape territories beyond the city. Regional theory offers a way to conceptualize these interdependencies, drawing attention to uneven development, extraction, and forms of governance that operate across multiple spatial typologies.

Mapping the Region approaches cartography as a representation method and mode of theoretical inquiry to reveal geographic relations and inform spatial practice. Drawing upon the entangled history of digital cartography and practice at the regional scale, this course offers both theoretical foundations and technical geospatial methods for regional definition and inquiry. Using Esri ArcGIS software, students will explore data models, methods of overlay, raster analysis, composite indices, network connectivity, remote sensing fundamentals, and spatial statistics in parallel with concepts of regionalism around infrastructures, climate, landscapes, and social formations. By the end of the course, students will be expected to posit their own regional definitions through layered cartographies and engagement with emerging topics in digital geospatial practice.