The department's laboratory for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) integrates computing resources and CD-ROM and magnetic tape imagery, providing students with the means to analyze extensive data sets.

Equipment includes digital image and data processing systems, light tables, stereoscopes, and spatial and spectral mensuration equipment. The department's new computer laboratory centers around 12 Pentium computers and a Sun UltraSparc workstation. Also available in the computer laboratory are scanners, printers, CD-ROM drives, and Zip drives.

Available software includes popular word-processing and spreadsheet programs, drawing and presentation programs, GIS data managers, ground-water and contaminant transport modeling software, and various geological and geotechnical programs.

The groundwater hydrology laboratory is equipped to conduct research in any phase of subsurface fluid flow and computer facilities are available for the modeling of flow through porous media. Equipment includes permeameters, 2-D and 3-D flow tanks, field testing equipment, tensiometers, pH and ion concentration meters, and grain size analysis apparatus.

Special subsurface and geotechnical laboratories have facilities to investigate both rock and soil materials. Equipment includes microscopes, various strength and durability testing apparatus, well logs, geophysical apparatus, classification testing equipment, augers and subsurface sampling equipment, consolidometer, and a field density gauge.