Rate My Professor Deirdre Dragovich

Professor Deirdre Dragovich is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Geosciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Sydney. She holds an Honours degree in Marine Science from the University of Sydney and has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in teaching and research within geography and environmental studies. Dragovich taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses for many years, coordinated units such as applied environmental science, and supervised PhD students including Farshad Amiraslani in 2011. She managed the Department of Geography during critical periods and contributed significantly to geographical education by co-editing the Meridian series of teaching modules for first- and second-year university students, published by Oxford University Press starting in 1994, covering environmental, economic, and social geographical topics. Additionally, she served as editor of the Institute of Australian Geographers’ Newsletter and participated actively in professional geographical societies.

Her research focuses on environmental geomorphology, soil erosion, land degradation, catchment hydrology, erosion management, and the environmental impacts of tourism, particularly trail erosion in protected areas. With 129 publications and over 2,561 citations on ResearchGate, key works include 'Visitor Attitudes and Erosional Impacts on the Coast Walk, Royal National Park' (2012, with Sunil Bajpai), 'Managing Tourism and Environment—Trail Erosion, Thresholds of Potential Concern and Limits of Acceptable Change' (2022), 'Check dams: Distribution, purposes and effectiveness' (2025), 'Portraying the Water Crisis in Iranian Newspapers' (2021, with Farshad Amiraslani), 'Simulated Runoff and Erosion on Soils from Wheat Agroecosystems' (2023), and 'Fire intensity, slopewash and bio‐transfer of sediment in eucalypt forest, Australia' (2002). Dragovich has earned accolades such as the Professional Service Commendation from the Institute of Australian Geographers (1997) for contributions to applied geography and education, and Fellowship from the Geographical Society of New South Wales (1998). The University of Sydney established the Prof Deirdre Dragovich Prize in Environmental Studies in her honor. She has also guest-edited special issues like 'Young Researchers in Land, Soil, and Water' and contributed to textbooks such as the Geography NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum.