联合国教科文组织主办的《国际社会科学杂志》第150期（1996年12月）、第151期（1997年3月）出了两期地理学专辑，专辑反映了地理学的最新研究动态，对地理学的各主要分支学科的特点、现状和研究热点进行了评述。全球环境变化、环境灾害、社会—自然相互作用，社会经济活动的全球化、城市化和跨国公司等新的空间组织形式和新的区位选择过程、地理信息技术，这些都是目前地理学研究的主要课题，而且地理学的各个分支之间和地理学与其它学科之间的综合趋势正日益加强。

International Social Science Journal sponsored by UNESCO devoted two issues, i.e. issues 150 (published in December 1996) and 151(published in March 1997), to give an overall picture of the present state of Geography. Although it's a social science journal and the coverage is not intended to be exhaustive, the two special geography issues of International Social Science Journal has brought a description of main branches of geography including physical geography, human geography, cartography. The two issues focus on certain topics of research interest, which are focuses of current geography studies, in the present stage of evolution of Geography and in the context of the fundamental problems of environment, climate, population growth and movement and economic globalization facing the human race as it approaches the 21st century. It was clearly shown that now the main research topics of geography includes: Human-earth interactions, environmental changes in local and global scale, environmental hazards, spatial structure and process of economic development and social transformation such as industrialization, urbanization and globalization. The trends of integrating of physical geography with human geography and geography with other disciplines were especially stressed by contributors of these two special geography issues of International Social Science Journal. There must be many chances of great development of geography in next century while the spatial awareness of people become stronger and stronger.