The College of Urban and Environmental Sciences (CUES) started from the establishment of the Department of Geology and Geography in 1952, which combined the faculty from the Department of Geoscience at Tsinghua University and the Department of History at Yanking University. In 1978, the Department of Geography was created out of the Department of Geology and Geography, and was renamed the Department of Urban and Environmental Sciences in 1989. CUES was founded on the department of Urban and Environmental Sciences in 2002.

CUES is under the administration of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Currently, CUES has five departments , including the Department of Environmental Science, Department of Ecology, Department of Resource and Environmental Geography, Department of Urban and Economic Geography, and Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and two centers , including the Center for Historical Geography and the Center for Architecture.

CUES has 70 full-time faculty members including 37 full professors, 22 associate professors, 7 assistant professors, and eight research professors. The full professors, research professors, and associate professors serve as the graduate faculty. Professors in the college are educated or trained by China’s top academic institutions and world-renowned universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Hong Kong. Faculty in the college specialize in a wide range of areas and cover a variety of disciplines, including Environmental science, Ecology, Geomorphology, Physical Geography, Quaternary Geology, Human Geography, Urban Planning, Urban Design and Architecture.