The University of Massachusetts Boston is "The Environmental Campus" of the five-campus University of Massachusetts system, and the Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences Department (EEOS) is the campus' premier interdisciplinary environmental department. EEOS, together with departments across the campus and in collaboration with research institutes such as Urban Harbors Institute, Collaborative Institute for Oceans, Climate and Security, and Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies EEOS energizes and faciliates the University's vision for national preeminence in environmental research and academic programs.

The Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences Department (EEOS) integrates the natural and social sciences to generate and apply new knowledge about the quality of our environment and the sustainable use of its resources. It focuses on promoting integrated science, planning, policy, and education for understanding earth-system processes and managing complex interactions between human activities (e.g., urbanization) and natural processes (e.g., carbon cycling) in linked watershed and coastal marine systems. The department's strong transdisciplinary makeup (natural and social sciences within the same department) and its focus on linked watershed-coastal systems are unique in the country.