In his devotion to his subject, Professor Balchin raised the profile of geography in the UK, helping it become a highly respected university subject. Balchin was a professor at King’s College London and later headed up a new groundbreaking geography department at University College Swansea in Wales.

He worked extensively with the influential geographer Norman Pye, launching a new research field termed “local climate” and established the academic word “graphicacy”.

He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, and was awarded a state scholarship to study at Cambridge University. At that time geography was a subject considered to have integrated breadth rather than specialist depth, and all his life he tried to apply this principle, moving from one aspect to another and laying new foundations for others to take up. This began with a dissertation he wrote on a theory about rising sea-levels by the Frenchman, Henri Baulig. He entered his write up to the Royal Geographic Society where it won first prize, he was only 18.

After graduating he joined one of the last Arctic expeditions to set off into the unknown, completely incommunicado. While sailing up Billefyord, 600 miles from the north pole, he discovered evidence of “isostasy” — the idea that the weight of ice during the Great Ice age squeezed out a prominent layer, or “sima”. Fascinated, he created a map covering 50 miles of the coastline, camping out when it became too far to return to base each day. A luxuriant beard helped protect him against the Arctic temperatures. His finds were later put into official Norwegian maps and retained the place names given by the team. Balchin was commemorated by “Mount Balchin”, now “Balchinfjellet”, a 5,000-ft glaciated peak at 81 degrees north latitude.

Returning from this endeavour he married Lily Kettlewood, in 1939, although the developing war in Europe made arrangements difficult.

During the Second World War, besides making marine charts, including those for the D-Day invasion of France, Balchin also helped to devise special air maps with scales suited to aircraft speeds.Near the end of the war Balchin and his Cambridge/Spitsbergen friend, Norman Pye, launched a new research field: local climate. Bath occupied a 500-ft cleft of the River Avon, and they related cause (weather measurements) to effect (first flowering dates of various plants) at different heights up the valley sides. The schools recorded Stevenson-screen figures and local botanists noted flowering dates. No Stevenson screens were available in wartime so Balchin and Pye made their own.

In 1945 Balchin became a lecturer at King’s College London and mapped erosion surfaces on Exmoor for his PhD. He realised that university map work lacked the professionalism of the hydrographic department so devised a first year course to introduce it.

A few years later Balchin and Pye enlarged their geographical horizons by studying rock-desert landforms in the Mojave and Sonora deserts in the US, but it took until 1952 to overcome all the obstacles, including the ban on converting sterling to dollars. Again, they brought speculations down to earth through precise survey.

When the King’s College department expanded to four staff, the new appointment was Alice Coleman, who shared Balchin’s concern with geographical breadth. Like Pye, she became a lifelong friend, and co-operated on several pieces of research after he had left the university.

Balchin and Coleman coined the term “graphicacy”, as opposed to numeracy and literacy, and when he was President of the Geographical Association, he chose speakers on this subject for the presidential day, beginning with his own address. He created a warm welcome for the concept, which was taken up in the art world and potentially included engineering.

Accepting an invitation from University College in Swansea to head a new geography department in 1954, Balchin moved to Wales. Swansea gave him enormous scope for making a mark. He converted geography from being just a subsection of geology with only two staff to becoming virtually the largest department with about 600 undergraduates. Money was freely available to create the country’s first new geography department in a Natural Science building. Novel features were three practical laboratories, to give each year’s students a community “home” between lectures and library work. Another innovation was a physical laboratory for scientific observation of the work of waves and running water. His design plans were requested by no fewer than 45 universities where new departments were projected, both in Britain and abroad.

Post Swansea he and his wife retired to Ilkley, Yorkshire. He continued his work for geography, supporting the various organisations. In the Royal Geographical Society he won the distinction of serving on the council for 17 years. Thirteen of these were as Chairman of the Education Committee, when each year he arranged for speakers on a range of careers for geographers to speak to packed audiences of sixth-formers.

He was also a keen supporter of the Geographical Association. During his years at King’s College he was the organiser of its annual conference and he was a trustee for many years.

He also wrote the history of the Geographical Association on the occasion of its centenary and edited a book on the 75 years of the Joint School of Geography — a saga of co-operation between King’s College and the London School of Economics.

A leader in his field, Balchin’s wide-ranging contributions remain a vital element in helping the young university subject of geography to mature into a respected discipline.

He is survived by two children.

William Balchin, Professor of Geography, was born June 20,1916. He died on July 30, 2007, aged 91