Transcript Nature & Perspec Rev 1314

THINKING GEOGRAPHICALLY: NATURE AND PERSPECTIVES
Human Geography
Physical Geography
Five themes of Geography
1. Location (absolute and relative)
2. Movement (ideas, people, goods)
3. Regions – what do areas have in common
4. Place – what is unique about a
location
5. Human Environment Interaction
a. Modify b. adapt
Famous Geographers: Eratosthenes – Father of Geography
– circumference of the Earth
Ptolemy: Compiled first Atlas “ Guide to Geography”. It was
Ptolemy's incorrect map that Columbus used to determine he
could sail around the world.
Location:
Site: physical character of a place –
On a river
Situation: Relative location – location in relation to
other places.
Longitude, latitude
----meridians, parallels
Prime Meridian, International Dateline
Greenwich Mean Time
Time Zones (degrees?)
15 degrees
Country with no time zones?
MAPS AND MAP PROJECTIONS:
All maps have distortion.
The type of projection is determined by the projection.
The Mercator projection distorts shapes
around the poles. Perfect for ship
navigation.
A Robinson
projection distorts
all features a little
but no area to a
large degree.
A Peter’s projection
“spreads “ countries near
the equator but squashes
them near the poles.
An azimuthal map shows the earth
from a particular point. Doesn’t show
all of the planet.
Map Scale
1” = 5 miles. Would be used on a
local map.
Large scale map
Large scale = small map
Small scale = large map
Small scale map
1” = 500 miles. Would be used on a larger map.
Geographer’s are interested in the way places and
things are arranged and organized on the surface of the
Earth.
This spatial perspective means they notice patterns,
environments, distributions of people and locations of
all kinds of objects.
In simple terms, spatial means “space.”
Spatial
analysis,
spatial
distribution
Look at the spatial distribution
of the desks in your
classrooms.
Spatial Analysis
• Geographers search for patterns in the
distribution and movement of human activities
and environmental processes.
Where
Where
Where
Where
is AIDs?
do we find hunger?
are American blacks (region) ?
are cattle raised?
Spatial Analysis: Crime Mapping
Describing Distributions
Types of density
Arithmetic density: How
many or how much in a
given space
Physiological density:
Number of people per
unit of farmland
Agricultural density:
Number of farmers per
unit of farm land
Can this information
define an LDC or MDC?
Chloropleth Maps
Cartogram
Types of maps
Dot Map
Isoline map
Mental mapping
You have a “mental
image” of a place or
location. The closer
to familiar places, the
more accurate it
tends to be.
Map
projection
How to get a round map onto
a flat sheet of paper.
Something will always be
distorted.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Satellite imaging takes photos
of “layers” of the surface.
These can be separated and
studied for a particular
purpose.
Scale can also be used to identify the importance of an
occurrence. These exist on levels from a small to large
scale.
If 25 people die in a flood in Burkina Faso, the
scale of the tragedy is important there, but not
on a world scale.
If 250,000 people die in a Tsunami in the Indian
Ocean, the scale is important on a worldwide scale.
Think ZOOM
A murder in Cypress is important in scale to us, but
not necessarily to someone in Duluth.
REGIONS
Functional
(nodal)
The “threshold” of a central location
(node.)
The coverage of a radio station,
newspaper
The South, East Texas, CyFair
Types of regions: perceptual (vernacular)
The Panhandle of Texas
We know where it is, but it is
not an “official” region
Public radio
Functional
region – an
area organized
around a nodal
or central point
Newspaper distribution
Formal regions have an “official” designation such
as precincts, counties, states, countries, etc…
The “corn belt”
is also
considered a
formal region
because
everything in
the region is
built around
corn
production.
Tobler’s 1st Law of Geography
• All things are related. However, all other things being
equal, those things that are closest together are more
related.
• Related Concepts:
– Distance Decay
– Friction of Distance
– Gravity Model (influence of one place on another)
DIFFUSION
RELOCATION DIFFUSION
Spread of an idea from the physical movement of
people.
EXPANSION DIFFUSION
Hierarchal Diffusion: spread of an idea from
persons or nodes of authority to other
persons or places. (top down diffusion)
Contagious Diffusion: The rapid and
widespread diffusion of a characteristic
throughout a population.
Stimulus diffusion: The spread of a principle
even though the characteristic itself does not
diffuse. Apple vs Microsoft
GENERAL INFORMATION
Space-time compression
The reduction in time it takes something to
diffuse to a distant place. (technology)
Toponyms: Place names
San Antonio, Red Bluff Mountain, Longwood
Golf Club
Sequence occupance
The change over time as to what is “occupying” a
particular space.
Prairie to sod hut to house to apartments to vacant
lot
Distance decay: the diminishing importance and eventual
disappearance of a phenomena the further away it is from its
origin.
Environmental Determinism: the environment determines
the relative success of failure of a group of people. The
physical environment causes and restricts human
development.
Possibilism: the environment may set limits on development,
but people have the ability to overcome their environments.
Density
Arithmetic
Pattern
Concentration regular
dispersed
ConcentrationIrregular
Linear or clustered?
end
Arithmetic
density
The number of an item in a given
space.
Physiological Number of people per given amount of
density
arable land.
Arable or
agricultural
density
Number of farmers per given
amount of arable land.