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Location
Position on the Earth’s surface. Location is the most basic of the fundamental themes. Every
geographical feature has a unique location—its global address. A number of geographic factors interact to
give significance to location. A rich geography lies beyond location, yet the concept of location is crucial
to geographical understanding. Location is a basic prerequisite to higher level geography, just as addition
and subtraction are to advanced mathematical understanding and competency.
ABSOLUTE LOCATION
Using Grids
 Every site has a unique location on planet Earth (or in space).
 Location can be defined in relation to a reference grid.
 List 3 examples of reference grids:
Different types of Maps and Globes
 Maps and globes can be used to find location, but they also show other geographic elements such
as pattern and process. Thematic maps provide the location and distribution of a factor:
population, economic situations, climate zones, political divisions, and settlement patterns. Road
maps and navigational charts show the routes for travel from one location to another.
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Give 2 examples of maps that show pattern or process.
Map Projections
 Map projections are necessary to transfer information from a spherical Earth to a two-dimensional
map sheet. The process of map projection often leads to distortion in distance (size), direction,
and shape.
Earth-Sun Relations
 The Earth’s movement and position relative to the Sun is important in determining climate,
seasons, and time zones. Key concepts include:
Define the following:
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Solstices
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Equinoxes
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tilt of axis
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daily rotation
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annual revolution.
RELATIVE LOCATION
Relative location is a way of expressing a location in relation to another site. For example, Peoria, Illinois,
is 125 miles southwest of Chicago, or Australia is in the southern hemisphere, etc…
Provide 2 examples:
Locations Have Geographical Explanations(often in the native language)
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Fond du Lac means “foot of the lake” in French. It is located at the southern tip
of Lake Winnebago. It is geographically descriptive about where it is located.
Colorado Colorrojo means “colored red” in Spanish. The landscape of the
mountains and foothills in Colorado appear red. It is geographically descriptive.
Winnebago means “stinky water” in the native language. Lake Winnebago is
very shallow and fosters a lot of algae. The lake does stink. It is descriptive.
Come up with 3 good examples of locations with geographical explanations.
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Why are certain features or places located where they are? Give 2 possible/probable geographic
reasons for why Manitowoc is where it is?
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Relative location can be explained in terms of locational factors, history, economics, or other
physical or human factors. San Francisco can be explained historically/economically: When
Gold was discovered there, many moved to make a fortune. Many stayed b/c of the physical
features therefore, it is still a great city today.
Explain the location of at least two other places in the world.
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The Importance of a Location Can Change with History
 Even though the absolute location has not changed, its relative importance may have increased or
decreased because of its changing role in local, national, or world affairs. Philadelphia had huge
importance early in our country’s existence when it served as our nation’s capital. While
Philadelphia is still an important city, its relative importance is less than it once was.
 Come up with 2 examples of relative importance changing over time.
Place
Physical and Human Characteristics. Location tells us where, and place tells us what is there. All places
have a set of distinctive characteristics, the features that make them different from or similar to other
places. Geographers often divide these characteristics into physical and human phenomena that are spatial
and can be mapped. Characteristics of place often can be explained by the human and physical processes
that define the geographic patterns of our planet. The geography of a place is a mosaic of factors, including
the patterns and processes that define the three remaining fundamental themes: human—environment
relations, movement, and regions.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Landforms
 Landforms and the processes that shape the landscape: erosion and deposition by rivers, waves,
glaciers, and wind; mountain-building, volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics.
Climate
 Patterns of temperature, humidity and rainfall, cells of air pressure, wind and ocean circulation:
the climate of a place affects landform processes, water availability, vegetation, and animal life.
Soils
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Natural fertility, suitability to agriculture types and crops, and relation to climate are all important
factors of soil.
Natural Vegetation (Flora)
 Type of environment: desert, tropical rainforest, tundra, or savanna, and the relationship to factors
of soil and climate.
Animal Life (Fauna)
 Relationship to environment, climate, soils, and vegetation.
Water
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Water bodies, the hydrological cycle, availability of fresh water, areas of water deficit and surplus.
HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS
Religion
 Human belief systems and their imprints on places.
Languages
 Human communication and its imprint on places: names of places and features are often
geographically descriptive in their original language.
Population Factors
 Descriptions, distributions, density, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, and economic structures,
rates of birth, death, and population growth.
Settlement Patterns
 Urban, rural, suburban, wilderness areas, and the form of settlements.
Economic Activities
 How people make a living, including agriculture, industry, forestry, fishing, and providing
services, the imprint of an economic system on the landscape.
Human-Environmental Relations
Relationships within places. Spatial patterns and processes develop from the complex interactions and
relationships that occur between humans and their physical environments. The geography of our planet is a
dynamic system of interacting environmental factors, affected by both natural and human processes.
All environments offer geographical advantages and disadvantages as habitats for humans. How
humans behave according to the advantages and limitations that an environment offers can greatly affect a
landscape. Key sub—themes include:
THE EARTH AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM
Interrelationships Between Humans and Environments
 Physical and human environments are interconnected, woven together by their interactions and
influences. Change in one almost certainly involves change in the other.
The Role of Technology
 Humans apply technology to modify their environment.
 Modification of the environment occurs through agriculture, industry, settlement, lifestyles, and
other forms of human activity.
The Problems of Technology
 The application of technology can create problems as well as benefits.
 Air and water pollution, waste disposal, toxic materials.
Environmental Hazards
 Humans often cope with hazardous environmental conditions.
 Environmental hazards can result form either natural or human factors, although usually both are
involved to some extent. Examples may be natural: earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes,
tsunamis; or human induced: nuclear disasters, oil spills, heat pollution of water bodies.
Environmental Limits
 All environments have limiting factors—availability of water, land, and other natural resources,
management of environments (costal zones, arid lands).
Adaptation
 Humans have many ways of adapting to various environments. People in deserts live differently
than people in the humid tropics or the polar regions.
 The influence of the environment: ways of making a living, house types, ways of life, and the
appearance of the human landscape.
ETHICS AND VALUES
Issues relating to management and protection of environmental resources
 Environmental protection or stewardship can conflict with economic development. Do we want
bigger and faster cars or expanded industrial capability, or do we want clean air enough to pay the
cost?
Different cultural attitudes about the environment and its resources
 Cultures often have different attitudes toward use and conservation of the environment. One use
of the environment may be detrimental to other uses of the same resource.
Movement
Humans Interacting on the Earth. Regions and places are connected by movement or human
interactions. Humans are increasing their levels of interaction, in communication, travel, and foreign
exchange. Technology has allowed us to shrink space and distance. People migrate and travel out of
curiosity, economic or social need, as a response to environmental change, or because they have been
forced to move for other reasons. Physical processes are also expressions of movement—traveling weather
patterns, ocean and wind currents, flowing water, plate tectonics, and volcanism.
MOVEMENT: ITS FORM AND STIMULUS
Transportation Modes
 Private transportation (air, rail, bus, auto, other).
 Public transportation (air, rail, bus, auto, other).
 Freight transportation (air, rail, truck, barge, ship, pipeline, other).
Movement in EverydayLife
 Individaul travel behavior—journey to work or school, shopping trips.
 Networks of communication, flows of idea, diffusion of culture.
 Spatial organization of society.
 Spatial efficiency within market areas in the public and private sectors.
History of Movement
 Movement is an important theme in both history and geography.
 Migration, history of settlements, frontiers.
 Voyages (and expeditions) of discovery and exploration.
Economic Stimulus for Movements
 Economic factors can often stimulate or influence movement.
 Colonization, mercantilism, current migrations.
Energy and Mass Induced Movements
 Movements associated with the hydrologic cycle (including weather, wind, and ocean currents);
tectonic movements (including folding, faulting, and warping); movements associated with
volcanism; mass movements such as landslides and soil creep; and movements within ecosystems.
GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE
The economies of the world ore interrelated, and nations depend on each other for:
Movement of Goods, Services, and Ideas
 Where do raw materials come from, where are they shipped to?
 Where do certain products (technologies, services, or ideas) come from? Why?
Foreign Trade
 Trade partner countries, tariffs, hinterlands, ports.
Common Markets
 Shared labor, markets, production facilities.
MODELS OF HUMAN INTERACTION
These provide simplifications that help us analyze how humans interact over space, and make rational
predictions for how similar interactions will occur in the future. Examples include:
Gravity Models
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Interactions based on the size of places and distance.
Central Place Theory
 Size and spacing of urban areas and the relationship of cities to the surrounding region
(hinterlands or trade areas).
Regions
How They Form and Change. Regions are geographical tools. They are mental constructs designed to
help us understand and organize the spatial characteristics of our planet. Regions may be larger than a
continent or smaller than your neighborhood.
Regions can have sharp boundaries that are will defined (such as a state), or may have gradational
or indistinct boundaries (such as the pacific Badin, the Great Plains, Silicon Valley, or the Kalahari Desert).
Many regions are familiar to us because of television or the newspapers, or because they are
related to other subjects that we study. For the geographer, regions represent a core element of the
discipline and are of fundamental importance.
We define our regions by stating criteria and them drawing boundaries. Regions may be based
upon crops, types of agriculture, climate, landforms, vegetation, political boundaries, soils, religions,
languages, cultures, and economic characteristics. Sub-themes include:
UNIFORM REGION
Uniform regions are defined by some uniform cultural or physical characteristic.
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Examples include the Wheat Belt, Latin America, the Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Bible Belt,
the Sun Belt, New England, the Rocky Mountains, a country, county, parish, township.
FUNCTIONAL REGION
A functional region has a focal point (often a city) and is the organized space surrounding that central
location.
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Examples would be a metropolitan area, such as the San Francisco Bay Area.
Other functional regions include market areas served by a particular store and districts around
schools.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Understanding regions can lead to understanding human diversity.
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Regions are an excellent means for illustrating the cultural differences and similarities between
areas of the world and groups of people.
Examining and analyzing the cultural characteristics of places and regions lead students to
understand the rich diversity of people and the ways they live. Such understanding will lead to
more compassionate and nonjudgmental attitudes toward other cultures.
Students will also understand ways in which national, racial, or ethnic groups interact with each
other in a local, national, or regional context.