Download Geographic inquiry focuses on the spatial

Geographic inquiry
focuses on the spatial:
- the spatial arrangement of places
and phenomena (human and physical).
- how are things organized on Earth?
- how do they appear on the landscape?
- why? where? so what?
Location and Distribution
The two key concepts for geographers.
Map of Cholera Victims
in London’s Soho District
in 1854.
The patterns of victim’s
homes and water pump
locations helped uncover
the source of the disease.
Key Question:
Why do Geographers use
Maps, and What do Maps Tell
Us?
Two Types of Maps:
Reference Maps
- Show locations of
places and
geographic features
- Absolute locations
Thematic Maps
- Tell a story about the
degree of an attribute,
the pattern of its
distribution, or its
movement.
- Relative locations
Limitations-Scale-the relationship to the mapped area’s
actual size, limits details.
Projection-displaying a round object onto a flat surface
distorts shape, distance, size, and direction.
Reference
Map
Thematic
Map
What story
about median
income in the
Washington, DC
area is this map
telling?
Mental Maps:
maps we carry in our minds of places we
have been and places we have heard of.
Activity Spaces:
the places we travel to routinely in our
rounds of daily activity.
How are activity spaces and mental maps related?
Geographic
Information
System:
a collection of
computer hardware
and software that
permits storage
and
analysis of layers
of
spatial data.
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Remote
Sensing:
satellite imagery of
sections of the
Earth.
Scale
Scale is the territorial extent of something.
The observations we make and the context
we see vary across scales, such as:
- local
- regional
- national
- global
Scale
Scale is a powerful concept because:
- Processes operating at different
scales influence one another.
- What is occurring across scales
provides context for us to understand
a phenomenon.
- People can use scale politically to
change who is involved or how an
issue is perceived.
Five Themes of Geography
•
•
•
•
•
Location
Human-Environment
Region
Place
Movement
Place: Unique Location of a
Feature
• Location
– Place names
• Toponym
– Site-Physical Characteristics
– Situation-location relative to another place
– Mathematical location
Place: Mathematical Location
• Location of any place can be described
precisely by meridians and parallels
– Meridians (lines of longitude)
• Prime meridian
– Parallels (lines of latitude)
• The equator
Cultural Landscape
The visible human imprint on the landscape.
Religion and
cremation
practices
diffuse with
Hindu migrants
from India to
Kenya.
Sequent Occupance
Layers of imprints in a cultural landscape
that reflect years of differing human
activity.
Athens, Greece
ancient Agora
surrounded by
modern buildings
In Montgomery, Alabama, streets named after Confederate
President Jefferson Davis and Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks
intersect.
Geographers who practice fieldwork
keep their eyes open to the world around
them and through practice become adept
at reading cultural landscapes. Take a
walk around your campus or town and try
reading the cultural landscape. Choose
one thing in the landscape and ask
yourself, “what is that and why is it
there?” Take the time to find out the
answers!
Place
Sense of place: infusing a place with
meaning and emotion.
Perception of place: belief or understanding
of what a place is like, often based on
books, movies, stories, or pictures.
Regions
• Formal (uniform) regions
– Example: Montana
• Functional (nodal) regions
– Example: the circulation area of a newspaper
• Vernacular (cultural) regions
– Example: the American South
Culture
Culture is an all-encompassing term that
identifies not only the whole tangible
lifestyle of peoples, but also their
prevailing values and beliefs.
• Two aspects:
– What people care about
• Beliefs, values, and customs
– What people take care of
• Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and
shelter
Cultural Ecology
• The geographic study of human–
environment relationships
• Two perspectives:
– Environmental determinism
– Possibilism
• Modern geographers generally reject
environmental determinism in favor of
possibilism
Physical Processes
•
•
•
•
Climate
Vegetation
Soil
Landforms
– These four processes are important for
understanding human activities
Movement
Spatial interaction: the interconnectedness
between places depends upon:
Distance
Accessibility
Connectivity
Globalization
– Economic
globalization
• Transnational
corporations
– Cultural globalization
• A global culture?
Distribution of Features
• Distribution—three features
– Density-How often something occurs in
space
• Arithmetic
• Physiological
• Agricultural
– Concentration– Pattern
Space–Time Compression
Figure 1-29
Spatial Interaction
• Transportation networks
• Electronic communications and
the “death” of geography?
• Distance decay
Figure 1-30
Types of Diffusion
• Expansion Diffusion – idea or innovation
spreads outward from the hearth
• Contagious – spreads adjacently
• Hierarchical – spreads to most linked people or
places first.
• Stimulus – idea promotes a local experiment or
change in the way people do things.
Stimulus
Diffusion
Because Hindus believe cows are
holy, cows often roam the streets in
villages and towns. The McDonalds
restaurants in India feature veggie
burgers.
Types of Diffusion
• Relocation diffusion –
movement of individuals who
carry an idea or innovation with
them to a new, perhaps distant
locale.
Kenya
Paris, France
Chapter 1 Wrap-Up Questions
• 1. Describe the site, situation, and mathematical
location of your home and a friend/family member who
lives in a different part of the country.
• 2. Name three formal regions that this school is located
within and give a reason for each. Do the same for
vernacular and functional regions.
• 3. Describe an element of your culture that appears to
be environmentally determined. Can you now provide
evidence that this element is only one of many
possibilities in this environment?
• 4. Give a local example of not-so-sensitive
environmental modifications. Can you think of any
others ways to achieve the desired result?
Coordinate Questions
• (33.9 N, 116.25 W) How would describe the climate of this area?
What clues lead you to this conclusion?
• (33.75 N, 116.35 W) How far away is this from the previous
coordinates?
– What’s going on here? Zoom in and describe what you see in terms of
pattern, density, and concentration.
– How would you describe the human modification of the environment
here?
– Zoom out and describe where this location is. What about its situation
explains its existence.
• Go to the following coordinates and explain how they demonstrate
globalization and diffusion. Explain how you think the idea diffused.
– (33.434 S, 70.565 W), (1.345 S, 36.717 E), (26.093 N, 50.567 E)
– (47.985 N, 11.51 E), 40.066 N, 116.523 E)