Download AP Human Geography Summer Reading Assignment

To future AP Human Geography student,
Welcome to APHG! AP stands for Advanced Placement – it is a college level course which can earn you
college credit. It will indeed be challenging, and you will be expected to take more responsibility and be more
engaged than your peers. You will learn about the inner workings and problems of the modern world, and will
be taken across many different landscapes, cultures, and human perspectives.
You are responsible for completing the following before the first day of class:

The attached APHG Summer Reading Assignment – Standards Text & Reading Guide.
o Directions for this are on the following page.
o It will be collected AND you will be tested directly on the material.

Purchase the Kaplan AP Human Geography Review Book
o 2Available online at Amazon.com for approximately $12 +shipping—as seen here:
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Geography-2017-2018-Kaplan-Test/dp/1506203353
o I recommend buying the most updated version (2017-2018) but the used 2015 or 2016 versions
will work just as well.
o I do have donated books from past students that you can use from me free of charge this year,
but supply is limited. Please contact me and we can arrange a time for you to pick up the book
from my classroom at William Penn during the summer.

Sign-up for our class Remind to receive messages and updates about the course (please encourage
your parents to sign up too!) Text: @aphg18 to the number 81010 and provide your name.
If you or your parents/guardians have any questions, issues, problems, etc., please e-mail me at
[email protected]. I regularly check my e-mail throughout the summer, and I can make myself
available to speak in person at William Penn.
I hope you come to class next year with an open mind and an eagerness to begin learning. Enjoy your
summer!
Mr. Hein
WPHS Social Studies
AP Human Geography Teacher
[email protected]
302-323-2825 ext. 1210
1
APHG Summer Assignment
In advance of your beginning this course this coming fall, I would like for you to complete an
assignment related to the introductory unit of this course. The information in this assignment is
the basic geography background information and skills that you will need to apply many times
throughout next year. It is essential that you know this information before we begin.
Any questions or problems, please e-mail me: [email protected]
 Step 1: Read the attached “Geography Standards” document. As you read, complete
the reading guide questions and tasks on separate paper. These are your notes.
 Step 2: The final page in this packet is a map of the world. You must identify the major
global regions, and name countries in each of those regions.
 Step 3: Study this assignment after completing it. This assignment will be collected
and graded the first week of school, and you will take a test on the material in the
packet, including the world map.

The first unit exam will be given within the first 2 weeks of school. Much of the
information on this test will come directly from the material in this Summer
Assignment and will not be covered during class!
2
GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS DOCUMENT – Questions
As you read the Geography Standards Document, answer the following questions and complete the following tasks in
whatever way suits you. Just like the text, the questions/tasks are broken down by each part. Make sure you take your
time, break it down part by part, and answer the questions/tasks as thoroughly as possible. These will be your notes for
this assignment.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
Part I
Define the bolded words from the text: MAP, PROJECTION, DISTORTION, CARTOGRAPHER.
What steps do you think are important to reading and comprehending a map?
Why don’t all maps look the same?
Part II
Draw your own mental map of your neighborhood, labeling locations that are important to you.
Explain the difference between absolute and relative location:
Part III
How can sub-regions help us to understand connections and differences between places around the world? (For
example, Eastern vs. Western Europe)
Why is it important to know and understand major physical features of the world?
Part IV
What is the point in having an urban hierarchy?
What is the difference between urban, rural, and suburban regions? Why are they all interdependent with each
other?
Part V
Provide 3 reasons why Chicago is more geographically accessible than Tulsa.
How is the accessibility of a place tied to its rank within a hierarchy?
Part VI
How is complementarity tied to the terms accessibility and hierarchy?
Which pair of cities would have the highest level of interaction? Chicago-Detroit or Chicago-Miami. Explain why.
How does the idea of Distance Decay and the Gravity Model explain the relationships or complementarity between
places?
Part VII
How would you define diffusion?
Describe the diffusion of the Black Death over space and time based on the map:
Part VIII
Explain how John Snow’s map led to the city of London finding a solution to the Cholera outbreak:
How could looking at mapped data help a geographer to address patterns of crime in a major city like Wilmington?
Part IX
After you read the first paragraph in this section, look up two theories: environmental determinism and
environmental possibilism. Define these two theories, and explain how they view the impact that the physical
environment has on the cultural landscape.
How are site characteristics different from situation characteristics of a place?
Name 2 site characteristics and 2 situation characteristics of your home:
Part X
How can the economy or culture be examples of BOTH push and pull factors? Provide an example of each scenario.
Why do you think migration is important to geography?
Part XI
After reading this section, look up the words assimilation and acculturation. How do these terms differ?
Where is the hearth of the Islamic faith? Which region of the world serves as its core today?
Part XII
How can places that are physically similar, be culturally different from each other?
3
27. Additionally, what factors make various places around the world similar to each other?
Part XIII
28. Why do geographers break space up into regions?
29. How did the regions in the map in this section get their names?
Part XIV
30. What overlapping regions are you a part of right now?
31. Why would people have different interpretations of whether Delaware is in the Northern or Southern region of the
U.S.?
Part XV
32. Explain each of the 3 types of regions (formal, functional, and perceptual) and come up with an example of each.
Part XVI
33. Explain the differences between political and cultural borders. Give an example of both a political and cultural
regions. Can they be the same?
Part XVII
34. What may lead to changing boundaries between regions?
35. How are the roles of boundaries different for formal, perceptual, and functional regions?
Final Summaries: After completing this entire assignment, answer the following questions as thoroughly as you can.
Be sure to explain your ideas, and use examples when appropriate. Each response should be in paragraph form.
A) Explain in your own words what the study of geography is, and how this subject helps us to understand the
world today.
B) Pick any 3 of the main parts within the text. Summarize what you learned about EACH of those three parts.
C) Based on what you learned from this text, how do you use geography in your real-life? Explain an example of
how ideas from the text connect to something you have experienced or your daily life.
4
Geography Standard One: Students will develop a personal geographic framework, or “mental map,” and
understand the uses of maps and other geo-graphics [maps].
Part I
Have you ever been to our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.? If you have, you probably saw the Washington
Monument, the Capitol Building, and the area between them known as the National Mall. Since you made it back to
where you are now, we can assume that you did not get too lost. Likely, you or someone with you used a map.
7th St.
National Mall
Washington
Monument
The Capitol Building
When you use a map as a guide, what you are doing is translating real objects on the ground (top aerial map) into
symbols or icons (bottom map) and then observing the relative placement of these objects in reference to where you
are located. You can read a map without actually visiting the area, of course.
Maps are usually on flat paper and in two-dimensional, or 2D form. Yet our earth is a three-dimensional, or 3D sphere.
Humans have decided to make maps on paper because that makes it easier to transfer and reproduce. When people
change or convert a globe (3D) surface into a flat map (2D), they have made a projection (map). However, when
mapmakers make this conversion they distort either the shapes or sizes of earth’s land.
Globes are made
into maps
because they are
bulky and not
easy to carry.
Moving a 3D
Globe to a 2D
piece of paper
cannot be done
without
distortion.
5
Mapmakers decide how to distort, or warp, the earth in their projections. This is why some maps of the world look very
different from others. Some cartographers, or mapmakers, choose to distort, or alter, shapes of continents, but keep
their sizes correct. Peter’s Projection shown directly below is an example of this. Other maps choose to distort sizes of
continents more and keep accurate shapes of the land. Mercator’s Projection and Peter’s Projection of the world
shown at the bottom of the page are two different examples of this. Both maps are correct, but each projection distorts
the world differently.
Peter’s Projection (map) of the world
1. Look how much
bigger Greenland is
in Mercator’s
Projection of the
world than in
Peter’s Projection.
Mercator’s map has
the correct shape for
Greenland, but it
has been made to
look much bigger
than Australia.
In fact, Australia is
3.5 times larger
than Greenland.
This happened
because Mercator’s
Map greatly distorts
the size of land
further away from
the Equator.
2. Russia in
Peter’s looks a lot
smaller than in
Mercator’s
Projection.
Mercator’s Projection (map) of the world
Africa and
South America
look a lot
smaller in
Mercator’s
Projection.
Many people
think this is
unfair to them.
Part II
Imagine what a map of Delaware would look like. What you have just done is looked at your mental map of Delaware.
A mental map is your picture of a part or all of the Earth’s surface. You have mental maps of your school, your home,
your state, and even of the world. Some people have better mental maps than others have and do not get lost as often.
Luckily, a person’s mental map improves over time. Below are some basics that any good mental map of Delaware
should include:
6
Delaware shares borders with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Maryland. It is a mostly flat state on the eastern seaboard of the
United States. It is part of the Delmarva Peninsula. A peninsula
is a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides. Delaware is
part of a peninsula because it is between the Delaware Bay,
Atlantic Ocean, and the Chesapeake Bay.
Delaware has only
three counties. From
north to south they
are New Castle, Kent,
and Sussex.
Dover is the state
capital, but
Wilmington is the
largest city.
People with good mental maps know the relative location of places in their mental maps. Relative location tells where
one place is in comparison to another place. On the other hand, absolute location gives an exact location using
longitude and latitude. When people tell each other where they live, they rarely use absolute location. Instead, they
describe where they live in relation to a better-known landmark. For example, people would likely say where they live in
relation to other well-known landmarks like People’s Plaza, Dover Air Force Base, or Bethany Beach. Looking at the map
above left, Dover is relatively closer to Rehoboth Beach than Newark, so people in Dover might be able to get there in an
hour, as opposed to two hours for most people in Newark.
A person is really good at mental maps when they can link all their mental maps of different scales together. Try to
imagine your mental map of Delaware. Now zoom out to your mental map of the United States. Can you zoom into a
mental map of Florida, can you then zoom back out to see just the states bordering the Atlantic Ocean? Can you then
zoom out to the entire world? Once you can accurately do this, you have become proficient in Mental Maps.
Part III
The world as a whole is becoming more and more connected. For example, it’s likely that most of the clothes you are
now wearing were made in a different country. It is likely that your future job will have you interacting with people from
all over the world.
The continents of the world are broken up into smaller sections or sub-regions, as seen in the map below. You should
be familiar with the world’s sub-regions and their relative locations. Take a few moments to look over the sub-regions
below.
7
When you are familiar with the sub-regions of the world, you can easily make connections between places. For
example, to travel between Western Europe and Southern Europe, you would likely be able to take a train. To travel
from East Africa to Central America, you would most likely fly. Similarly, clothes leaving China in East Asia would likely
be shipped across the Pacific Ocean, but would travel by train to Eastern Europe. Below are just a few of the locations of
many major physical features, or landforms, of planet earth that you should be familiar with.
Rocky
Mountains
Alps
Mountains
Sahara
Desert
Appalachian
Mountains
Himalayan
Mountains
Amazon River
and Rainforest
Nile River
Andes
Mountains
Indian
Ocean
Part IV
Maps of cities show distinct patterns of a hierarchy. A hierarchy is a ranking system. To understand hierarchy, first
think of a school. How many principals does your school have? Likely, it has one. How many vice or assistant
principals? Likely, it has a few. How many teachers and custodians? Likely, likely it has a couple dozen. How many
students? Likely, it has several hundred. Notice how at each level there are more and more people. Notice how each
person has less and less school-wide authority as there are more people in his/her level. The pattern above is known as
a hierarchy. Now let’s take this idea of a hierarchy and apply it to maps.
The map of East Asian cities below shows an urban hierarchy or a hierarchy of cities. There are only a few extremely
large cities at the top of the hierarchy such as Tokyo and Seoul. These primate cities, at least twice as large as their
country’s next city, are supported in the hierarchy by smaller, yet still large cities such as Kolkata, Manila, and Shanghai.
These cities are then surrounded and linked to very many medium cities and then by even more small cities at the
bottom of the hierarchy. Roads, trade connections, communication networks, and social links form a web that holds the
hierarchy together.
The bottom of a
hierarchy always
has the most units.
There are many
more students in a
school hierarchy
than all the other
groups. Likewise,
there are many
more smaller cities
on an urban
hierarchy than
large cities.
The tops of
the
hierarchies are
the principal
of the school,
or the largest
cities such as
Tokyo and
Seoul.
8
Even though some units, like principals and primate cities, are higher up in the hierarchy than other units, such as
students and small cities, all units of a hierarchy need each other. Without principals, custodians, and teachers, schools
would not be able to function. However, without students, there would be no schools at all. With an urban hierarchy,
small cities need big cities. In fact, all units of a hierarchy need big cities for things such as sports teams, and job centers.
On the other hand, large cities rely on smaller cities to provide a market for goods, a work force, and support services.
Rural (farming) areas near the cities provide fresh food while suburban areas provide housing for workers. Even the
mighty New York City would be nothing without the thousands of farms to feed it. This idea of all areas in a hierarchy
needing each other is called interdependence.
Part V
Accessibility is another pattern found when mapping. Accessibility is a measurement of how easily one place can be
reached from other places. Building a road between two places would make them more accessible, but a natural barrier
such as a mountain range between two cities would make the cities less accessible, or harder to travel between.
If you own a Six Flags amusement park, you want your park to be easily accessible to as many people as possible. That is
why all Six Flags are located near major cities such as New York and Atlanta, so that they are easily accessible for large
numbers of people and can therefore make money. A hospital is another facility that you would want to be highly
accessible so that it can help is many people as possible. That’s why most hospitals are built near major highways.
The map to the right
shows routes for Amtrak
trains in the United
States.
From Philadelphia,
Boston is a lot more
accessible than Tulsa
because it is closer, and
there is a direct train
route between Boston and
Philadelphia, so travel is
quick, easy, and relatively
inexpensive
Because Boston is more
accessible, Philadelphians
trade more with Boston
than with Tulsa.
Tulsa
Part VI
Location has an effect on how much people interact with each other. For example, you likely know and say hello to your
immediate neighbors, but you are less likely do the same to all the people who live over a ten-minute walk from where
you live.
Generally, the farther away two places are found, the less likely the inhabitants are to exchange goods, information or
ideas, or influence each other. Complementarity is the term geographers use to compare the levels of interaction.
9
Although complementarity is not a word used everyday, its meaning of being a measurement of attraction or interaction
between people in various places, is easy to understand. Places that are more accessible to each other have higher
complementarity. New York and Delaware have higher complementarity than do Delaware and California because
Delaware and New York are closer and more accessible to each other. People and firms in New York and Delaware
interact and trade more. Delawareans likely love more (or hate more) the sports teams of New York such as the Giants
because they interact with them more. Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner because the two countries
are so close and accessible. Similarly, Canadians interact more with Americans and listen to similar music because the
two countries have high complementarity or interaction.
Geographers understand this idea of complementarity and geographic interaction with a few different theories. Two
major theories are known as Distance Decay and the Gravity Model, both shown here:
Part VII
Diffusion is another pattern found when mapping. Diffusion basically means that goods, things, and ideas move in
various directions and at various speeds. If you were to spray perfume in your class, the smell would diffuse throughout
the room so that eventually everyone would be able to smell it. At first, the people closest to the spray would smell it,
and then eventually people farther away would. The smell might be diffused at different speeds based on the direction
of the spray and if there was any wind. A sickness such as the flu might diffuse through a community. Ideas or
information can diffuse throughout a population by word of mouth, newspapers, and the Internet. Inventions such as
the printing press and the Internet have rapidly increased the rate of diffusion of information. News stories can now be
sent from the United States to Japan by email in just a matter of moments, while in the past it would take substantially
longer for information to diffuse from the United States to Japan.
The map below shows the diffusion or spread of the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague throughout Europe in the mid1300’s. The plague was carried on fleas and was diffused throughout Europe on the backs of small rodents. Wherever
there were rodents, the fleas went, too. Often rodents would travel on ships and get off wherever the ship docked,
helping diffuse the plague. The plague was extremely deadly and killed roughly 40% of Europe’s population in just four
years.
10
The key shows the
diffusion of the Black
Plague by year.
The lines are rarely
straight because the
plague diffused at
different rates and in
different directions.
Using the key, you
can tell that areas
such as
Constantinople and
Athens were hit
earliest by the plague,
and that the plague
diffused to the west
towards Italy from
there.
A lot of distance between the lines representing year of the plague means that the plague diffused quickly in that area and
could cover more ground.
Part VIII
Society has many problems. For example, not every American has access to healthcare, education, or the Internet. Even
in the United States, many people are not able to go see a doctor when they are gravely ill. Officials often use maps to
address and solve these societal problems. For example, geographers map data that shows the number of AIDS/HIV
cases in the various zip codes of Delaware to understand the epidemic more. By using this mapped information that
reveals where AIDS/HIV is most prevalent, politicians know where to locate a clinic that can help the most AIDS patients.
The maps might even explain how AIDS is spreading, and show where to take preventive measures.
In England during the mid-1800’s there was an outbreak of Cholera in London which left hundreds of people sick, and
dozens of people dead. Many scientists tried to solve the problem by answering why the disease was killing people.
However, the problem was not solved until John Snow used maps to answer WHERE the Cholera was coming from.
Snow did so by mapping data of Cholera deaths. Snow made the map below to solve the Cholera outbreak by finding
out where the source of the Cholera was by mapping Cholera Deaths. After mapping his data, it became obvious to
Snow that the vast majority of Cholera Deaths were located around the water pump on Broad Street. Officials quickly
replaced the water pump and the epidemic ended.
11
The level of interaction or
complementarity
between the people here
and the Broad Street
Pump was high because it
was the closest pump and
most accessible to them.
The People here
would rather
use this water
pump than the
infected Broad
Street Pump
because of its
accessibility.
This kept them
healthy.
The map indicates the
diffusion of the cholera
originated at the Broad
Street pump.
The more numerous deaths within 50 yards of the pump compared to
the fewer deaths 150 yards from the pump is an example of hierarchy.
Although not as deadly as cholera, everywhere you look there are problems, and chances are, maps can be used as an
effective tool in finding solutions. Here are some examples:






Where should an expansion team for a sports league be located?
What is the best location for a new shopping mall, senior center, or playground?
What might be the source of industrial pollution in a river or stream?
How can traffic congestion in the downtown area be managed?
Which area of the country will likely need the most flu vaccine?
How can a company reach the most potential customers with TV advertising?
12
Geography Standard Three: Students will develop an understanding of the diversity of human culture and
the unique natures of places.
Part IX
You are unique…just like everyone else. Although this may sound like a joke, when you think about it, you, the reader,
really are a unique person. What makes you unique is your makeup and character, and these are mostly determined by
two factors. The first factor is the physical features of your body such as your age, height, weight, gender, and race. The
second is the environment in which you grew up in and the relationships you have had with other people. For example,
if you have had someone you respect tell you often about the importance of academic success, you will be more inclined
to do your best in school. To some extent, we are products of our natural environment or physical landscape, and
largely our cultural environment, or cultural landscape.
Like people, places have their own unique makeup and character. For example, New York City is a very different place
from the Sahara Desert in North Africa. Just as humans having physical features, so do places. While the physical
features for people might include gender and height, physical features like hilly terrain, dry climate, or red soil help to
make a place unique. The unique features of a place itself are called the site characteristics. Every site has a unique
combination of physical environmental conditions such as climate, landforms, soils, and vegetation as well as cultural
conditions. Can you think of examples of places where the physical landscape is very distinct, even unforgettable?
In a similar way, the surroundings of a place also affect and influence it. How close or far away are other cities? Are
natural resources available near-by? Location and interaction relative to all others places is called situation
characteristics. Studying the site and also the situation of a place helps us understand what makes a place unique. For
different purposes, such as farming and trade, some places have better site and situation than do other places. The right
combination of site and situation can lead to prosperity or economic success for businesses in a place, while the wrong
combination can put people and businesses there at a disadvantage.
Wilmington’s excellent situation has helped it
grow and prosper. Wilmington is situated along
the major highway of I95 and is situated between
Baltimore and Philadelphia. Its situation between
two major cities has increased Wilmington’s
trade.
Wilmington’s site is next to the Delaware River.
The Delaware River gives easy access to
Philadelphia, to the C&D Canal, and to the
Atlantic. This makes Wilmington’s situation
excellent for transporting goods made in
Wilmington to other locations and for importing
goods to distribute to other places.
Part X
Places and settlements differ by size and what happens or functions there. For example, cities are larger and more
complex than towns, and towns are larger and more complex than villages. Similarly, cities have more specialized jobs
than towns and villages.
13
Some places have functions unique to them. For example, Washington, D.C. is a city, but it has the specialized function
of being our nation’s capital. No other city has the special meeting places, monuments and office facilities needed for
this unique function. Besides differing in size and function, places also vary by culture such as house design, dress,
language, or food. If you want a cheese steak, go to Philadelphia, for barbecue, go to Decatur, Alabama.
Although different, no place exists in complete isolation. Through trade, travel, and communication, places interact and
are influenced by other places. Newark Delaware, and Dewey Beach, Delaware, are two different places. But Newark
and Dewey interact. Newark residents often go to the beach for vacation, and Dewey residents often come to Newark
to attend the University of Delaware. Because places do not exist in isolation, places change. For example, Delaware is
different now than what it was thirty years ago because of the thousands of immigrants from places like Puerto Rico and
El Salvador who have migrated to Delaware and have changed its character. People migrate or move to and from places
because of different push factors that make people want to leave a place, such as wars and famine, and pull factors that
make people want to come to a place, such as jobs and freedoms.
Part XI
If you were to spend a summer hanging out with a friend from Ghana in West Africa, doing things such as having dinner
with his family or watching movies from Ghana, the exposure to another culture would change you. At the least, it
would make you more aware of other people’s way of life. Similarly, places across the world are different and have
changed in part because of their exposure to cultures other than their own. Geographers often refer to assimilation and
acculturation when discussing the impact that cultures have on each other when they interact.
The world today has many cultures. However, most current cultures can trace their roots back to a distinct part of the
ancient world where their culture began. These places where cultures began, from which distinctive languages,
customs, and religions started and spread out from, are known as cultural hearths. The cultural hearth for India and the
Indian people is along the Indus and Ganges rivers. This cultural hearth is where the cultures of India, like Hinduism,
began and spread out from. Other cultural hearths include but are not limited to, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, West
Africa, Peru for the Incas, Guatemala for the Mayans, and the North China Plain for the Chinese.
Rome is the cultural hearth of languages from the Romance Branch of the Indo-European language family, like Spanish,
French, and Portuguese that are based on Latin, the language of Ancient Rome. Cultural traits, like Spanish language,
and religions, such as Islam, are diffused or spread by both trade, by travel and immigration, and sometimes by conquest
and colonialism.
A cultural trait, such as a religion is stronger, prevalent, or more dominant in some places of the world than in others.
They form a cultural region with a core and a periphery. The place where a culture is strongest is that culture’s core.
Typically, a culture’s core surrounds the culture’s cultural hearth. Areas influenced by a culture, but not as substantially
influenced as the core, are a culture’s periphery.
The Map below shows Muslim or Islam distribution outside the Americas. Islam’s origin or cultural hearth is in Saudi
Arabia. Islam’s core is near the cultural hearth in countries like Egypt. Islam’s periphery is on the edges of Islam like in
Western China.
14
Cultural Hearth
Part XII
Many people worry that because of the increased interactions between countries, worldwide cultural diversity is being
replaced by a movement towards cultural similarity. For instance, every year in Africa, a distinct language is destroyed
and completely forgotten. Many of Africa’s over one thousand different languages are being forgotten because over
time, they are replaced by English. English is being learned instead of traditional African languages because knowing
English provides more jobs and entertainment opportunities like Hollywood movies and western music. But increased
communication can make music, ideas, language and events in far away places more accessible to more people. It can
increase the awareness and appreciation for diversity.
In addition to culture, places are distinctive or unique because of the economic, agricultural and industrial, activities
found there. Three substantial factors account for the differences in agriculture and industry in different parts of the
world. A place’s climate, physical features, and raw materials or natural resources determine what industries and
agricultural products a place has. For instance, wheat is grown in Canada instead of cotton because of the climate.
Similarly, much of the world’s rubber is produced in Brazil because of its abundance of the natural resource of rubber
trees. Distance to markets and transportation costs are other factors that determine a place’s agricultural and industrial
activities. When refrigerated trucks were introduced, farmers were able to produce milk and meat in states like Kansas
and ship the fresh food to areas far away such as Los Angeles. This change of agricultural and industrial production
changed the culture of both Kansas and Los Angeles.
Wilmington Delaware is a typical American City with
grid-iron planning. Notice how the streets meet avenues
at a planned 90°. Wilmington’s planned design
contributes to its distinctiveness.
Ancient city streets in Damascus, Syria, were built
before cars were invented. Damascus’s unplanned 15
design contributes to its distinctiveness.
Geography Standard Four: Students will develop an understanding of the character and use of regions and
the connections among them.
Part XIII
Just like all people are unique, so are the world’s places. And just as it is impossible to know and understand every
person in the world, so it is with the world’s places. With people, we develop groups or categories such as races,
ethnicities, religious groups, and social classes to simplify and better understand humanity. Similarly, geographers
developed the idea of regions to simplify and better understand the world. Regions do not physically exist, but are
defined as an area of the earth’s surface enclosing places that have a common characteristic or theme. Regions are
collections of places defined by a characteristic or theme such as religion, location, culture, and linguistics among many
others. A climatic region may include the area where places experience a similar climate, such as the tropical regions or
arid regions. An agricultural region, as shown in the map below, may be an area where places engage in a similar type of
agriculture, such as Corn, Cotton, or Wheat. Regions can be simple and are used in everyday language when you say
words like “neighborhood” or “downtown.”
The map to the
right shows
agricultural
regions of the
United States.
The places
within each
region share a
common
characteristic,
their main crop.
Drawing
regional
boundaries
like with the
Old Cotton
Belt is often
difficult, so
zones rather
than exact
lines are used.
Regions are often made up and are a product of people’s mind. Once identified however, regions can take on real and
widespread meaning. We might not know exactly the location of the “the South” in the United States, but being
“Southern” or from “the South” invokes or raises strong feelings both positive and negative. With many regions, such as
“the South,” it is hard for geographers to determine and draw official boundaries to identify that region. Imagine the
difficulties in having to determine the exact border for where a “downtown” area ends and begins.
Part XIV
Regions are just a group of places with a common characteristic or theme. Regions overlap and places are often
considered part of many regions. You yourself live in many different regions such as your state, county, school district,
and either a rural, suburban, or urban region.
Just like people and places, regions are also distinctive, and this distinctiveness, or ability to offer unique goods, services,
and experiences, makes them connected to other regions. For example, business regions such as “downtown” are
connected to housing regions such as the “suburbs” where many of the “downtown” workers live. Conversely,
16
“suburbs” are connected to “downtown” regions because many suburbanites commute to the “downtown” offices for
work. Amusement parks regions such as six flags are connected to populated regions such as New York, Philadelphia,
and Atlanta.
Regions are connected to other regions.
Regions that sell entertainment, such as Six
Flag Parks, are connected to major US
population regions. This connection is a
planned result of locating the parks near
cities so that they are more accessible to
people.
Parks located near large populations show
how regions are connected. Can you find
other examples?
It is important that you can apply the geographic concept of regions to your community and identify the particular
regions that your community is a part of at both the Delaware and the United States levels or scales. Your community,
or where you live in Delaware, is considered part of many different regions. By understanding the various regional
identities of your community and state, you can develop a profile or summary of the distinctive features of the place
where you live.
Because of its distinctive location, culture, and economy, Delaware is
simultaneously a part of many different regions. Below are just a few
examples of the various regions Delaware is considered to be a part of.
Because of its level of development, Delaware is a part of the region
known as Megalopolis, a densely populated and overwhelmingly
urban region of the United States on the North-eastern seaboard.
17
Because of Delaware’s location, Delaware is also
considered to be part of the Mid-Atlantic Region of
the United States. As the name suggests, these states
are coastal and are in the Middle of the United States,
between New England and the Southern States.
Because of its location, history, and cultural
traditions, many people consider Delaware to be a
part of “the North” region, while many people
consider, like on the map, Delaware to be a part of
“the South.” Strangely, both groups are correct.
Historically, Delaware has had ties to the South
such as being a slave state, but also ties to “the
North” such as joining the Union during the Civil
War.
Part XV
There are three main types of regions, formal, functional, and perceptual. With formal regions, the defining features of
the region extend clearly and consistently from border to border. An example of a formal region could be a political or
geographical region such as Central America. Functional regions are regions where the defining feature of the region is
based around a central place or feature, where it is strongest, but usually becomes less evident or weaker towards the
edges of the regions. For example, radio stations have regions of reception centered on a central point of their tower.
The reception is strongest near the tower, but becomes weaker as you move further away. Perceptual regions are
imaginary regions with no officially agreed upon-boundaries. For example, “the West” is a Perceptual region because
there is no official list of states of “the West Coast.” Some people consider Colorado part of “the West Coast,” while
other people do not.
The seven
countries of
Central America
form a formal
region because
the borders of
Central America
are clearly
between Mexico
and South
America.
The “Bible Belt” is
a perceptual region
because it has no
clear borders, but
is defined by areas
perceived to be
very Christian and
conservative.
18
Economic activities are usually defined in terms of functional regions where the edges are zones rather than single lines.
These economic regions are increasingly based on specialization. Moreover, these specialized regions can be altered by
changes in transport technology, politics, or climate. For instance, Australia was once only a producer and exporter of
wool until refrigerated ships enabled Australians to ship meat to countries like England and the United States, shifting its
specialization from wool to meat production.
Economic areas such as wheat production areas are
defined in terms of functional regions where the
boundaries of the region are zonal and not straight
lines. The region mapped here represents wheat
production. The US is specialized in wheat
production due to our climate and soil. However,
this map shows how the current specialized wheat
region could be altered and moved north due to
climate changes.
Part XVI
In most school lunchrooms, there are sections or tables in the lunchroom that people have claimed and share with
people who they identify with and have befriended. Similarly people with a shared cultural or political identity claim an
area of the earth’s surface and it is then their territory, from which they usually form a country. This territory is always a
formal region defined by specific borders such as rivers or lines of latitude.
In a perfect world, all people would be able to peacefully claim and control the territories that reflect the sovereignty or
control that those people has over that land. Unfortunately, peaceful cooperation like that which produced the calm
and stable Canadian-US border is not always common. Often, countries try to enlarge their country by invading other
territories. Additionally, in many places, conflicts exist because different people simultaneously claim to the same
territory.
Imagine that one day two groups of students were to arrive to claim a lunch table at the same time. Hopefully the
students would politely share, or one group would offer to sit somewhere else. But often, this simple territory dispute
would lead to conflict between the two groups either in the form of an argument or a shoving match. Many similar
conflicts occur between different peoples of the world. For example, Jews and Palestinians both claim to be the rightful
sovereigns of Israel. In Northern Ireland there is conflict between Protestant and Catholic people over the territory.
There is conflict in Los Angeles between immigrant groups and groups of people who have been there longer about who
is going to control certain territories. Additionally, boundaries can become unstable when people make new claims to
territory based on the discovery of new resources like diamonds and oil, or migration, the movement of people.
Today’s present-day division of the earth’s surface into various political and cultural regions is the result or is the
consequence of conflict and cooperation between countries and ethnic groups or types of people.
19
Northern Ireland is a region that has experienced much
conflict as a result of two groups, largely Protestants and
Catholics, both wanting to control Northern Ireland.
Much conflict has arisen from the lack of cooperation
in the Middle East to establish a Kurdish territory.
Without their own country, the Kurds are often a
persecuted minority and have fought to gain territory.
Part XVII
Imagine you live in a house with a backyard that borders another backyard. Imagine that in your backyard you have a
swimming pool. Would you want other neighbors to come in your backyard and use the pool as if it were there own?
Of course you would not. To prevent unwanted neighbors from using your pool, you would set up boundaries such as a
row of trees, a fence, or just an imaginary line that represents the border of your property. Similarly, formal regions and
countries establish official boundaries to clearly mark their territory. However, each different way countries form their
boundaries has advantages and disadvantages. For example, what happens if countries use a river for a boundary, like
with the United States and Mexico, if that river changes course? If a country uses a precise line of longitude or latitude
for a border, an advantage is the boundary’s clarity, but a disadvantage is that the line might cut through a town or
divide neighborhoods into separate countries. Simple straight lines ignore the much more complex boundaries of human
culture, such as ethnicity.
The map to the left shows modern national boundaries in
mostly straight bold lines, and African tribal, cultural and
ethnic groups, in mostly curved thin lines. Most of the
national boundaries such as Somalia were made with no
thought to the territory’s cultural diversity.
Many African national borders were determined by
European Imperialists who claimed control over the land.
Often the Imperialists would determine border by lines of
latitude and longitude, while disregarding traditional
African borders.
Regions and their boundaries are not always permanent, since the conditions that created them have changed over
time. For instance, the regional boundaries of the various African cultural and ethnic groups were severely disrupted or
completely wiped out during the Age of Imperialism. Once colonized, the borders of the different cultural and ethnic
groups were erased and instead of them, European colonial powers developed their own country borders in Africa.
Conversely, new regions and new regional boundaries can also be created. For example, the European Union is actively
seeking to create a single region out of what were once 25 independent countries. Political boundaries of countries
20
define formal regions, and these boundaries are hard to change. But people often ignore these boundaries and change
where they live, work, or worship.
Just as with formal regions, the boundaries of functional regions, where the defining characteristic of the regions is
strongest in the center and becomes less evident towards the edges, can also pose difficulties. When a region’s
influence declines over a zone, placing the boundary is often arbitrary and random because it is unclear at what point
has the region’s influence sufficiently diminished? For example, the Mississippi River regions, who’s defining
characteristic is land affected by the Mississippi River. It is hard to determine exactly where its region begins and ends.
Should the Mississippi River region be all the states that the river goes through, or just a certain numbers of miles on
each side of the river, or just areas where people are directly affected by the river?
The map below shows a Theissen polygon that places the boundary of a region at the midpoint between two regional
centers. Here the regional centers are determined by where Major League Baseball Teams were located in 1998. When
analyzing the map below, a few trends become apparent. Some MLB teams have larger regions than others and that the
locations of MLB teams are determined by population densities. The map also makes apparent the difficulties in trying
to map a functional region because although it is clear where the central points are because of the team’s stadium, how
far does the influence of the team go? Some teams like the New York Yankees likely have the most nationwide
influence, yet this map shows their territory as being one of the smallest.
Some of the
teams’ functional
regions are quite
large due to their
areas’ low
population
density. Teams
like the Seattle
Mariners might
cover four
different states.
Some of the
teams’ functional
regions are quite
small due to their
areas’ high
population
density. Teams
like the Phillies
might cover areas
smaller than their
home state.
Although not a life or death issue, this map showing regions could be used in solving the problem of where to put new
expansion teams. Likely, league owners would look for places furthest from other teams to make a new team. This idea
of using regions to solve problems is often applied to more serious problems such as where to locate facilities such as
high schools, fire stations, and hospitals. The location of hospitals relative to other hospitals and the population served
often results in some people having better access to care and medical services than others. Planners could use maps of
hospitals like the one above, to more accurately assess where a new one should be built.
21
Locate and label the following on the map below. Use an atlas to help you.
 The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans
 The Mediterranean Sea, The Great Lakes, The Caspian Sea, The Gulf of Mexico
 The following sub-regions: North America, Latin America, Central America, Brazil, The Caribbean, Western Europe,
Eastern Europe, Siberia (Russia or Northern Asia), Central Asia, Southwest Asia (The Middle East), South Asia,
Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Southern Africa, Central Africa, East Africa,
West Africa, North Africa, Antarctica
Identify 2-3 countries in each of the regions below:
North America
Western Europe
East Africa
Central Asia
Central America
Eastern Europe
Central Africa
SW Asia (Middle East)
South America (not central)
North Africa
West Africa
South Asia
Caribbean
West Africa
Southern Africa
SE Asia
Oceania (includes Australia, Polynesia, Micronesia, & Melanesia)
22