Unit 1 – Intro to Geography

Key Issue 1- Thinking about Space

Geography is the scientific study of the location of people and activities across Earth, and the reasons for their distribution. Geography asks two simple questions: where and why.

Geography is divided broadly into two categories – human geography and physical geography. Human geography studies where and why human activities are located as they are. Physical geography studies where and why natural forces occur as they do.

Geographers think about the arrangements of people and activities found in space and try to understand why those people and activities are distributed across space as they are. Geographers use maps as a method of depicting the distribution of features and as a tool for explaining observed patterns.

Geography by its nature is a spatial science. Geographers therefore study space in order to locate and the distribution of people and objects. Spatial analysis is concerned with analyzing regularities achieved through interaction. Regularities result in a distinctive distribution of a feature. Distribution has three properties:

• Density – the frequency with which something occurs in space

• Concentration – The extent of a feature’s spread over space

• Pattern – some features are organized in a geometric pattern, while others are distributed irregularly.

The difference between density and concentration can be illustrated imagining a bag of M&M’s spread out over a kitchen table. Concentration can be changed by moving pieces closer or farther apart.

Interaction results form the diffusion of a feature: Diffusion occurs in three main ways:

• Relocation diffusion – bodily movement

• Expansion spread – through snowballing

• Stimulus diffusion – underlying principles

Maps most immediately distinguish geography from other disciplines. Locating where particular features and activities occur on the earth’s surface is fundamental to geography. Since geographers use maps to indicate where something is located, this section introduces mapping principles.

Geography’s most important tool for thinking spatially about the distribution of features across Earth is a map. A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of Earth’s surface, or a portion of it. For centuries geographers have worked to perfect the science of mapmaking, called cartography. A map serves two purposes: a tool for storing reference material and a tool for communicating geographic informatioin. A map is often the best means for depicting the distribution of human activities or physical features, as well as for thinking about reasons underlying a distribution.

Two important mapping tools are the GIS and GPS systems. GIS – A geographic information system is a high-performance computer system that processes geographic data. Each type of information (topography, political boundaries, population density, manufacturing, soil type, earthquake faults, etc.) is stored as an information layer. GIS is most powerful when it is used to combine several layers to show relations.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is an example of applying new technology to an old human habit: consulting a map to get to a desired destination. The GPS can pinpoint a location using signals from a group of satellites.

To communicate geographic concepts effectively through maps, cartographers must design them properly and assure that users know how to read them. Earth’s spherical shape poses a challenge for cartographers because drawing Earth on a flat piece of paper unavoidably produces some distortion. The scientific method of transferring location on Earth’s surface to a flat map is called projection.

As a result of projections, distortion can result. Shape can be distorted, distance may be increased or decreased, relative size may be altered, and direction between points can be distorted.