The Five Themes of Geography: Understanding the Processes that lead to Patterns on a Map
Jul 18, 2015
Location• Absolute- found using grid
coordinates
• Relative- found with respect to other features, using North, South, East, West; near, far; etc. to orient position.
Places—have characteristics that make a location unique
Physical Characteristics Human Characteristics
Physical Characteristics
– Topography
– Hydrology
– Flora/Fauna
– Climate (temperature variations/precipitation patterns)
Human Characteristics– Culture (food, clothing,
human relations, beliefs)– Governance– Technological Development– Economy– Language– Built Environment
• Residential Housing• Urban Centers• Infrastructure (transportation,
communication, energy, water)
Places—have characteristics that make a location unique
Region- connects places with similar characteristics
• Physical Regions--Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, Gobi
Desert, Tibetan Plateau, Australian Outback, the Sahel, Amazon Rainforest, Sistan Basin
• Human Regions--New England, Cajun country, Navajo
nation, Buckinghamshire, Kurdistan
Human-Environment Interaction• People impact the environment
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Visualizing the Themes of GeographyVector information– Points (pairs of x, y coordinates), lines (sequences of coordinates), polygons (closed sets of coordinates)
Visualizing the Themes of Geography
Raster information– Remotely sensed images (from space and air platforms) displayed as pixels; other (jpg, png, tiff, pdf) images