Geographic inquiry focuses on the spatial: - the spatial arrangement of places and phenomena (human and physical). - how are things organized on Earth?

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 DistributionThe 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.

Why do Geographers use Maps, and What do Maps Tell

Us?

Key Question:

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.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/28216_rb/#/homes/for_sale/Charlotte-NC-28216/69779_rid/35.351116,-80.782814,35.251367,-81.015244_rect/11_zm/0_mmm/

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 OccupanceLayers 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)