Geography’s Unique Perspective: The Spatial Perspective Thinking about the spatial arrangement of places and phenomena (physical and human)

Basic Spatial Questions: The 3 Ws Where is it? Why is it there? What difference does it make?

U.S. Median Age Source: American Community Survey N

What Insights Does This Map Offer?

As of 2007, the percentage of Utahns that are … members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was 68.7 percent of the state's population. Mormons are now a minority in Salt Lake City, while rural areas tend to be overwhelmingly Mormon. … The church's doctrine has a strong regional influence on politics … Historically a majority of Utah's lawmakers have been church members; the effect has contributed to the state's restrictiveness towards alcohol … and gambling. Another doctrine effect can be seen in Utah's high birth rate (25 percent higher than the national average; the highest for a state in the U.S.). The Mormons in Utah tend to have conservative views … and the majority of voter-age Utahns are unaffiliated voters (60%) who vote overwhelmingly Republican.

5 Key Elements of Spatial Thinking Location Distance Space Connectivity Spatial Interaction

Nominal Location Toponyms = Place Names

Absolute Location Coordinate Systems Most Common = Latitude and Longitude

Latitude and Longitude

Relative Location: Site and Situation Site: physical attributes of a location (terrain, soil, vegetation, water sources, etc.) Situation: location relative to other places and activities

Tobler’s First Law of Geography "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” Waldo Tobler, Swiss-American Geographer and Cartographer

The Friction of Distance

Distance Absolute Distance How Far Is It From Minneapolis to Bamako, Mali? 5377 Miles As a Crow Flies

Distance Relative and Cognitive Distance Time, Effort or Cost - Real or Perceived 26+ hours travel time hours flight time Cost = $ RT

Time Out: Cheese Map! What Country Is This?

Space

Mathematical Space

Map Data = Points, Lines and Areas

Cultural Regions 3 Types of Regions? Formal, Functional and Perceptual

Formal Region A shared trait such as cultural trait or physical trait. –Spanish Speakers

Functional Region An area that is organized to function politically, socially, economically

Perceptual Regions Also called vernacular regions

Global, National, Regional, Local Scales … Percent Foreign Born 2000 Meth Cases Carbon Emissions 2000

Distributions Density and Dispersion Density of houses/square mile same or different? Which is dispersed? Which is clustered?

Pattern Random? Centralized? Linear?

Spatial Patterns? McDonald’s In-N-Out

Connectivity

Patterns?

Accessibility Northwest Airlines Minneapolis-St. Paul Hub Map

Globalization The increasing interconnection of people and places and its effects.

Key Spatial Interaction Concepts Complementarity: matching demand and supply Transferability: ability to transfer goods or ideas Intervening Opportunities: alternative origins or destinations

Spatial Interaction “The American Diaspora” Hurricane Katrina Migrants Complementarity? Transferability? Intervening Opportunities?

Spatial Diffusion The spread of some phenomenon over space and time from a limited number of origins.

Diffusion Is Not Random Distance decay: the farther from the hearth, the less likely an idea will be adopted Time-space compression: ideas diffuse more quickly to places that are highly connected

Diffusion of H1N1