Unit 1

5 Geographic Approaches for Thinking 1. Space 2. Place 3. Regions 4. Scale 5. Connections (5 Key Issues from Chapter 1)

Key Issue 1 (Thinking about Space) Create a mental map of Guilford Distribution – the arrangement of a feature in space EX: Guilford Neighborhoods on: Distribution has three properties Density, Concentration, Pattern

Density and Its Types Density – the frequency with which something occurs in space. EX: The feature could be anything: cars, playgrounds, volcanoes…measured in square (miles) Arithmetic Density – total number or objects in an area, often used to compare populations in countries. ?display=default ?display=default Physiological Density (Real Population Density) – number of persons per unit of area suitable for agriculture. n_density_based_on_food_growing_capacity n_density_based_on_food_growing_capacity (Agricultural) (could be anything) Density – number of farmers per unit area of farmland

Concentration Concentration – the extent of a feature’s spread over space. Note: This is not the same as density. Two neighborhoods could have the same density of housing but different concentrations. In a dispersed neighborhood each house has a large private year, whereas in a clustered neighborhood the houses are close together and the open space is shared.

Pattern Pattern – the geometric arrangement of objects in space American City grids Distribution of MLB teams (30 teams in 27 largest metropolitan areas)(three have two teams)

Maps Early Map Making Aristotle – spherical earth Eratosthenes – used the word geography Roman influence – Codified basic cartography Remote Sensing – acquisition of data from satellite or other long distance methods. Contemporary Mapping GIS (Geographic Information System) GPS (Global Positioning System)

Piri Reis Map 1513

GIS environment- atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx environment- atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx Where does the data come from: 1. Remote Sensing 2. Field Studies/Case Studies 3. Census Data 4. Surveys (Are they biased?)

Projection Projection – the scientific method of transferring locations on the Earth’s surface to a flat map. Problems of distortion depicting the world 1. Shape 2. The distance between two points 3. Relative Size 4. Direction

See Catch up unit power point

Distribution Project

Key Issue 2 (Thinking about Place) Location (ways to describe a location are by name, site, situation, and mathematical location) Matt

Where is this?

Location (Name) Place Names: toponym- a name given to a place on earth…so where do these place names come from.

Location (site) Site- physical character of a place this includes climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation How can we modify a site?

Location (site) Question about the concept of site. When builders dig in lower Manhattan they some times dig up artifacts from Medieval times, how is this possible?

Lower Manhattan 1660 and Today

Location (Situation) Situation – is the location of a place relative to other places Helps find and unfamiliar place as well as understand its importance Ask the question: Where is it situated?

Location (Mathematical Location) What is the location of this room?

In the past Room 2 at the Old Guilford High School: N W Now in Room C205 at the New Guilford High School: N 41.1??? W 72.4???

Telling Time From Longitude Time Zones (How many?) GMT- Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Time International Date Line – Move the clock back heading eastward and forward heading westward Longitude act of The British parliament offered a prize for whoever could measure longitude accurately. John Harrison - £2.75 million

Every Time Zone is 15°

Key Issue 3 (Thinking About Region) Sense of place may apply to a larger area rather than a specific location. Region- An area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics (Larger than a point and smaller than the entire planet) (What regions is Guilford a part of?) Three Types of Regions: Formal, Functional, and Vernacular 2&list=PLe3YVwykKJaYzXrm36tJNfU4OdYprExr1 2&list=PLe3YVwykKJaYzXrm36tJNfU4OdYprExr1

Formal Region A Formal Region (also called a Uniform Region or a Homogeneous Region) An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics. (Often spelled out by Gov. Bodies) Cultural, Economic, Environment. In a formal regions the characteristic is present through out. Ex: Montana, North American Wheat Belt

Functional Region Functional Region (also called Nodal Region) an area organized around a node or focal point News Station/Paper, Sport Teams,???

Vernacular Region Vernacular Region (also Perceptual Region) is a place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity. (Often stereotypes play a part in this) EX: American South

Culture in Relation to Regions Culture Latin for “to care for” has two different meanings to geographers: What people care about- to adore or worship something, as in the modern word cult. Language, Religion, Ethnicity What people take care of- to nurse or look after something, as in the modern word cultivate. (production of material wealth) MDC’s and LDC’s

Cultural Ecology Numerous terms in the book Wealth = ability to modify environment.

Dubai

Dubai - UAE

Sensitive and Non-Sensitive Environmental Modification Netherlands and Florida Polder- a piece of land that is created by draining water from an area.

Key Issue 4 (Thinking About Scale) In what ways can you use the word scale? Scale of a map is reflected in the relation of a feature’s size on a map and its actual size on Earth’s surface. 3 Ways: a fraction 1/24,000 a ratio1:24,000 a written statement1 inch equals 1 mile

Example of Scale

Scale Spatial Association (Baltimore Example)

Key Issue 5 (Thinking About Connections) Spatial Interaction Diffusion

Spatial Interaction What inventions have fostered a loss of space and time?

Space-Time Compression The map is based on a model which calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water. The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also considers how factors such as altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel. Plotted onto a map, the results throw up surprises. First, less than 10 per cent of the world’s land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city. What’s more, many areas considered remote and inaccessible are not as far from civilization as you might think. In the Amazon, for example, extensive river networks and an increasing number of roads mean that only 20 per cent of the land is more than two days from a city – around the same proportion as Canada’s Quebec province.

Space-Time Compression

Networks Networks- Interaction takes place through networks, which are chains of communication or transportation, that connect places.

Distance Decay Distance Decay – Contact diminishes with increasing distance Fraction of Distance – This describes the force that creates distance decay Waldo R. Tobler’s “First Law of Geography” “All things are related, but near things are more related than far things.”

Distance Decay

Cultural Diversity White: blue African American: green Asian: red Latino: orange all others: brown

Cultural diversity your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows- you/#slideid your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows- you/#slideid

Diffusion Diffusion- a characteristic that spreads across the earth Hearth- the place from which an innovation originates. (What type of Region does this sound like?)

Types of Diffusion Relocation Diffusion- Physical movement of people from one place to another. Expansion Diffusion - The spread of an idea from one place to another in a snowballing process. Three Types: Hierarchical Diffusion Contagious Diffusion Stimulus Diffusion