Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives Rachel, Karen and Ayla

Maps Political: indicates boundaries, cities and capitals Physical: shows physical features of an area – mountains, rivers, valleys Topographical: includes contour lines to show shape and elevation of an area Thematic: tells a story- shows degree of something or the movement of a geographic phenomenon Reference: shows location of places and geographic features Mental: map or route in one’s head

Map Projections Mercator: exaggerates shape of high lat. landmasses; for entire globe Conic: good for North America, Upper Asia or Europe; for top of globe Planar: good for Artic Ocean or Antarctica; for top or bottom of globe Robinson: better approximate shape of whole world but position/direction of landmasses is off

Scale Small: large area, less detail (good for countries or world; 1/100,000) Large: small area, more detail (good for towns or cities; 1/20) Local: state, city, or town Regional: country or area of a country Global: world or large area of the world Absolute location: location based on lines of longitude and latitude Relative location: location based on your surroundings

Globalization Is a set of processes that are increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and heightening interdependence without regard to country borders.

5 Themes of Geography aka MR. HELP M - Movement R - Region H - Human Environment Interaction E - Environment L - Location P - Place

Movement Movement - mobility of people, goods and ideas across the planet Answers the question, “How do people, goods, and ideas move from one location to another?” The movement of people, the import and export of goods, and mass communication have all played major roles in shaping our world. People everywhere interact, travel from place to place and communicate. People interact with each other through movement. Humans occupy places unevenly on Earth because of the environment but also because we are social beings. – Ex: Interactions through travel, trade, information flows and political events. – Ex: cars, trucks, busses, taxis, internet, TV, newspapers, radio, billboards, word of mouth, UPS, airport, interstates, and railroads

Region Region - a group of places which share one or more similarities and are linked by these Regions are human constructs that can be mapped and analyzed Formal - those defined by government or administrative boundaries (boundaries are not open to dispute) –Ex: United States, Kentucky, Japan, New York City Functional - those defined by a function (if the function ceases to exist, the region so longer exists) –Ex: United Airlines, cell service region, newspaper services area Perceptual - those loosely defined by people’s perception –Ex: the South, or the Middle East

Human Environment Human Environment - relations between people and their physical environment Answers the question, “How do humans and the environment affect each other?” We change the environment and sometimes Mother Nature changes it back. Human-Environment Interaction is a two way street. –Ex: floods in the mid-West, Hurricane Katrina (Gulf states), and earthquakes and mudslides in California. Humans adapt to the environment. –Ex: heating and cooling buildings for comfort. Humans modify the environment. –Ex: wearing clothing that is suitable for summer and winter; rain and shine. Humans depend on the environment. –Farmers depend on the environment for food.

Location Location -How where people are affect the location theory Answers the question, “Where is it?” Absolute - latitude and longitude (a global location) or a street address (local location) Relative - described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from one place to another and may associate a particular place with another.

Place Place - Unique physical and human characteristics of a location Answers the question, “What kind of place is it?” (What do you think of when you imagine China? Japan? Russia?) Physical Characteristics - Mountains, rivers, soil, beaches, and wild life Human Characteristics - derived from the ideas and imaginations of people that result in changes to the environment

Environmental Determinism the view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life and cultural development. –Developed during the 20 th century –Humans were clay to be molded by nature –Physical environment provided a dominant force in shaping cultures. –Later was not considered entirely factual

Continue… Made generalizations of people who live in certain types of environments in parts of the world. –Rugged Terrain: backward, conservative, freedom- loving, and unimaginative –Hot climates: likely to believe in one god and can be taken over by tyrants –Temperate climates: inventiveness, industrious, and democracy –Coastlands: navigators and fishers and overestimated the role of environment

Possibilism human decision-making, not the environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development. –The environment is providing a set of broad constraints that limits the possibilities of human choice. –It took place of environmental determinism in the 1920’s. –Nature was clay to be molded by humans –Humans push the boundaries of this thinking with the new technologies we have.

Diffusion Diffusion: the spreading of an idea, culture, innovation or some other phenomenon from its hearth/origin Hierarchical: when the spreading starts at the hearth and spreads to large closely related areas, then medium sized then down to the smallest – follows the hierarchy no matter the distance Expansion: spreading outwards through time and space while staying strong at the hearth. Contagious: spreading from person to person until almost everyone is affected. The closer the person the sooner they are affected.

Diffusion Stimulus: when an idea, culture or innovation is changed to be used as the basis of something else then taken elsewhere and spread around Relocation: when something is seen in one place then taken somewhere else before it is spread around Area 1 People eat hamburgers Area 2 People eat veggie burgers Long distance Area 1 People eat hamburgers Area 2 People eat sushi Long distance Area 1 People eat sushi Time Distance Decay: the farther an idea gets from heart the less it is accepted