Four Level Map Analysis

Four Level Map Analysis: Level 1 – What are we looking at? Where? When? Scale? Best clue for Level 1 is the title, but don’t just rewrite title, instead distill whatever is most important identifying features of the map being analyzed. Level 2 – Pattern Identification Just list any and all patterns that you recognize. This is the heart and soul of thinking like a geographer: spatial analysis. Level 3 – Plausible Explanations for Patterns For each pattern identified in Level 2 and for the patterns viewed collectively, ask: why there, how did it get there? Level 4 – Okay…so what? What surprised you? What will you remember? Why is important?

Geographer’s Toolbox (aka goals of APHG from College Board): 1. WHERE TO LOOK? Geographers identify regions and consider how they came about. (The “Where?” of Human Geography) Related terms: formal region, functional region, perceptual region. 2. WHAT PATTERNS CAN I SEE? (aka “spatial analysis”) Geographers use maps (and more and more GIS) to identify (recognize, see!) patterns of human activity Related terms: distribution (density, concentration, geometric arrangement), cultural landscape, landscape expression. 3. WHY ARE THESE PATTERNS THERE? Geographers ask how those patterns came to be. Answer may be Economic arrangments, Social (cultural values), Political, or Environmental (ESPeN!). Patterns in motion (past and future). 4. WHAT CAN I LEARN BY JUMPING SCALES? Geographers Jump scales frequently because they know a phenomena they are studying at one scale may well be influenced by processes at other scales Related terms: cartographic scale, scales of analysis (local, regional, national, and global) 5. WHAT INTERCONNECTIONS ARE THERE BETWEEN REGIONS? Geographers identify and analyze ever changing interconnections between places (seeing how events or processes in one place influence those in other places) 6. WHY CARE? Geographers Use their conclusions to help solve real world problems! Regionalization is to Geography as Periodization is to History (both break up the subject into logical (we hope) subsets. Geographers think about both how humans visibly alter the physical landscape AND how physical landscape delimits human activity.

Geographer’s Toolbox (aka goals of APHG from College Board): 1. WHERE TO LOOK? Geographers identify regions and consider how they came about. (The “Where?” of Human Geography) Related terms: formal region, functional region, perceptual region. 2. WHAT PATTERNS CAN I SEE? (aka “spatial analysis”) Geographers use maps (and more and more GIS) to identify (recognize, see!) patterns of human activity Related terms: distribution (density, concentration, geometric arrangement), cultural landscape, landscape expression. 3. WHY ARE THESE PATTERNS THERE? Geographers ask how those patterns came to be. Answer may be Economic arrangments, Social (cultural values), Political, or Environmental (ESPeN!). Patterns in motion (past and future). 4. WHAT CAN I LEARN BY JUMPING SCALES? Geographers Jump scales frequently because they know a phenomena they are studying at one scale may well be influenced by processes at other scales Related terms: cartographic scale, scales of analysis (local, regional, national, and global) 5. WHAT INTERCONNECTIONS ARE THERE BETWEEN REGIONS? Geographers identify and analyze ever changing interconnections between places (seeing how events or processes in one place influence those in other places) 6. WHY CARE? Geographers Use their conclusions to help solve real world problems! Models (big deal in APGH) attempt to explain and predict observed patterns. A regional map of the U.S. income inequality shows only slight variations in wealth. But a wealth map of Manhattan tells a different story entirely.

Geographer’s Toolbox (aka goals of APHG from College Board): 1. WHERE TO LOOK? Geographers identify regions and consider how they came about. (The “Where?” of Human Geography) Related terms: formal region, functional region, perceptual region. 2. WHAT PATTERNS CAN I SEE? (aka “spatial analysis”) Geographers use maps (and more and more GIS) to identify (recognize, see!) patterns of human activity Related terms: distribution (density, concentration, geometric arrangement), cultural landscape, landscape expression. 3. WHY ARE THESE PATTERNS THERE? Geographers ask how those patterns came to be. Answer may be Economic arrangments, Social (cultural values), Political, or Environmental (ESPeN!). Patterns in motion (past and future). 4. WHAT CAN I LEARN BY JUMPING SCALES? Geographers Jump scales frequently because they know a phenomena they are studying at one scale may well be influenced by processes at other scales Related terms: cartographic scale, scales of analysis (local, regional, national, and global) 5. WHAT INTERCONNECTIONS ARE THERE BETWEEN REGIONS? Geographers identify and analyze ever changing interconnections between places (seeing how events or processes in one place influence those in other places) 6. WHY CARE? Geographers Use their conclusions to help solve real world problems! Interconnections geographers may study include the movement of people (migration), raw materials, agricultural goods, money, finished goods, pollutants, information, diseases, etc. Name a real world problem in each of the following areas that this process of spatial analysis (seeing like a geographer) might shed some light on: Agriculture Languages Ethnicity Politics Development