World Regional Geography January 13, 2010 Reading: Marston Chapter 1 World Atlas vi-xii Waitlisted Students: If you are still on the waitlist please leave your name, student #, recitation section, and e-mail on the yellow pad on the desk before leaving today.

What is Geography? The study of Earth as created by natural forces and as modified by human action. The interaction between humans and the environment.

What is Geography? Physical Geography Examine how natural/physical forces shape the Earth. What are Earth’s natural processes, and what are their outcomes? Physical Geographers Study (including but not limited to): Climate and weather patterns Landforms (e.g. mountains) Rivers and oceans Soils Plant and animal ecology

What is Geography? Human Geography Examines the spatial organization of human processes, and their relationship to the environment (physical and social/cultural). How do humans organize themselves and function in space? How do these patterns and process affect the environment, and how does the environment affect them? Human geographers examine physical processes insomuch as they affect and are affected by human activity.

What is Geography? Human Geographers Study (including but not limited to): Population and demography Resource management Agricultural production and food security Regional/urban planning Human and animal disease vectors Cultural/symbolic meaning of place Conflict Definitions of Quant/Qual & Mixed Methods for class Human geographers often categorize themselves and quantitative or qualitative.

Regional Geography Combines physical and human geography. How combinations of environmental and human factors produce unique physical, social, and cultural landscapes. How do natural, social, economic, political, and cultural phenomena produce distinct geographic areas?

What is a Region “Region” is a concept that is used to identify and organize areas of Earth’s surface for various purposes. A region is a human construct whose boundaries and characteristics are derived from sets of specific criteria. Can vary in scale from global to local. A region has certain characteristics that give it a measure of cohesiveness and distinctiveness that set it apart from other regions. Understanding the nature of regions requires a flexible approach to the world. The criteria used to define and delimit regions can be spatially precise as coastlines and political boundaries or as spatially amorphous as suggesting the general location of people with allegiances to a particular professional athletic team or identifying a market area for distributing the recordings of a specific genre of music. Regions can be as small as a neighborhood or as vast as a territorial expanse covering thousands of square miles in which the inhabitants speak the same language. There are different ways to identify regions, and therefore different types of regions. Additionally, certain phenomena are better studied at different spatial scales.

World Regions “Extensive geographic divisions based on continental and physiographic settings that contains major clusters of humankind with broadly similar cultural attributes.”

Types of Regions Formal Functional Perceptional

Formal Regions A formal region is comprised of a group of areal units that share a common distinguishing feature (human or physical). Political entities (counties, states, countries) Climate/vegetation Landforms Language, religion, nationality, culture Specific measures Population density Per capita income Temperature Rainfall

Global Rainfall & Climatic Zones

World Ecosystems

Basque Language Region (Spain & France)

Soda, Pop, or Coke?

Functional Regions A functional region is organized and defined by patterns of spatial interaction or organization, and is often centered on a node. Metropolitan areas Economic interaction Trade Production Transportation networks Subway system Air travel Communications networks Newspaper readership Radio

Coverage Area Map KBCO 97.3 FM – Boulder, CO

Metropolitan Statistical Areas New York

Frontier Airlines Functional Region

Perceptual Regions A perceptual region is a construct that reflects human feelings and attitudes about areas and is therefore defined by people’s shared subjective images of those areas. Often refer loosely to geographic areas Southern California The Upper Midwest Dixie Shared beliefs or attitudes Blue / Red America Shared interests or loyalties Red Sox Nation Can be similar to formal regions, but not formally defined. Accompanied by a sense of inclusion (or exclusion).

Perceptual Regions The “perceptual region” will often vary from person-to-person and his heavily tied to sense of place. Sense of place refers to the feelings evoked as a result of experiences and memories that people associate with place. Place attachment refers to the emotional and functional ties one has to a specific place. Can be similar to formal regions, but not formally defined. Accompanied by a sense of inclusion (or exclusion).

Defining “New England”

Regions as Dynamic Entities Regions are both outcomes of geographic processes, and part of the process themselves. The properties and boundaries of regions can change. Formal regions defined by political boundaries are less likely to change spatially, but may change in character. Functional regions typically maintain their defining characteristic, but change spatially. Perceptual regions are both spatially and socially fluid in nature.