1. Thinking Geographically
Chapter 1
Thinking Geographically

2. Key Issue 1
How Do Geographers Address Where Things Are?

3. Types of Basic Thematic Maps
Choropleth map

4. Choropleth Map
Advantages
Disadvantages

5. Dot Distribution Map

6. Dot Distribution Map
Advantages
Disadvantages

7. Isoline Map

8. Isoline Map
Advantages
Disadvantages

9. Graduated Symbol Map

10. Graduated Symbol Map
Advantages
Disadvantages

11. Defining Geography Word coined by Eratosthenes from Greece Geo = Earth
Graphia = writing
Geography thus means “earth writing”
Eratosthenes (c. 276 BC – c. 195 BC) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was the first person to use the word "geography" in Greek and he invented the discipline of geography as we understand it. He invented a system of latitude and longitude. He was the first person to calculate the circumference of the and the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis (also with remarkable accuracy). He may also have accurately calculated the distance from the earth to the sun and invented the leap day] He also created the first map of the world incorporating parallels and meridians within his cartographic depictions based on the available geographical knowledge of the era.

12. Contemporary Geography
Geographers ask where and why
Location and distribution are important terms
Geographers are concerned with the tension between globalization and local diversity
A division: physical geography and human geography
Physical geography studies where and why natural resources occur as they do while Human geography studies where and why human activities are located where they are.

13. Geography’s Vocabulary
Geographers use place and region to describe why every place is unique.
Place-specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular character.
Region-an area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of cultural and physical features.

14. Geography’s Vocabulary
Geographers use scale, space, and connections to help explain why different places on Earth have similar features.
Scale-the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.
Space-refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects.
Connections-the relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

15. Maps Maps are a geographers most important tool. Two purposes:
As reference tools
To find locations, to find one’s way
As communications tools
To show the distribution of human and physical features
The science of mapmaking is called cartography.
Cartographers have to make two important decisions when map-making—scale and projection.

16. Scale Differences: Maps of Florida
Fig. 1-3: The effects of scale in maps of Florida. (Scales from 1:10 million to 1:10,000)

18. Maps: Projection
Projection-the scientific method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map.
The problem of distortion:
Shape
Distance
Relative size
Direction

19. Types of Projections
Mercator projection

20. Goode’s Homolosine Projection

21. Robinson Projection

22. Contemporary Tools Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Remote sensing
Geographic information systems (GIS)
Figure 1-7

23. Contemporary Tools Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Remote sensing
Geographic information systems (GIS)

25. Contemporary Tools
Remote sensing-the acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting Earth.
Geographic uses are primarily environmental.

26. Contemporary Tools
GPS-system that accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth.
Most commonly used in navigation of aircraft and ships.

27. Key Issue 2
Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique?

28. Place: Unique Location of a Feature
Location-the place something occupies on Earth’s surface.
Geographers use 4 things to identify location:
Place names-look at ex. on p.15-16
Toponym
Site-physical character of a place.
Situation-location of a place relative to other places.
Mathematical location

29. Site: Lower Manhattan Island
Fig. 1-6: Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.
Fig. 1-6: Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.

30. Situation: Singapore
Fig. 1-7: Singapore is situated at a key location for international trade.

31. Place: Mathematical Location
Location of any place can be described precisely by meridians and parallels
Meridians (lines of longitude)
Prime meridian
Play an important role in calculating time; 15°= 1 hour; Earth is divided into 360°so we have 24 time zones.
Parallels (lines of latitude)
The equator

32. World Geographic Grid
Fig. 1-8: The world geographic grid consists of meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude. The prime meridian (0º) passes through Greenwich, England.

33. World Time Zones
Fig. 1-9: The world’s 24 standard time zones are often depicted using the Mercator projection.

34. http://www. timetemperature. com/time-zone-maps/world-time-zone-map

36. Regions: Areas of Unique Characteristics
A region derives its unified character through the cultural landscape-a combination of cultural features such as language and religion, economic features such as agriculture and industry, and physical features such as climate and vegetation.
Since the mid-1800s, geographers have used the term regional studies to argue that each region has its own distinctive landscape that results from a unique combination of social relationships and physical processes.

37. Election 2000: Regional Differences
Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county and state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.

38. Regions: Areas of Unique Characteristics
Geographers seek to explain the relationships between these characteristics.
Each region = a distinctive landscape
People = the most important agents of change to Earth’s surface

39. Types of Regions Formal (uniform) regions (p.20-21)
Area where everyone has one or more distinctive characteristic in common.
Example: Montana
Functional (nodal) regions (p.22)
Area organized around a node or focal point.
Example: the circulation area of a newspaper
Vernacular (cultural) regions (p.22-23)
Place that people believe exists b/c of their cultural identity.
Example: the American South

40. Formal and Functional Regions
Fig. 1-11: The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

41. Vernacular Regions
Fig. 1-12: A number of factors are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

42. Spatial Association
A region can be constructed to encompass an area of widely varying scale, from a small portion of Earth to a large portion of Earth.
Different conclusions are drawn depending on the region’s scale.
Ex. Death rates from cancer (p.23-24)

43. Spatial Association at Various Scales
Fig. 1-13: Death rates from cancer in the U.S., Maryland, and Baltimore show different patterns that can identify associations with different factors.

44. Culture
When looking at the distinctiveness of regions, geographers look at culture. (p.24-25)
Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for”
Two aspects:
What people care about
Beliefs, values, and customs
What people take care of
Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter

45. Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of human–environment relationships (p.25-26)
Two perspectives:
Environmental determinism
Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter, Elizabeth Churchill Semple during the 1800s-1900s
Study of how the physical environment causes (controls/limits) human activities.
Possibilism
Modern geographers generally reject environmental determinism in favor of possibilism
The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust.

46. Physical Processes
Climate-the long-term average weather condition at a particular location.
5 major climate regions (p.26)
Influences most human activities
Humans have limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels.
Vegetation-plant life on Earth
4 major forms of plant communities or biomes-forest, savanna, grassland, and desert

48. Physical Processes
Soil-thin layer b/t air and rocks containing nutrients
Concerns over soil include erosion and nutrient depletion
Landforms-study of landforms is called geomorphology
Explains the distribution of people and economic activities at different locations
Studied through topographic maps

50. Modifying the Environment
Examples
The Netherlands
Polders
The Florida Everglades
See p.28-30
Figure 1-21

51. Key Issue 3
Why Are Different Places Similar?

52. Scale: From Local to Global
Globalization-a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope; means the scale of the world is shrinking
Economic globalization (see p.31-32)
Transnational corporations
Has led to more specialization and has heightened economic differences among places
Cultural globalization (see p.32-33)
A global culture?

55. Globalization of the Economy
Fig. 1-17: The Denso corporation is headquartered in Japan, but it has regional headquarters and other facilities in North America and Western Europe.

56. Space: Distribution of Features
Distribution-the arrangement of a feature in space
Density-frequency that something occurs in space
Arithmetic-total # of objects in an area (p.34)
Physiological-# of people per unit of arable land
Agricultural-# of farmers per unit of farmland
Concentration-extent of a feature’s spread over space
If objects are close together, they are clustered
If objects are far apart, they are dispersed
Pattern-geometric arrangement of objects in space

57. Space–Time Compression
Figure 1-29

58. Density, Concentration, and Pattern
Fig. 1-18: The density, concentration, and pattern (of houses in this example) may each vary in an area or landscape.

59. Density and Concentration of Baseball Teams, 1952–2000
Fig. 1-19: The changing distribution of North American baseball teams illustrates the differences between density and concentration.

60. Spatial Interaction Transportation networks
Electronic communications and the “death” of geography?
Distance decay
Figure 1-30

61. Airline Route Networks
Fig. 1-21: Delta Airlines, like many others, has configured its route network in a “hub and spoke” system.

62. Diffusion
The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time
Hearth-source area for innovations
Two types of diffusion
Relocation-spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another; ex. Language, religion, ethnicity
Expansion-spread of a feature from one place to another
Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

64. Diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion-spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places; ex. Hip hop, rap, and jazz music
Contagious diffusion-rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout a population; ex. Diseases or use of the Internet
Stimulus diffusion-spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently refuses to diffuse; ex. Apple vs. IBM, Windows

65. AIDS Diffusion in the U.S., 1981–2001
Fig. 1-22: New AIDS cases were concentrated in three nodes in They spread through the country in the 1980s, but declined in the original nodes in the late 1990s.

66. The End.
Up next: Population