1. Regional geography is a subfield of geography that deals holistically with the environment and human attributes of a particular territory. Regional geographers endeavor to understand how physical and cultural geographic features interrelate to form distinct regions, or spatial territories, whose attributes are uniquely different from other parts of the world
E.J. PALKA

2. GEOGRAPHY
The study of place and space
Studies the location and distribution of features on the Earth’s surface
Studies human activity, the natural environment, and the relationship between the two
Answers where and why
Why is Timbuktu where it is, and why did the settlement evolve on this site?

3. Geographers Biologists Geologists Historians
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
Taxonomy: kingdom, phylum,
Class, order, family, genus,
species
Biologists
Geologists
3 Major groups, subsidiary
groups, geological time
Historians
Eras, ages, periods
Geographers
Geographic Realms and/or Regions based
on sets of spatial criteria

4. Transition zones are an area of spatial change where peripheries of two adjacent realms or regions join. Transitional zones are marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break) in the characteristics that distinguish neighboring realms -

5. GEOGRAPHIC REALMS
Realms are based on Spatial Criteria I
The largest geographic units into which the inhabited world can be divided
Based on both physical (natural) and human (cultural) yardsticks -

6. GEOGRAPHIC REALMS II
The result of the interaction between human societies and natural environments
A functional interaction
Revealed by farms, mines, fishing ports, transport routes, dams, bridges, villages, and other features on the landscape -

7. GEOGRAPHIC REALMS
III
Represent the most comprehensive and encompassing definition of the great clusters of humankind in the world today -

8. Geographic realms change over time.
WORLD GEOGRAPHIC REALMS
Geographic realms change over time.
Where geographic realms meet, transition zones, not sharp boundaries, mark their contacts.

9. SCALE The World Regions Realms GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION CONCEPT OF
The term scale refers to a ratio between distances portrayed on a map and actual distances on the earth’s surface that correspond to this map. To be useful, every map must include a scale that provides a corresponding ratio between distance on the map and actual distance

10. Areas of the earth’s surface marked by certain properties
REGIONS
Areas of the earth’s surface marked by certain properties
Scientific devices that enable us to make spatial generalizations
Based on criteria we establish
Criteria can be:
Human (cultural) properties
Physical (natural) characteristics
or Both

11. REGIONS
All regions have:
Area
Boundaries
Location

12. Marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena
FORMAL REGION
Marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena
Also called a uniform region or homogeneous region
Examples:
Corn Belt
Megalopolis

13. Example: Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
A functional region is marked less by its sameness than its dynamic internal structure. A functional region, also called a nodal region, is a spatial system focused on a central core and formed by a set of places and their functional integration
Example: Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

14. Capitalism and globalization
Capitalism is a prevalent socioeconomic system that is characterized by private ownership, free enterprise, and profit motives. Capitalist expansion into new geographies of production and consumption are often cited as drivers behind the growth of global interconnections and interdependencies

15. Literally means “country behind”
HINTERLAND
Literally means “country behind”
A term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center
Urban center is the focus of goods and services produced in the hinterland, and is the latter’s dominant focal point as well
Periphery
Periphery
Core

16. THE PHYSICAL SETTING Physical Geography Alfred Wegner’s
Continental drift
Tectonic plates
Subduction
Pacific Ring of fire
Weathering
Erosion

17. CLIMATE
Hydrologic cycle
Precipitation patterns
Climate regions

18. Introduction to Regional Geography I
(pages 1-16)
E.J. PALKA