1. Key Issue #1: How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?
Ch. 1
Key Issue #1: How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

2. Defining Geography Word coined by Eratosthenes Geo = Earth
Graphia = writing
observable patterns that have evolved through time

3. What is Human Geography?
Studying people and places and how they fit in with the world
Diffusion (spread) of popular culture (music, architecture) are making more people and place look alike

4. Globalization No place on Earth is untouched by people
Each place we see is affected by and created by people, which represents their culture in that place over time
Contemporary geographers are concerned with the tension between globalization and local diversity

5. Globalization vs. local diversity
Examples from Case Study?

6. Important Vocab Place and Region Scale, Space and Connections
Help explain why each point on Earth is unique
Places with shared characteristics can be joined into a “region”
Scale, Space and Connections
Helps explain why different places on earth have similar features

7. Geographic Inquiry
Geographers ask themselves questions about their surroundings
Focuses on the spatial
Arrangement of places and phenomena
How are things organized on Earth?
Human Geographers ask where and why
Where are people and activities found on Earth?
Why are they found there?

8. Physical vs. Human Geography
The cultural landscape is a reflection of the altered natural environment

9. 5 Themes of Geography Location- why are things where they are?
Relative and absolute
Human-environment interactions
Humans adapting, modifying and depending on the environment
Region- concentrated areas of similar phenomena
Formal, functional and vernacular
Place- sense and perceptions of place
Human made and naturally occurring
Movement- mobility of people (immigration), goods (imports/exports) and ideas (fashion, culture, government); expresses the interconnected places

10. Cartography Science of mapmaking Maps provide a visual tool
Maps are subjective
Map projections transfer locations on a round surface to a flat surface
some form of distortion always occurs
greater distortion results from larger areas depicted– Why?

11. Early Mapmaking
Aristotle ( BC) was first to say world was spherical
Ptolemy in Europe (Greek)
Chinese and Muslim cartographers as well
Age of Exploration led to more accurate maps

12. FIGURE 1-2

13. Ptolemy (2nd century AD)

14. FIGURE 1-3

15. Why make maps? Globes are too bulky to carry around
To represent a larger area than we can see
To show a phenomenon or process we can’t see with our eyes
To present information concisely
To show spatial relationships
To wage war?

16. Represent a larger area

17. Show what we can’t see

18. Present info concisely; (where and why)?

19. Show spatial relationships

20. Wage war?
During WWII, Hitler claimed the Sudetenland for Germany.

21. Maps Serve 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
Maps are generalizations of information: larger scale = more accurate
Precipitation averages of world, US, Florida, counties, cities (small scale to large)

22. Two Types of Maps: Reference Maps
Show locations of places and geographic features
Absolute locations
Thematic Maps
Tell a story about the degree of an attribute, the pattern of its distribution, or its movement.
Relative locations
Communication

23. Reference Map
What is useful about this reference map?

24. Thematic
Map
What story about median income in the Washington, DC area is this map telling?

25. Map Scale
Specifically to maps, scale refers to the relationship of a feature’s size on a map to its actual size on Earth.
Types of map scales:
Ratio or fraction (1:100)
Written (one inch = one mile)
Graphic: bar scale

26. Map Scale Scale the larger the scale the greater the detail
1:100
1:10
1:1
1: .1
Scale
the larger the scale the greater the detail
for example one inch = one mile (1:1) is more detailed than one inch = one hundred miles (1:100)
1/1 = 1; 1/100 = .01
So a large-scale map covers a small area

27. Another definition of scale
The spatial extent of something.
The local, regional, national, global levels
More detail/more specific information as we “zoom” in to a different scale ( going from global to local)
Rescale- to use scale politically; make a local issue a national or global issue/raise awareness

28. Map Projections & Distortion
Projection= how cartographer chooses to depict Earth’s surface
Can cause distortions with:
Shape
Distance
Relative size
Direction

29. Mercator Projection
FIGURE 1-13

30. Robinson Projection
FIGURE 1-23

31. Mental Maps Maps in our heads of places we have (or have not) been to
What is the Great Plains like? Southwest Asia (Middle East)?
Terra incognita- unknown lands that are off limits
Activity spaces- places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity
Detailed mental maps reflect activity spaces

32. U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785 Township and range system
To facilitate sale of land
Township = 6 sq. miles on each side
North–south lines = principal meridians
East–west lines = base lines
Range- location east or west of a principle meridian
Divided into 36 sections

33. FIGURE 1-5a

34. FIGURE 1-5c

38. Contemporary Tools Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)- your exact location on earth
Remote sensing- scanning earth
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)- layering the different maps (Google Earth)

40. FIGURE 1-7