Encyclopedia
Geography is the study of the Earth's features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity . There are at least four traditional views on geography among geographers where emphasis is on the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena , on area studies , on man-land relationship. .
Introduction
Traditionally geography and
geographers have been viewed as the same as
cartography and the study of place names. Although, many geographers are trained in
topography and cartography this is not their main preoccupation, but rather the spatial and temporal distribution of phenomena, processes and feature as well as the interaction of
humans and their
environment are. As space and place affects a variety of topics, including economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary.
Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main sub fields:
human geography and
physical geography. The former focuses largely on the built environment and how space is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as the influence humans have on the space they occupy. The latter examines the natural environment and how the
climate,
vegetation & life,
soil,
water and
landforms and produced and interact. As a result of the two subfields using different approaches a third field has emerged, which is environmental geography. Environmental geography combines physical and human geography and looks at the interactions between the environment and humans.
History of geography
- See main article: History of geography
The roots of geography can be traced to
Greeks as the first known culture to actively explore geography as a
science and
philosophy and gave an insight into the size and nature of the Earth. With
Aristotle being the first to show that the world was round and
Eratosthenes being the first to calculate the circumference of the Earth. The extensive mapping by the
Romans as they explored new lands provided a high level of information for
Ptolemy to construct
atlases and divide the world into 360 degrees with longitudes and
latitudes.
During the
Middle Ages, the fall of the
Roman empire led to a shift in the evolution of geography from
Europe to the
Islamic world. Scholars such as
Idrisi ,
Ibn Batutta, and
Ibn Khaldun provided detailed accounts of their
Hajj. Further, Islamic scholars translated and inteperated the earlier works of the Romans and Greeks and established the House of Wisdom in Baghdad for this purpose.
The
Age of discovery during the
16th and
17th centuries where many new lands were discovered and accounts by explorers such as
Christopher Columbus,
Marco Polo and
James Cook , revived a desire for both accurate geographic detail, and more solid theoretical foundations .
The
18th and
19th centuries were the times when geography became recognized as a discrete academic discipline and became part of a typical
university curriculum in
Europe . The development of many geographic societies also occurred during the 18th century with the foundations of the Société de Géographie in 1821, the
Royal Geographical Society in 1830,
Russian Geographical Society in 1845 and the
National Geographic Society in1888. The influence of
Immanuel Kant,
Alexander von Humbolt, Carl Ritter and Paul Vidal de la Blache can be seen as a major turning point in geography from a philosophy to an academic subject.
Over the past two centuries the advancements in technology such as computers, has led to the development of geomatics and new practices such as participant observation and geostatistics being incorporated into geography's portofilio of tools. In the West during the
20th century, the discipline of geography went through four major phases: environmental determinism, regional geography, the quantitative revolution, and critical geography. The strong interdisciplinary links between geography and the sciences of
geology and
botany, as well as
economics,
sociology and demographics have also grown greatly especially as a result of Earth System Science that seeks to understand the world in a Holistic view.
Branches of geography
Physical geography
Physical geography focuses on geography as an
Earth science. It aims to understand the physical features of the Earth, its
lithosphere,
hydrosphere,
atmosphere, pedosphere and global
flora and
fauna patterns . Physical Geography can be divided into the following broad categories:
Human geography
Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with various environments. It encompasses
human, political,
cultural, social, and
economic aspects. While the major focus of human geography is not the physical landscape of the Earth , it is hardly possible to discuss human geography without referring to the physical landscape on which human activities are being played out, and environmental geography is emerging as a link between the two.
Human geography can be divided into many broad categories, such as:
- Economic geography
- Transportation geography
- Development geography
- Population geography or Demography*
- Urban geography
- Social geography
- Behavioral geography
- Cultural geography
- Political geography, including Geopolitics*
- Historical geography
- Time geography
- Regional geography
- Tourism geography
- Strategic geography
- Military geography
- Feminist geography
- Environmental geography
- Children's geographies
* Distinction between these fields of study have become increasingly blurred over time and the above list should not be considered definitive.
Socio-environmental geography
During the time of environmental determinism, geography was defined not as the study of spatial relationships, but as the study of how humans and the natural environment interact. Though environmental determinism has lost support, there remains a strong tradition of geographers addressing the relationships between people and nature. There are two main subfields of socio-environmental geography:
- Cultural and Political ecology : Cultural ecology grew out of the work of Carl Sauer in geography and a similar school of thought in anthropology. It examined how human societies adapt themselves to the natural environment. Sustainability science has been one important outgrowth of this tradition. Political ecology arose when some geographers used aspects of critical geography to look at relations of power and how they affect people's use of the environment. For example, an influential study by Michael Watts argued that famines in the Sahel are caused by the changes in the region's political and economic system as a result of colonialism and the spread of capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system [i] in which the means of production [i] are owned mostly privately, ...
.
- Risk-hazards research: Research on hazards began with the work of geographer Gilbert F. White, who sought to understand why people live in disaster-prone floodplains. Since then, the hazards field has expanded to become a multidisciplinary field examining both natural hazards as well as technological hazards . Geographers studying hazards are interested in both the dynamics of the hazard event and how people and societies deal with it.
Related fields
Urban, regional and spatial planning
Urban planning, regional planning and spatial planning use the science of geography to assist in determining how to develop the land to meet particular criteria, such as safety, beauty, economic opportunities, the preservation of the built or natural heritage, and so on. The planning of towns, cities and rural areas may be seen as applied geography although it also draws heavily
Regional science
In the
1950s the regional science movement led by Walter Isard arose, to provide a more quantitative and analytical base to geographical questions, in contrast to the descriptive tendencies of traditional geography programs. Regional science comprises the body of knowledge in which the spatial dimension plays a fundamental role, such as regional economics, resource management, location theory,
urban and regional planning,
transport and communication,
human geography, population distribution, landscape ecology, and environmental quality.
Geographical techniques
As spatial interrelationships are key to this synoptic science,
maps are a key tool. Classical
cartography has been joined by a more modern approach to geographical analysis, computer-based
geographic information systems .
- Cartography studies the representation of the Earth's surface with abstract symbols . Although other subdisciplines of geography rely on maps for presenting their analyses, the actual making of maps is abstract enough to be regarded separately. Cartography has grown from a collection of drafting techniques into an actual science. Cartographers must learn cognitive psychology and ergonomics to understand which symbols convey information about the Earth most effectively, and behavioral psychology to induce the readers of their maps to act on the information. They must learn geodesy and fairly advanced mathematics to understand how the shape of the Earth affects the distortion of map symbols projected onto a flat surface for viewing. It can be said, without much controversy, that cartography is the seed from which the larger field of geography grew. Most geographers will cite a childhood fascination with maps as an early sign they would end up in the field.
- Geographic information systems deal with the storage of information about the Earth for automatic retrieval by a computer, in an accurate manner appropriate to the information's purpose. In addition to all of the other subdisciplines of geography, GIS specialists must understand computer science and database systems. GIS has revolutionized the field of cartography; nearly all mapmaking is now done with the assistance of some form of GIS software.
- Geostatistics deal with quantitative data analysis, specifically the application of statistical methodology to the exploration of geographic phenomena. Geostatistics is used extensively in a variety of fields including: hydrology, geology, petroleum exploration, weather analysis, urban planning, logistics, and epidemiology. The mathematical basis for geostatistics derives from cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, and non-parametric statistical tests, and a variety of other subjects. Applications of geostatistics rely heavily on Geographic Information Systems, particularly for the interpolation of unmeasured points.
- Geographic qualitative methods, or ethnographical; research techniques, are used by human geographers. In cultural geography there is a tradition of employing qualitative research techniques also used in anthropology and sociology. Participant observation and in-depth interviews provide human geographers with qualitative data.
In their study, geographers use four interrelated approaches:
- Systematic - Groups geographical knowledge into categories that can be explored globally.
- Regional - Examines systematic relationships between categories for a specific region or location on the planet.
- Descriptive - Simply specifies the locations of features and populations.
- Analytical - Asks why we find features and populations in a specific geographic area.
Selected list of notable geographers
- Eratosthenes - calculated the size of the Earth
- Ptolemy - compiled greek and roman knowledge into the book Geographia
- Alexander Von Humboldt - published the Kosmos and founder of the sub-field biogeography. Founder of modern geography
- Carl Ritter - Occupied the first chair of geography at Berlin University, founder of modern geography
- William Morris Davis - father of american geography and developer of the cycle of erosion
- Paul Vidal de la Blache - founder of the French school of geopolitics and wrote the principles of human geography
- Walter Christaller - human geographer and inventor of Central Place Theory
- David Harvey - Marxist geographer and author on theories on space and urban geography.
- Arnold Henry Guyot - noted the structure of glaciers and advanced understaning in glacier motion espoecially fast ice flow
- Nigel Thrift - originator of non-representational theory
- Michael Frank Goodchild - prominent GIS scholar and winner of the RGS founder's medal in 2003
References
See also
External links
- Multimedia Geography Resources
- Geographical Associations and Pressure Groups
