Introduction to Geography

Harlan Morehouse's Geography: Human Environments and Cultures Class

Course

Geography (GEOG050)

32 Documents

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University

University of Vermont

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DEFINITION: Geography means to describe or write about the earth Links the physical sciences with the social sciences Invented by Eratosthenes (267-195 BCE) Geographers ask: ● Where things are located ● Why things are located there ● How places differ from one another ● How people interact with the environment

What are the two main branches of geography? Physical: studies patterns of climate, land forms, vegetation, soils and water Human: Studies spatial aspects of human existence

Cartography: the study and practice of making maps ● Geographic Information Science: A system that deals with geographical data in the form of interactive maps

Physical Geography: Concerned with the processes that shape the earth’s landforms and climate and patterns among the elements of earth (climates, vegetation, land forms, etc) ● Biogeography- the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. ● Geomorphology- study of the raw landscape ● Climatology ● Dendrochronology- study of trees and their past

Human Geography: Studies the spatial aspects of human existence by investigating how various and diverse economic, social, and cultural practices of people shape the world. ● Ex:) How global politics and economics alter the cultural landscape of a region

Economic Geography: The study of how economic activities are stretched over the earth’s surface at various spatial scales, ranging from the local to the global, and how they change over time and space Ex:) ● Explaining how local economic systems work ● Understanding how investment practices in developing countries affect local communities ● Investigating how the global economy alters producer/ consumer relationships (Ex: China/US)

Political Geography: Study of how political power is created, maintained, and exerted over geographic space. It sheds light on how geographic space is divided and structured to facilitate or thwart political activities and functions. Ex:) ● Development of local political processes ● Explains how national movements take form ● Helps us understand the shifting terrain of global political economics

Nature-Society Relations: The study of how nature and society are complexly interconnected, and how their modes of interaction shape human and nonhuman aspects of the world. Ex:) ● How do industrial outputs affect local, regional, and global environments? ● How will state shifts in large scale systems impact our future? ● In what ways may modern society mediate environmental degradation at various scales?

What are the distortions of the Mercator Projection? ● Greenland takes up as much area on the map as the continent of Africa, but Africa is 14X bigger than greenland ● Alaska takes up as much space as Brazil, but Brazil is 5x as large as Alaska ● Finland seems to have a greater north/south extent than india, but India’s is greater ● Antarctica appears as the biggest continent, but it is actually the fifth largest

Cartogram: A map projection that uses purposeful distortion to represent some economic, political, or ecological phenomena on a geographic map

North-South Divide: A social economic and political division that exists between the wealthier, developed nations of the north and the poorer, developing nations of the south.

DEFINITION: Geography means to describe or write about the earth

Links the physical sciences with the social sciences

Invented by Eratosthenes (267-195 BCE)

Geographers ask:

●Where things are located

●Why things are located there

●How places differ from one another

●How people interact with the environment

What are the two main branches of geography?

Physical: studies patterns of climate, land forms, vegetation, soils and water

Human: Studies spatial aspects of human existence

Cartography: the study and practice of making maps

●Geographic Information Science: A system that deals with geographical data in the form

of interactive maps

Physical Geography: Concerned with the processes that shape the earth’s landforms and climate

and patterns among the elements of earth (climates, vegetation, land forms, etc)

●Biogeography- the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic

space and through geological time.

●Geomorphology- study of the raw landscape

●Climatology

●Dendrochronology- study of trees and their past

Human Geography: Studies the spatial aspects of human existence by investigating how

various and diverse economic, social, and cultural practices of people shape the world.

●Ex:) How global politics and economics alter the cultural landscape of a region

Economic Geography: The study of how economic activities are stretched over the earth’s

surface at various spatial scales, ranging from the local to the global, and how they change over

time and space

Ex:)

●Explaining how local economic systems work

●Understanding how investment practices in developing countries affect local

communities

●Investigating how the global economy alters producer/ consumer relationships (Ex:

China/US)

Introduction to Geography

Geography (GEOG050)

University of Vermont

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