INTRODUCTION

Ask 3 questions: What is located where? Why are things located where they are? So What? the equator halfway between the poles and another line extending from pole to pole. They then drew a grid of latitude and I-4I-5longitude lines from those geographic reference points, thereby locating any point on Earth using just two numbers. geographic grid:
The system of mathematically determined latitude and longitude lines used to determine the location of every place on Earth’s surface. spatial relationships:
The close association of human and natural phenomena in place and their mutual interdependence and interaction. spatial perspective:
The geographic approach that places location at the center of research, analysis, and explanation.
Modern geography is best understood as the study of how the physical and cultural attributes of the earth interact to form spatial or regional patterns
Modern geography has improved our ability to explain the world by utilizing four traditional areas of study:
• 1. the location of physical and cultural features and activities (spatial distributions);
• 2. the relationships between people and the lands that support them;
• 3. the existence of distinctive areas or regions, including analysis and explanation of how they came to be formed; and
• 4. the physical characteristics of the earth, perhaps the oldest of all geographic traditions.

patial tradition:
A geographic perspective that emphasizes how things are organized in space, especially spatial distributions, associations, and interactions. man-land tradition:
A geographic perspective that emphasizes the relationship between people and the physical environment used to support their livelihoods. area studies tradition:
A geographic perspective that emphasizes the study of specific regions and an understanding of the varied aspects of those regions. earth science tradition:
A geographic perspective in which emphasis is on understanding the natural environment and the processes shaping that environment. behavioral perspective:
An approach that emphasizes human action and the role that behavior plays in society. feminist perspective:
A perspective that emphasizes the role that women play in economic, political, and social spheres. postmodern perspective:
A theoretical perspective that attempts a radical critique of modernist approaches to culture, economy, and society. physical geography:
That component of geography that focuses on the natural aspects of the earth, such as climate, landforms, soils, or vegetation. Physical geography emphasizes the interdependence of people and the physical earth human geography:
The study of various aspects of human life that create the distinctive landscapes and regions in the world. Cultural geographers examine the ways in which groups of people organize themselves; they study the distribution and diffusion of I-7I-8such cultural institutions as language and religion, as well as social and political structures. systematic geography:
An approach to geographic study in which the emphasis is on specified subjects; for example, economic geography, urban geography, climatology, water resources, or population geography. Systematic geographers normally study one aspect of the field—landforms, economic activities, urban places, or natural hazards, for example
Regional geography involves the analysis of environmental and human patterns within a single area

All fields of geography, despite focusing on different sets of phenomena, share the geographic viewpoint; that is, all geographers analyze spatial arrangements (distributions) and search for explanations of the patterns and interrelationships among those and other phenomena. All geographers rely on maps as analytical tools and have added computers and remote-sensing techniques to aid in recording and analyzing data.

Twenty-first-century maps are more than just maps—they are analytical tools referred to as geographic information systems (GIS) and are part of a larger field of study called geographic information science (GIScience). Broadly defined, GIS is a digital representation of the earth’s surface (a site, region, or country) that can be used to describe landscape features (roads, boundaries, mountains, rivers) and can support analysis of these features. holistic discipline:
An area of study, such as geography or history, that synthesizes and integrates knowledge from many fields. chorological(place) framework.

ChAPTER 1

• • Define the field of geography, describe its scope, and identify the major subfields.
• • Describe the concepts of distance decay and diffusion and how they apply to the study of geography.
• • Describe the importance of the human–environment tradition in the study of geography.
• • Explain the geographic grid system and its purpose.
• • Describe how maps communicate geographic information.
• • List three technologies that have contributed to the field of geography.
• • List three analytical methods used by geographers to analyze geographic information.

What Is Geography? Geography is the study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at individual places and of how interactions among places form patterns and organize space.
Contemporary Geography
Geographers employ three principal analytical methods: area analysis, spatial analysis or locational analysis, and geographic systems analysis.
Geography is the study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at individual places and of how interactions among places form patterns and organize larger spaces.
• • Physical geography studies the characteristics of the physical environment. When geography concentrates on topics such as climate, soil, and vegetation, it is a natural science.
• • Human geography studies human groups and their activities, such as language, industry, and the building of cities; it is a social science.
Geography bridges the physical sciences and the social sciences. Physical and human geographers not only share their understandings of the contemporary world, but also a set of concepts and analytical tools. Distinctive geographic tools include:
• • Cartography (mapmaking)
• • Remote sensing (mapping Earth from satellites and aircraft)
• • Geographic information systems (GIS) for storing, displaying, and analyzing geographic data
Special geography describes and analyzes places in terms of categories such as local population, customs, politics, economy, and religion. Today, we call this approach regional geography.
What Varen labeled general geography examines topics of universal application or occurrence. We might study, for example, the geography of climate, water, vegetation, or minerals. This notion corresponds to what we now refer to as topical geography, or systematic geography,
Most contemporary geographers employ three analytical methods:
• • Area analysis, which integrates the geographic features of an area or a place
• • Spatial analysis or locational analysis, which emphasizes interactions among places
• • Geographic systems analysis, which emphasizes the understanding of physical and human systems and the interactions among them
• In compiling and analyzing Earth’s places, geographers rely on three basic ideas: site, situation, and region.
• Site
Site describes the exact location of a place and can be described either in terms of latitude and longitude (discussed in the next section) or in terms of the characteristics of the place
The location of a place relative to other places is called its situation, Relative location is location in reference to another place.
Improvements in transportation and communication links have “shrunk” Earth, so today many 89activities have expanded their scale of organization to cover the whole globe, which is a process called globalization (Figure 1-7).
For purposes of geographic study, we divide Earth into regions, which are areas defined by one or more distinctive characteristics or features, such as climate, soil type, language, or economic activity.
Geographers distinguish three kinds of regions. A formal region is one that exhibits essential uniformity in one or more physical or cultural features, such as a climate type or language area. A functional region, by contrast, is one defined by interactions among places, such as trade or communication.
The third type of region is a vernacular region. Vernacular means “everyday language,” and vernacular regions are defined by widespread popular perception of their existence by people within or outside them (Figure 1-10).
The choice of criteria to define a region follows from the kinds of questions a geographer asks about a set of places. Therefore, a region is a concept, an abstract idea.
While area analysis focuses on regions, spatial analysis looks for patterns in the distribution of human actions, environmental processes, and interactions among and between places or region
The distribution of a phenomenon means its position, placement, or arrangement throughout space. Geographers recognize distributions and use three terms to define the distribution of any phenomenon under study: density, concentration, and pattern (Figure 1-12). population density (the number of people per square kilometer).
Density The frequency of occurrence of a phenomenon in relation to geographic area, is density, usually expressed as a number per square kilometer or square mile.
The distribution of a phenomenon within a given area is described by concentration.
The term pattern refers to the geometric arrangement of objects within an area. we sometimes see streams with many right-angle bends; this pattern is called a trellis pattern. Conversely, in areas without structural control, streams and their tributaries form branching or treelike patterns, called dendriticpatterns. we sometimes see streams with many right-angle bends; this pattern is called a trellis pattern. Conversely, in areas without structural control, streams and their tributaries form branching or treelike patterns, called dendriticpatterns. topography (surface relief) Distance can be measured absolutely, in terms of miles or kilometers,
No matter how we choose to measure distance, we must make some effort to overcome distance when we want to move or transport items. We call that effort or cost the friction of distance.
Distance decay The presence or impact of any phenomenon may diminish away from its origin, just as the volume of a sound diminishes the further it gets from its source. This is called distance decay
Diffusion An item or feature may spread across space through diffusion. Any innovation—the use of a tool, a new clothing fashion, or the development of a new technology—originates at a place called a hearth.
Geographers define three basic paths of diffusion: relocation diffusion, contiguous or contagious diffusion, and hierarchical diffusion. elocation diffusion occurs when people or things move between two points
Contiguous, or contagious, diffusion occurs from one place to a neighboring place through direct contact