GEOG MT 1 material - Maps and Geography intro

Geography

The science of space and understanding patterns in the world.

Spatial variation

The study of differences in space across the world.

Relationships

The main purpose of geography, focusing on physical and social environments.

Eratosthenes

First to incorporate parallels and meridians in his maps also understood earth as a sphere

Strabo

More qualitative / argued that a descriptive approach was more practical

Herodotus

Greek historian who treated history geographically and geography historically.

Ptolemy

One of the first cartographers made tables of latitude and longitude as well as map projections

al-Idrisi

Arab geographer who made a more empirical map including Eurasia, Scandinavia, Arabian peninsula, Sri Lanka and the Black and Caspian seas

Physical geography

Where and why natural forces occur as they do

Human geography

Where and why human activities are located where they are

Human-environment interactions

The focus of geographers, analyzing the relationship between humans and their environment.

Absolute location

The specific coordinates of a place on the earth's surface / where things are

Relative location

The location of a place compared to other places.

Space

The physical gap between two objects - abstract

Place

A specific point on earth with particular characteristics - concrete / physical

Locale

A specific place with distinctive physical, cultural, and environmental characteristics.

Sense of place

Emotional attachment, cultural identity, perception, and attachment to nature associated with a location.

Site

The specific physical attributes and characteristics of a location.

Situation

The location of a place in relation to its surrounding context including the spatial relationship to other places, features and accessibility

Origins of human species

The first humans thought to have originated in Africa and migrated to different parts of the world because of found skulls.

Invention of settled agriculture

The development of agriculture and the rise of established civilizations within the fertile crescent

Neolithic revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture and settled communities.

Where did the Neolithic revolution occur

In many places at around about the same time - Fertile crescent, China, the Indus Valley, SEA, Mesoamerica and parts of Africa

Western civilization

The rise of European civilizations due to factors like guns, germs, and steel.

Maps

Two-dimensional representations of the earth's surface used to display and analyze information.

Cartography

The science and art of map-making.

Ancient Greeks and maps

The Greeks were considered the founders of scientific cartography.

Arab cartographers

Arab geographers who preserved and improved maps during the Dark Ages. Interpreted from the books and findings of Ptolemy

Age of discovery

The period of exploration and map-making in the 15th century.

Large scale maps

Maps that provide more detailed information about a small portion of the earth's surface.

Small scale maps

Maps that cover a large portion of the earth's surface but omit many details.

Elements of a map

DOGSTAILS - date, orientation, grid, scale, title, author, index, legend, and source.

Parallels and meridians

Lines used to describe locations on the earth's surface.

Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn

The regions on Earth where the majority of rainforests are located. Across the equator

The Amazon

Often referred to as the "lungs of the earth," it is a significant rainforest in the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

49 deg parallel

The line of latitude that separates Canada and the United States, forming a significant portion of the Canadian border.

Meridians and Longitude

A numbering system used to indicate the location of a meridian, similar to latitude but measuring EAST and WEST locations.

Prime meridian

The line of longitude at 0 degrees, running north and south through Greenwich, England.

Time zones

Traveling 15 degrees longitude east of a location results in gaining an hour, while traveling 15 degrees longitude west results in losing an hour.

Latitude

Scientifically derived from the Earth's shape and its rotation around the sun, it can be measured by the length of daylight and the position of the sun and stars. Is found from natural science

Longitude

Formed by an arbitrary line, the prime meridian was chosen to be in Greenwich, England, through an international agreement among 25 nations. This is not reliant on any sort of scientific finding and is from social sciences

Reading geographic coordinates

Understanding and interpreting latitude and longitude coordinates to determine specific locations on Earth.

Location

Specific position or coordinates of a place on the earth’s surface

Anaximander

Created one of the first world maps that was centered around the Aegean sea

Hecateaus

Developed Periodos Ges - corrected and expanded Anaxi’s map

O&T map

A circular map that split the world into a T according to the Med, the Nile and the River don. with Jerusalem placed in the middle

Islamic Golden Age

Used math and astronomical formulas to help in the creation of diff. map projections that wer based on empirical findings rather than religious beliefs

Maps in the 15th century

Prints allowed for map production at a large volume but made for some large mistakes and misinterpretations. Also included cosmographies

Maps in the 16th century

As imperialism grew and more territories were found, more continents were added to maps

The 3 A’s

America / Australia / Antarctica

The 2 purposes of maps

Tool for storing reference material like books

Tool for communicating geographic information

Fractional scale

A fraction or ratio that is the same unit on the map and on the ground

Written scale

Least common - just a statement of what the scale is

Graphic bar

showing the distance b/w 2 or more prominent landmarks

Parallels and latitudes

Same except latitude is a numbered system to indicate the location of a parallel - measures the north and south location

Meridians and longitude

Same except the longitude is a numbering system to indicate the location of a meridian - measures the east and west locations - time zones come from this

Civilization recognition

Agricultural revolution

Town dwelling

Complex social stratification

The development of writing and an alphabet

Complex ceremonial centers

Trading patterns

5 surviving civilizations

Western christian

orthodox christian

islamic

hindu

far eastern

Emotional attachment

People develop emotional bonds with locations

Cultural identity

Places can be integral to a community’s identity, can bring a heightened sense of belonging and continuity

Perception and meaning

The way that individuals perceive and interpret a place contributes to its sense of place

Attachment to nature

sense of place is not limited to urban environments it can also be associated with natural landscapes allowing individuals to develop strong relationships with the land

Sense and place is important

because it creates a need to maintain and protect certain places

Map projections

The way that a globe is put onto a flat map

Map projections cause?

Distortions in either shape / distance / size / direction

Gall peters / equal area

a projection that retains the relative size of the area throughout the map with minimal distortion sin the landmass shape but alters the shapes of the landmasses

Robinson / cylindrical

A projection that shows most distances, sizes and shapes accurately but has some distortions around the poles and edges

Mercator

Shows the true shape and directions of the landmasses but doesn’t show the true distances and sizes of continents especially in the poles

What was the mercator used for

For primarily navigation

Shape distortion

may appear more elongated or squat than in reality

Distance distortion

Distance b/w 2 points may become larger or smaller

Size distortion

One area may appear larger than another on a map but in reality is smaller

Direction distortion

Direction form one place to another become distorted

What did the first reading say?

That maps are important for shaping geographical knowledge as well as understanding that there is a correlation to maps and power

What did the second reading say?

Governments have to make maps that people can trust so that they can have adaquate control of the people. Maps can inform, misinform, and disinform like any other info source.

Google maps v. Google earth

Maps is for directions

Earth is more descriptive social and physical representations on earth

GIS / Geographic Information System

System that captures, stores, manages, analyses and displays geographic data

Why is GIS powerful

Helps people understand patterns and relationships in context

Benefits of GIS

improves communication and efficiency as well as better management and decision making

Drawbacks of GIS

Meticulous data conversion and storage as well as long wait time for data extraction and publication

GIS’ 4 functions

Data management, Visualisation, Geospatial analysis, Editing

Data management

Process of organising, storing, retrieving and maintaining geographic attribute data ex. Vector and raster data

Visualisation

Using colours or other means to represent data

Geospatial analysis

Analysing geographic relationships and patterns using geoprocessing

Editing

Important bc it makes sure that the data is accurate and relevant to the mission objective

Layers

information can be stored in a layer and a wide variety of maps can be compared with each other to show relationships among diff kinds of info

Roger Tomlinson

English and the father of GIS

Origins of CGIS

Spartan Air Services developed it for the department of forestry.

Remote sensing

Acquisition of data about the earth’s surfaces fr a satellite - primarily used for environmental mapping

Power and representation

maps are never objective - inherently political w the cartographer holding the power

elements of lying on maps by ___

Mark Monmonier

map features can be enhanced to support a personal / political agenda

Supress dissident voices

Boundary making

maps are a way of making boundaries to separate people or to profess a country’s power

Al - idrisi

made a map of the world that was more empirical than the maps that the western world made

what other places did al Idrisi include in his maps

Eurasia, Scandinavia, the Arabian peninsula, Sri Lanka and the Black and Caspian seas