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Physical geography
the study of natural processes and the distribution of features in the environment, such as landforms, plants, animals, and climate
ex: the movement of glaciers in different areas, or how a process like erosion changes a riverbed
Human geography
the study of the events and processes that have shaped how humans understand, use, and alter Earth
ex: how people organize themselves socially, politically, and economically and what impact they have on the social environment.
Spatial perspective
refers to where something occurs
(where and why things are located there)
geographers studying how people live on Earth, how they organize themselves, and why the events of human societies occur where they do
ecological perspective
refers to the relationships between living things and their environments
looking at an issue involves studying the interactive and interdependent relationships amount living things, ecosystems, and human societies
absolute location
exact location of an object
expressed in coordinates of longitude and latitude
relative location
a description of where a place is in relation to other places or features
ex: Budapest is 134 miles southeast of Vienna, Austria
or
the city straddles the Danube River in the middle of the Carpathian Basin in north central Hungary
sense of place
referring to the emotions attached to an area based on their personal experiences
site
a place's absolute location, physical characteristics (landforms, climate, and resources)
situation
a place’s location in relation to other places or its surrounding features
connection to other places ex: transportation routes (roads, rail lines, and waterways), political associations, and economic and cultural ties
environmental determinism (8th, 19th, much of 20th century)
human behavior is largely controlled by the physical environment.
a regions climate and soil fertility dictate how a society develops as it adapts to the environment
distance decay
the farther away one thing is from another, the less interaction the two things will have
Waldo Tobler first law of geography states that the closer one thing is to another the more related they are
friction of distance
a concept that states that distance requires time, effort, and cost to overcome.
applies to political, religious, and cultural movements
MODERN ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY AND TRANSPORTATION, IT HAS LESS IMPACT TODAY THAN IN THE PAST
Time-space compression
the processes causing relative distance between places to shrink
MODERN TRANSPORTATION REDUCED TRAVEL TIMES
THE INTERNET AND OTHER FORMS OF COMMUNICATION HAVE MADE IT EASIER TO COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE AND SEND MONEY AROUND THE WORLD THROUGH ONLINE BANKING
possibilism
argues that humans have more agency or ability to produce a result than environmental determinism suggests
environment places some limitations on human activity, but societies have a range of options in deciding how to live within a physical environment
ex: people who live in the desert divert rivers to irrigate land for agriculture and build dams and aqueducts for water
renewable resources
nature produces it faster than people consume it
ex: solar and wind energy
nonrewable resources
people consume it faster than nature produces it
ex: coal and other fossil fuels
scales of analysis
local, regional, national, or global
region
an area of Earth’s surface with certain characteristics that make it distinct from other areas
people decide how they appear
formal regions
an area that has one or more shared trait, also referred to as a uniform region
shared traits can be":
physical (landforms- mountain range or climate area like a desert)
cultural (languages or religion)
combination of traits, defined by data (measures of population, income, ethnicity, or precipitation)
ex: a country is a formal political region (shared traits are government, services, laws, and taxes)
ex: state or province within a country
Africa is a formal region
functional region
an area organized by its function around a focal point (node), or the center of an interest or activity
node
focus of the region
ex: downtown of a city
suburbs
the residential areas surrounding a city
hinterlands
cities with ports or large commercial shipping facilities form functional regions with their surrounding areas called HINTERLANDS
perceptual region/vernacular region
a region that reflects people’s feelings and attitudes about a place
defined by peoples perception of the area
ex: the midwest region of the US
eastern europe
globalization
expansion of economic, cultural, and political processes
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
allowed companies in the US, CNDA, and MEXICO to sell goods and hire workers in any of the three countries
2018 drafted a similar pact called the USMCA
The European Union (EU)
to allow people and goods to easily pass from country to country
Wallersteins world system theory
catergorizes countries into three-tiered structures—core, semi-periphery, and periphery
States that the three types of countries form a power hierarchy, core at top, periphery at the bottom
qualitative
Note
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