Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

1.1 Types of Maps

  • Reference Maps:
    • Display boundaries, names, and identifiers of geographic areas.
    • Show major cultural and physical features.
    • Examples: Maps of Lewisville or the world.
  • Thematic Maps:
    • Emphasize a particular theme or topic.
    • Focus of human geography.
    • Types:
      • Cartogram:
        • Distorts land area to represent changes in value.
        • Example: Population cartogram where China and India appear larger.
        • The greater the value, the greater the land area.
      • Chloropleth Map:
        • Uses different shades to show variations in values.
        • Darker shades typically indicate higher values.
        • Helpful trick: Think coral to identify different shades of colors.
      • Dot Maps:
        • Use dots to represent values.
        • More dots indicate a greater value.
      • Graduated Symbol Maps:
        • Use symbols to represent values.
        • Larger symbols indicate higher values.
        • Example: Literacy rate in the US, where larger symbols represent higher literacy rates.
      • Isoline Maps:
        • Use lines to connect places with a common value.
        • Commonly used to map language variations.
        • Isogloss: A specific term for mapping language, such as a word or pronunciation.

1.1 Spatial Patterns

  • Relative Space:
    • Created and defined by human interaction with the environment.
  • Absolute Distance and Direction:
    • Numerical measures showing location, distance, and direction.
    • Examples: 74 degrees North, 37 degrees North, inches, miles, kilometers, North, East, South, West.
  • Relative Distance and Direction:
    • Descriptive measures comparing objects or buildings to known geographic features.
    • Examples: Next to the planetarium, 20 degrees North of my house, left, right, front, back.
  • Elevation:
    • How high or low something is located on the Earth's surface.
  • Spatial Patterns:
    • Uniform Distribution: Evenly spaced.
    • Linear Spatial Pattern: Spaced in a line.
    • Clustered/Clumped Spatial Pattern: Grouped together.
    • Dispersed/Scattered Spatial Pattern: Distributed over a wide area.
    • Random Spatial Pattern: No specific pattern.
    • Agglomeration: Purposely grouped together.

1.1 Map Projections

  • Map Projections:
    • Methods to represent the world in two dimensions (2D).
    • All map projections distort the surface (SADD): scale, area, distance, and direction.
  • Types of Map Projections:
    • Robinson Projection:
      • Benefits: Globe-like, accurate shapes and sizes, minimal distortion.
      • Purpose: Commonly used in schools and atlases.
      • Distortion/Limitations: Extreme distortion at the poles, compressed near equator, imprecise measurements.
    • Mercator Projection:
      • Benefits: Good for direction and navigation, 90-degree angles, straight lines of longitude and latitude.
      • Purpose: Best for nautical use.
      • Distortion/Limitations: Distorts area, especially at the poles (e.g., Greenland and Africa appear similar in size).
    • Gall-Peters Projection:
      • Benefits: Shows true direction, relatively accurate area, minimal distortion of continents, preserves land area.
      • Purpose: Navigation and world maps.
      • Distortion/Limitations: Continents appear elongated, distorts oceans and shapes.
    • Polar (Azimuthal) Projection:
      • Benefits: Shows from the North Pole, preserves direction and distances from the center, poles are preserved.
      • Purpose: Used by airplane pilots for navigation, emblem on the United Nations flag.
      • Distortions: Distorts parallels of latitude, distorts shape and area, only shows half of the Earth.

1.2 Geographic Data

  • Geographic Information System (GIS):
    • Computer system that scans geographic areas and compiles data through specific layers.
    • Purpose: Helps visualize and organize spatial patterns, aids governments and businesses in identifying characteristics of areas.
  • Remote Sensing Systems:
    • Detects and monitors physical characteristics using technologies like satellites or aircraft (no physical contact).
    • Purpose: Collect information over large areas, monitor hard-to-explore regions, provide fast and accurate information.
  • Satellite Navigation System:
    • Uses satellites for geospatial positioning via longitude and latitude.
    • Purpose: Provides maps on phones, helps drivers find optimal routes.
  • Spatial Information Observations:
    • Personal Interviews: Explanations of observations or opinions.
    • Field Observations: Observing behaviors and activities in a specific environment.
    • Policy Documents: Official papers that specify rules and guidelines.
    • Media Reports: Communication of ideas and products from media sources.
    • Photographic Interpretation: Studying photographs to identify patterns.
    • Travel Narratives: Firsthand written accounts.
    • Landscape Analysis: Studying land use and human-environment interactions.

1.3 The Power of Geographic Data

  • Geographic Data:
    • Any data with a geographic or location aspect.
    • Rule of thumb: If it has something to do with somewhere.
  • Importance:
    • Helps people understand problems and make better decisions.
    • Data can be layered to see relationships.
  • Uses:
    • Government, business, personal, and other applications.
  • Methods of Data Collection:
    • Census data, remote sensing, open street map.

1.4 Spatial Concepts

  • Absolute Location:
    • Exact location using longitude and latitude.
  • Relative Location:
    • Location in relation to other places.
  • Place:
    • Includes climate, landforms, vegetation, language, religion, culture, and economic systems.
    • Emotional attachment or sense of place.
  • Site:
    • A place's absolute location and surroundings, like landforms, climate, and resources.
  • Situation:
    • How one place interacts with other places.
  • Location:
    • Position a point or object occupies on Earth.
  • Pattern:
    • Can be neat, geometric grid system, random, or rural separation.
    • Determined by land needs.
  • Density:
    • Measured by square mile by city.
  • Distance Decay:
    • Farther places are from one another, the less they interact.
  • Time-Space Compression:
    • Space between places seems smaller due to technology and communication improvements.
  • Flow:
    • Movement of people, goods, ideas, and its effect on society.
    • Affected by space and location, changes over time with society and technology.
  • Space:
    • Area between two things on Earth's surface.
  • Distribution:
    • Arrangement within a given space.
  • Density:
    • Number of people or things in a specific area.

1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction

  • Sustainability:
    • Providing for current societies and future generations.
  • Key Sustainability Issues:
    • Natural Resources: How human societies use Earth's resources.
    • Land Use: How human societies determine land use in terms of purpose and level of use.
  • Environmental Determinism:
    • Decides characteristics of human society and even the success.
  • Possibilism:
    • With anything people anything with people is possible.
  • Relevance:
    • Human societies are influenced but not controlled by the environment.
    • Possibilism is more popular today because technology helps show that human societies can significantly alter the natural environment.
    • Environmental determinism is too simplistic without human agency.

1.6 Scales of Analysis

  • Scale:
    • Relationship of the size of a map to the area it represents on Earth.
  • Large Scale:
    • Shows less area in greater detail.
  • Small Scale:
    • Shows larger area in less detail.
  • Scales of Analysis:
    • Level at which data is displayed.
      • Global: Shows the world; useful for global issues like global warming.
      • Regional: Shows data by continents or world regions.
      • National: Shows data for one or more countries.
      • Local: Shows subnational data.

1.7 Regional Analysis

  • Regions:
    • Land groups together by characteristics or human constructs.
  • Types of Regions:
    • Formal Region:
      • Grouped by common environmental, social, political, and/or economic attributes.
      • Examples: Religion, ethnicity, language, climate, political boundaries (e.g., the European Union, The United States.).
    • Functional (Nodal) Region:
      • Grouped around a central point or node.
      • Examples: Economic activities, city hall, world cities, transportation, airports (e.g., Pizza Hut delivery zone).
    • Vernacular (Perceptual) Region:
      • Grouped by feelings or attitudes towards the area.
      • Examples: Shared interests or history (e.g., The Midwest, The South).