1.4 AP Human Geo Reading Notes

A spatial approach considers the arrangement of the phenomena being studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection. A spatial approach also looks at elements such as the movements of people and things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and place. Using Four-Level Analysis from Unit 1 Overview, geographers ask and attempt to answer questions about spatial distributions such as these: • Why are things where they are? • How did things become distributed as they are? • What is changing the pattern of distribution? • What are the implications of the spatial distribution for people? Major Geographic Spatial Concepts Historians look through the lens of time to understand the past. Similarly, geographers look through the lens of space to understand place. Space is the area between two or more phenomena or things. Space is at the heart of geography and geographers are intensely interested in how space is arranged, used, and reflected in peoples attitudes and beliefs. Location Location is an important spatial concept to geographers. (See Topic 1.1.) Location identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid system or relative to another location. The concepts of absolute and relative location are essential to define the amount of space and relative or absolute distance between locations. Additionally, geographers use the concepts of place, site, and situation to further develop an understanding of a specific location. Place Place refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location. A group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. (See Topic 1.7 for more about regions.) Two ways to refer to place are its site and situation. Site can be described as the characteristics at the immediate location-for example, the soil type, climate, labor force, and human structures. In contrast, situation refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to ober The site of Riyah, the capital and moster lated cy hadi Araba, in g deseceite Rage labor force, and meder lone Arabian ety situation ineerclimang located roughly in the center of coe Arabian Peninsula, The includes of the Arabian Peninsula is between the emoden africa and Asia sita rigach is connected to the world with a large en then airport. Another exa rech loc situation can change relate to s. The niterstate highway system was created in the United States in the 19d railroad ituation of many syal towas changed dramatically. Towns along old railroad lines became les important as centers of trade, while towns along the new interstate suddenly became more important. Sense of Place Related to the concept of place is a sense of place. Humans tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their personal beliefs. For example, the characteristics of Rome, italy, might be described differently by a local resident than by an outsider or by a Catholic than by a Hindu. If a place inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks uniqueness, it has placelessness. Toponyms Finally, locations can also be designated using toponyms, or place names. Some toponyms provide insights into the physical geography, the history, or the culture of the location. The entire coast of Florida is dotted with communities with "beach" in the name-Fernandina Beach, Miami Beach, Pensacola Beach-all of which are on beaches. Iowa is named for a Native American tribe. Pikes Peak is named for an explorer, Zebulon Pike. Sometimes toponyms get confusing. Greenland is icier than Iceland, while Iceland is greener than Greenland. And some toponyms are deceiving. Lake City, Iowa, is not on a lake, and few people consider Mount Prospect, Illinois, a mountain-at an elevation of only 665 feet above sea level. Toponyms are often created to inspire an ideal view of a location, memorialize an event or person, or even to express power and ownership and can be full of controversy and disagreement. One such controversy involved the debate over the name of the tallest mountain in the United States. Should the Alaskan mountain take the name Mt. McKinley after the former U.S. President, William McKinley? Or Denali, the name from the traditional Native American Koyukon language, meaning Great One? In 2015, President Obama restored the mountain's name back to Denali. Distance and Time Distance (see Topic 1.1) can be measured in terms of absolute or relative distance. Time-space compression is the shrinking "time-distance," or relative distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication. New York City and London are separated by an ocean, but the development of air travel greatly reduced travel time between them. As a result, they feel much closer today than they did in the 19th century even though the absolute distance of 3,500 miles has not changed. One result of time-space compression is that global forces are influencing culture everywhere and reducing local diversity more than ever before. In the 19% century, the mountainous regions of southeastern Europe were famous for the local variations in their music. Today, because of radio, Internet, and other changes, people in southeastern Europe listen to the same music as everyone else in the world. The Impact of Distance The increasing connection between places is reflected in the growth of spatial interaction. Spatial interaction refers to the contact, movement, and flow of things between locations. Connections might be physical, such as through roads. Or they can be through information, such as through radios or Internet service. Places with more connections will have increased spatial interaction. Flow refers to the patterns and movement of ideas, people, products, and other phenomena. You will learn about specific flows in every unit and apply Four-Level Analysis to better understand the flows of culture, migration, and trade in the world. The friction of distance indicates that when things are farther apart, they tend to be less connected. This inverse relationship between distance and connection is a concept called distance decay. A clear illustration of this concept is the weakening of a radio signal as it travels across space away from a radio tower. Friction of distance causes the decay, or weakening, of the signal. Natural characteristics like waves, earthquakes, and storm systems exhibit the distance-decay function. Human characteristics also exhibit distance decay, although the key issue is more accurately described as connectedness than distance. When a new pet store opens, its influence is strongest in the area closest to the store but only among the pet owners who have a connection to the store. Improvements Strength of Interaction to infrastructure, such as transportation and communication, have reduced the friction of distance between places as they have 0+ Distance increased the spatial interaction. Declining Influence of Distance Concepts such as accessibility and remoteness are changing. The world is more spatially connected than ever before in history. The Internet can be used to illustrate several of these concepts. It allows a person living in El Paso, Texas, to shop at a store in New York City (via its website) and receive a product shipped from a warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia. Distance decay is less influential than it once was. Patterns and Distribution Patterns (see Topic 1.1) refer to the general arrangement of things being studied, and geographers must be able to describe patterns accurately and with precision. Geographers often use the concept of distribution, the way a phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns. Geographers look for patterns in the distribution distenomena acros space that give clues about causes or effects of the die fribution. Common distribution patterns include but are or randite. (9 e Topil wing: clustered, linear, dispersed, circular, geometric or random. (See Lopic 1.1 for more on distribution patterns.) Matching patterns of distribution is called spatial association and indicates that two (or more) phenomena may be related or associated with one another. For example, the distribution of malaria matches the distribution of the mosquito that carries it. However, just because two distributions have a similar pattern does not mean one is necessarily the cause of the other. The distribution of bicycle shops in a large city might be similar to the distribution of athletic wear stores- but one probably does not cause the other. They both might reflect the distribution of active people.