Basic Themes of Geography
The over-arching goal is to understand how people interact with their environment in places.
ECOLOGY
ECONOMICS
CRIMINOLOGY
CLIMATOLOGY
ARCHAEOLOGY
EPIDEMIOLOGY
vironment In
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Hu Investigators from many disciplines
GEOLOGY
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AGRONOMY
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look at human-environment interactions.
ANTHR0POLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
ZOOLOGY
The “entrance-ticket” to a geographic inquiry
is a focus on the theme
of location.
relative to
a global frame
(latitude/longitude)
relative to
specific features
Location
(distance/direction)
where things are
The idea of location
climate
has two aspects.
tectonic plates
landform
rivers, wind
population
plants, animals
land use
trade, money
industry
(movement, link, situation) commuters
(place, feature, site)
government
migrants
art, music
messages
Geographers
use
spatial
thinking
religion etc.
ideas, laws etc.
to study conditions and connections.
Conditions
How do things
change as you go
from one place
to another?
SPATIAL
TRANSITION
Are things
arranged in a
non-random way?
SPATIAL
PATTERN
What groups
of places have
similar conditions?
What groups
of places have
similar connections?
FORMAL
REGION
FUNCTIONAL
REGION
SPATIAL
AURA
Spatial Reasoning
ways to organize knowledge
about conditions and connections
and to suggest hypotheses
for further inquiry
Do particular
SPATIAL
things tend to
ASSOCIATION
occur together
in the same places?
Links with science what processes “cause”
conditions, patterns,
associations, etc.?
Connections
SPATIAL
COMPARISON
How are these places
similar or different?
Links with ethics, aesthetics, etc.
Do I like it? Is it efficient? Is it fair?
Thank you to Phil Gersmehl for permission to share.
What influence
does a place have
on its neighbors?
(and vice versa!)
SPATIAL
HIERARCHY
SPATIAL
ANALOGY
How does this
place fit inside
of larger areas?
Are there places
in similar positions
on other continents,
cities, watersheds, etc.
Links with history how do conditions, connections,
patterns, associations, etc.
change through time?