What Is Geography?
Geography isn't just maps; geography includes science-y topics like the formation of rivers, volcanoes, and earthquakes, and human geography like choosing locations for businesses, local conflicts, and environmental issues. It's an extremely wide-ranging subject. So, if it covers this much stuff, what is the definition of geography?
Geography is the study of the physical features of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, including how humans affect them, and the ways they affect humans. The subject can be broken down into six essential elements:
- The world in spatial terms
- Places and regions
- Physical systems
- Human systems
- Environment and society
- Uses of geography
Six Essential Elements of Geography
The world in spatial terms covers the location of things in the world. While geography isn't just about maps, it does consider the location of places and how that impacts the topic. Geography includes the concepts of absolute and relative location. Absolute location is a location that never changes, like your longitude and latitude, whereas relative location is your location relative to another location, like living between the catholic church and the supermarket.
Places and regions might sound similar, but is more related to the features of a particular place or region. For example, what are the physical and human features of the place being studied, and what are the natural and cultural features of the region? What's the climate like? What about language, religions, government? For example, if you were studying Morocco, you might note that it has a dry climate due to being on the edge of the Sahara desert, that it contains mountains in the East, that the primary religion is Islam, and the primary language is Darija (Moroccan Arabic).
Physical systems is concerned with the natural features and processes of the place you're studying. This includes potential for earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, hurricanes, tornadoes, and the plants and animals of the area. Areas like California are prone to earthquakes; the Caribbean is a hot spot of hurricane activity; and glaciers can be found in Canada. Different places have different physical systems to consider.
Human systems is about studying how humans affect the landscape. This includes how humans move around, how ideas and beliefs spread, how goods and services move, how we affect each other, and how we build things and change the landscape. For example, you might study how a small town turned into a giant city: perhaps the steel industry attracted new people to the area during the industrial revolution. That would also lead to goods and services entering and leaving the area. These kinds of things can completely change an area.
Environment and society is similar to human systems, but is more focused on how humans directly affect the natural geography of the world and how the geography of the world affects humans. This includes positive effects and negative, like pollution and tree planting, crops and bad weather. So, instead of looking at how a town grew during the Industrial Revolution, this topic would talk about the trees that were cut down to make that happen and the areas that were cleared for mines and steel works and how the smog from those steelworks made the sky dark and polluted.
The uses of geography is the study of the practical side of the subject. It concerns understanding how to apply geography to explain the past, and help us make decisions today. For example, after learning of how the steelworks impacted the landscape, we can apply lessons about the environmental impact of doing similar things in the future.
Lesson Summary
Geography is a pretty broad topic, covering the science-like topics of physical geography, and matters of human impacts on the Earth through human geography. Because it covers so much, it's useful to break it down into six essential elements:
- The world in spatial terms
- Places and regions
- Physical systems
- Human systems
- Environment and society
- Uses of geography
The world in spatial terms deals with where things are positioned in the world, including absolute and relative location. Places and regions studies the physical and human features of the place being studied from climate to language to religion to government. Physical systems is about studying natural features of the place, including earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers, plants, and animals. Human systems is about the movement of humans, ideas, beliefs, goods, and services and the way humans affect each other and the landscape. Environment and society is focused on how humans affect the natural geography of the world, and vice versa, and uses of geography is about how to apply geography to understanding the past, and making decisions for the future.
