Geography
is the study of the locational and spatial variation in both physical
and human phenomena on
Earth. The word derives from the
Greek words hê gê ("the Earth") and graphein
("to write").
Geography
is also the title of various historical books on this subject, notably
the Geographia by
Klaudios Ptolemaios (2nd
century).
Geography is much more than
cartography, the study of maps. It not only investigates what is
where on the Earth, but also why it's there and not somewhere else,
sometimes referred to as "location in space". It studies this whether
the cause is natural or human. It also studies the consequences of
those differences.
The
Greeks are the first known culture to actively explore geography
as a
science and
philosophy, with major contributors including
Thales of Miletus,
Herodotus,
Eratosthenes,
Hipparchus,
Aristotle,
Dicaearchus of Messana,
Strabo, and
Ptolemy. Mapping by the
Romans as they explored new lands added new techniques.
During the
Middle Ages,
Arabs such as
Idrisi[?],
Ibn Battuta, and
Ibn Khaldun built on and maintained the Greek and Roman learnings.
Following the journeys of
Marco Polo, interest in geography spread throughout
Europe. During the
Renaissance and into the
16th and
17th centuries the great voyages of exploration revived a desire
for solid theoretical foundations and accurate detail. The
Geographia Generalis[?] by
Bernhardus Varenius[?] and
Gerardus Mercator's world map are prime examples.
By the
18th century, geography had become recognized as a discrete
discipline and became part of a typical
university curriculum. Over the past two centuries the quantity of
knowledge and the number of tools has exploded. There are strong links
between geography and the sciences of
geology and
botany.
Spatial interrelationships are key to
this
synoptic science[?], and it uses
maps as a key tool. Classical
cartography has been joined by the more modern approach to
geographical analysis, computer-based
geographic information systems (GIS).
Geographers use four interrelated
approaches:
- Systematic - Groups geographical
knowledge into categories that can be explored globally
- Regional - Examines systematic
relationships between categories for a specific region or location
on the
planet.
- Descriptive - Simply specifies the
locations of features and populations.
- Analytical - Asks why we
find features and populations in a specific geographic area.
This branch focuses on Geography as
an
Earth science, making use of biology to understand global
flora and
fauna patterns, and
mathematics and
physics to understand the motion of the earth and relationship
with other bodies in the
solar system. It also covers
mapmaking and
navigation, and includes
environmental geography.
atmosphere --
archipelago --
cape --
city --
continent --
desert --
gulf --
island --
lake --
lagoon --
atoll --
mountain range --
ocean --
peninsula --
plain --
river --
sea --
valley --
ecology --
climate --
soil --
geomorphology --
biogeography -
Timeline of geography, paleontology
The
human, or political/cultural, branch of geography - also called
anthropogeography[?] focuses on the
social science, non-physical aspects of the way the world is
arranged. It examines how humans adapt themselves to the land and to
other people, and in macroscopic transformations they enact on the
world. It can be divided into the following broad categories:
economic geography,
political geography[?] (including
geopolitics),
social geography (including
urban geography[?]),
feminist geography[?] ,
environmentalism,
cartography, and
military geography[?].
Countries of the world --
country --
nation --
state --
union --
province --
county --
city --
municipality
This branch seeks to determine how
cultural features of the multifarious societies across the planet
evolved and came into being. Study of the
landscape is one of many key foci in this field - much can be
deduced about earlier societies from their impact on their local
environment and surrondings.
Urban planning and
regional planning use the science of geography to assist in
determining how to develop (or not develop) the land to meet
particular criteria, such as safety, beauty, economic opportunities,
the preservation of the built or natural heritage, etcetera. The
planning of towns, cities and rural areas may be seen as applied
geography although it also draws heavily upon the arts, the sciences
and lessons of history. Some of the issues facing planning are
considered briefly under the headings of
rural exodus,
urban exodus[?] and
Smart Growth.
In the
1950s the
regional science movement arose, led by
Walter Isard[?] to provide a more quantitative and analytical base
to geographical questions, in contrast to the more qualitative
tendencies of traditional geography programs. Regional Science
comprises the body of knowledge in which the spatial dimension plays a
fundamental role, such as
regional economics[?],
resource management[?],
location theory[?],
urban and
regional planning,
transportation and
communication,
human geography,
population distribution[?] and environmental quality.
