Geographic Concepts
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Transcript of Geographic Concepts
Geographic Concepts
Unit OneMs. Taylor’s Human Geography
Geographic terms
Scale
• The relationship between a portion of the earth you are looking at and the Earth as a whole.
• The smaller the scale, the larger the area covered (eg. Globe = small scale representation of the earth. Map of CSS campus = larger scale)
Place
• A specific point on Earth identified by a unique location (described by its place name, site, situation, or mathematical location)
Toponym (place name)
Situation (relative location)
• “We’re the house situated next to the one with all the funky statues, near the entrance to Cheyenne Canyon.” (Helps find an unfamiliar place)
• Chipotle’s situation so close to Cheyenne Mountain HS and CSS guarantees a brisk lunchtime visit. (Helps illustrate importance)
Mathematical Location
• Latitude• Longitude• Township and range coordinates (Land
Ordinance of 1785)
What is the location of CSS?
• Using toponyms• Situationally speaking• Describe the site• Mathematical locationhttp://www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com/find-address-from-latitude-and-longitude.php
Region
• Area distinguished by distinctive physical and/or cultural characteristics.
• Examples: The American South; the Rocky Mountain West; Southern California; the Northwest; the Midwest; Africa; the Middle East
Formal Region
• Also called uniform or homogenous region• An area in which everyone shares one or more
distinctive characteristic. (e.g. states, countries)
• Or in which one characteristic dominates all others (Red: Republican vs. Blue (Democrat) states, wheat belt or “breadbasket”
Functional Region
• Also “nodal” regions• Organized around a “node” or focal point—
center of service, circulation, or “hub”• Eg. Newspaper circulation
Vernacular Region
• Also called “perceptual region” • A place people believe exists as part of their
cultural identity• Name often evokes clear pictures or
stereotypes: “Dixie” or “the South,” “The North Country”
• Not formal geographic region
Space
• Physical gap or between two objects• How much space is there between you and
your neighbor? • How are the buildings on the CSS campus
distributed across space?• Population across a given space gives you
density
Map Scale
• The relationship between a distance on a map, chart, or photograph, and the corresponding distance on the Earth.
• How do we know how far distances are from A to B on any given map?
• Why does a map of Colorado take up the same amount of paper as a map of Rhode Island?
Map scale: graphic
Graphic and Ratio Scales
Map Scale: Written
• “One inch equals a mile”• “One centimeter equals 1000 kilometers”
Connections
• “relationships among people and things across space”
• Examples: language ties, commercial connections, travel, common religions, the Internet
Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Uses satellites to reference location on the ground place in orbit by U.S. military
• Navigation tool (planes, motorists, geocachers)
• Tracking device (parents of errant adolescents)
• www.OpenStreetMap.org
Geographic Information System (GIS)
• Computer can store, manipulate, layer geographic information
• “Mashups” layers of various data sets• Highly pragmatic, flexible• Real Estate Applications: Zillowhttp://www.zillow.com/homes/80906_rb/#/homes/Southwest-Colorado-Springs-Colorado-Springs-CO-80906/93584_rid/38.872116,-104.612716,38.681548,-105.085128_rect/10_zm/
• What kind of a mash-up would you like to create and for what purpose?
Remote Sensing
• Using satellites that transmit digital data to s receiving station on earth in pixels (based on radiation emitted from tiny area on Earth).
• For true geeks, check out this NASA tutorial! (• http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Hi. I’m Mundo.
Did you know that how we
“see” the world depends on how we project the
world?
Sometimes our point of view creates some interesting distortions….
South America
Africa
The Earth is a sphere. Therefore, it cannot be projected on a flat map
without distortion. The question is, which kind of distortion?
Map Projections
--Distortions inevitable: have to decide what aspects are most important to preserve: distance, shape, direction, area, and proximity--Match the projection with task at hand
General classes of map projections
Planar, cylindrical, and conical transfers or projections
Conical, oval, and cylindrical
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594)Frontispiece to Mercator's Atlas sive Cosmographicae, 1585-1595. Courtesy of the Library of
Congress, Rare Book Division, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection.
Mercator
On a Mercator projection, invented by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, any straight line is a line of constant compass bearing.
This enables a navigator to plot a straight-line course.
Interrupted Goode’s Homolosine
Robinson Projection
Sinusoidal interrupted mapThree “lobes” per hemisphere
Three-lobe sinusoidal map
Nine lobe sinusoidal map
Star-shaped projection by German Hermann Berghaus, 1879.
Peters Projection (1970’s)
Three World Map ProjectionsMercator, Peters, and Robinson
Despite the values of theMercator Projection, itdistorts the size and shapeof land areas.
Fact: South America is 8 times as large as Greenland.
Fact: Africa is 14 times as large as Greenland.
The Peters Projection is an“equal area” map. It represents areas accurately,but it seriously distorts shapes.
Compare the size of Europe to Africa on the two maps.
Compare the size of the former USSR to China on the two maps.
http://youtu.be/n8zBC2dvERM
What is culture?
(a partial list)Religion | Language | Architecture | Cuisine |
Technology | Music Dance | Sports | Medicine | Dress | Gender roles
| Law Education | Government | Agriculture | Economy
| Sport | GroomingValues | Work ethic | Etiquette | Courtship |
Recreation | Gestures
What elements of culture do you see in these photos?
“Culture is what people care about enough to take care of and preserve.”
What else would you include in your definition of culture?
Cultural Ecology
• The geographic study of human-environment relationships
• Environmental determinism vs. “possibilism” • What elements of Colorado or US or your
home country appear to be environmentally determined?
Climate Regions
• Tropical • Dry• Warm mid-latitude• Cold mid-latitude• Polar
Biomes
• Forest• Savannah• Grassland• Desert (not to be confused with dessert!)
What is Globalization?
Some images to consider…http://www.globalization101.org/index.html
What is being globalized? • Economy?• Trade?• Fashion? • Language? • Values? • Food?• Music?
• Environmental degradation?
Whose….?
Distribution
• Density – How many _____s per square mile?
• Concentration– Are things distributed in a manner that is
dispersed, or clustered? • Pattern– What is the geometric arrangement of objects in
space? Regular (like a grid)?– Irregular (random, lack or regular pattern)?
US Population Density 2006
Legend: US Population Density• Legend, light to dark (white to dark blue):• 0-1 (white)• 1-4 (yellow)• 5-9 (yellow-green)• 10-24 (green)• 25-49 (teal)• 50-99 (dark teal)• 100-249 (blue)• 250-66,995 (dark blue)• Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA-2000-population-
density.gif
Distribution of Hybrid Cars
Connections
• Space-time compression: the decrease in time it takes for something to get from Point A to Point B (consider the mail via Pony Express vs. the mail by airplane; travel to Europe by ship vs. travel by jet)
• How does space time compression relate to globalization?
Connections (cont’d)
– Distance decay: the decrease in contact (and eventual cessation) between two locales as distance between them increases.
– How much contact do residents in the following cities have? What is the nature of that contact, and how do you explain it using the idea of distance decay?• Colorado Springs/Denver• Denver/Boulder• Colorado Springs/Boulder
Diffusion
•Relocation vs. Expansion• hearth=point of origin from which things
(people, ideas, material objects, trends) spread
• Can you identify the hearth of the following diffusions?