Geography: Key Concepts and Subfields

• Geography is the study of Earth's landscapes, peoples, places, and environments
• It bridges the social and natural sciences
• Modern geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks to understand the world and our place in it

Key Concepts in Geography

• Location: Absolute (coordinates) and relative (in relation to other places)
• Place: Physical and human characteristics of a location
• Human-Environment Interaction: How humans adapt to, modify, and depend on the environment
• Movement: The flow of people, goods, and ideas
• Region: An area with unifying characteristics (physical, human, or cultural)

Subfields of Geography

• Physical Geography: Studies natural processes and patterns of the Earth
  • Landforms, climate, vegetation, soils, and water
• Human Geography: Studies human activities and their relationship to the Earth
  • Population, culture, economics, politics, and urbanization
• Environmental Geography: Studies the interactions between humans and the natural environment
• Geoinformatics: Uses technology (GIS, remote sensing, GPS) to analyze spatial data
• Regional Geography: Studies the unique characteristics of specific regions

Maps and Cartography

• Maps are representations of the Earth's surface
• Cartography is the art and science of mapmaking
• Map Scale: Relationship between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground
  • Large scale maps show a smaller area with more detail
  • Small scale maps show a larger area with less detail
• Map Projections: Transforming the spherical Earth onto a flat surface, causing distortion
  • Common projections: Mercator, Robinson, Azimuthal

Geographic Coordinate System

• Latitude: Angular distance north or south of the Equator
  • Equator: 0 degrees latitude
  • North Pole: 90 degrees North latitude
  • South Pole: 90 degrees South latitude
• Longitude: Angular distance east or west of the Prime Meridian
  • Prime Meridian: 0 degrees longitude (Greenwich, England)
  • International Date Line: Roughly 180 degrees longitude

Population Geography

• Population Distribution: Pattern of how people are spread across the Earth
• Population Density: Number of people per unit area
• Birth Rate: Number of births per 1,000 people per year
• Death Rate: Number of deaths per 1,000 people per year
• Natural Increase Rate: Difference between birth rate and death rate
• Migration: Movement of people from one place to another
  • Immigration: Moving into a new country or region
  • Emigration: Moving out of a country or region

Cultural Geography

• Culture: Shared beliefs, values, practices, and material objects of a group of people
• Cultural Region: An area with a shared culture
• Language: A system of communication
• Religion: A system of beliefs and practices related to the sacred
• Ethnicity: A shared cultural heritage

Economic Geography

• Economic Systems: How societies organize the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
  • Capitalism, socialism, communism
• Primary Sector: Extraction of raw materials (agriculture, mining, forestry)
• Secondary Sector: Manufacturing and processing of raw materials
• Tertiary Sector: Services (retail, healthcare, education)
• Quaternary Sector: Information and research
• Globalization: Increasing interconnectedness of countries through trade, investment, and cultural exchange

Political Geography

• State: A political entity with a defined territory, a government, and a population
• Nation: A group of people with a shared culture and identity
• Nation-State: A state whose population shares a common identity
• Boundaries: Lines that define the limits of a state's territory
• Geopolitics: The study of the influence of geography on political power and international relations

Urban Geography

• Urbanization: The increasing concentration of population in urban areas
• Urban Morphology: The physical layout and structure of a city
• Urban Functions: The economic, social, and political roles of a city
• Urban Sprawl: The expansion of urban areas into surrounding rural areas

Climate and Weather

• Climate: Long-term average weather conditions in a region
• Weather: Short-term atmospheric conditions in a region
• Climate Zones: Areas with similar climate characteristics
  • Tropical, temperate, polar, arid

Tectonic Plates

• Earth's lithosphere is divided into tectonic plates
• Plate boundaries are where most geological activity occurs
• Divergent boundaries: Plates move apart
  • Mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys
• Convergent boundaries: Plates collide
  • Mountains, volcanoes, trenches
• Transform boundaries: Plates slide past each other
  • Earthquakes

Population pyramids

• They are graphical illustrations that show the distribution of various age groups in a population (typically that of a country or region of the world)
• Usually it consists of two bar graphs, with the population plotted on the X-axis and age on the Y-axis, one graph for each gender
• Populations can be youthful, stable, or aging based on the shape of the pyramid

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• GIS is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing, and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the Earth
• GIS is used in many fields, including urban planning, environmental management, and transportation

Remote Sensing

• Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object
• Remote sensing is used to monitor changes in land use, vegetation cover, and other environmental variables