Part 3: The Five Themes of Geography
Theme 2: Region
What is a region?
“A region is an area of Earth
defined by one or more
distinctive characteristics.”
“The physical features,
economic features, and
cultural features that make up
a region are called its cultural
landscape.”
What types of regions are there?
Formal Regions
Everyone shares in common one or
more distinctive characteristics.
Formal Regions
Borders are easy to track and slow to
change.
Formal Regions
Examples: Political regions and long
lasting economic regions.
Functional Regions
Organized around a central node.
Functional Regions
Tied to the point by transportation and communication
systems or by economic or functional associations.
Functional Regions
Examples: Subway Systems, Newspaper Distribution, Store
Distribution
Vernacular/Perceptual Regions
A place that people believe exists as part of their
cultural identity.
Vernacular/Perceptual
Regions
Informal and varies dependent on who is defining
them.
Vernacular/Perceptual Regions
Examples: “The South” “The Country”
What are time zones?
“A Time zone is a region on Earth that
has a uniform standard time for legal,
commercial, and social purposes.”
What is the international date line?
“The International Date Line is an
imaginary line on the surface of the
Earth, that runs from the north to
the south pole and demarcates one
calendar day from the next.”
A traveler crossing the
International Date Line
eastbound subtracts
one day, or 24 hours, so
that the calendar date
to the west of the line
is repeated. (vice versa
for those traveling west
(+1 day)
Imagine a flight from Chicago to
Sydney and back – How long, and what
happens?
If you take off at 10am on 12/1/14
from Chicago when do you arrive?
If you take off at 10am on 12/9/14
from Sydney when do you arrive?
The next 7 or so slides ask you to
identify if the region shown is
formal, functional, or vernacular.
The Corn Belt
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
The South
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
Kentucky
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
A county in Kentucky
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
Breckenridge
County
Eastern Kentucky
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
Chicagoland (Chicago and all the areas
served by the city)
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular
The Deep South
A. Formal
B. Functional
C. Vernacular