Chapter One
Thinking
Geographically
Issue 1 Why do Geographers
Address Where things Are?
• --ADDRESS the logical arrangement of
human activities in space
Most important tool for a
geographer is the map
• Cartography—
Science of map
making
• Two decisions are
made when making
a map
– Scale
– Projection
Maps serve two purposes
• --A tool for storing reference materials
• --Helps with the location of place
• --Communicating geographic
information
• Maps move over time… How?
•
• growth or decrease of a town
• movement of a river
• Change of political boundaries
New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Fig. 1.1: Most of the area of New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina was majority
African American. Physical and political geography intersect in analyzing the
impacts of the natural disaster
How Geographers Address
Location
• Maps
–
–
–
–
Early mapmaking
Map scale
Projection
U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
• Contemporary Tools
– GIS
– Remote sensing
– GPS
Early map making
• --Babylonians use the first maps
2300BC
• --Polynesians used 3 dimension stick
charts to show islands and currents
• --Aristotle was the first to say the Earth
was spherical
• --Eratosthenes was the first person to
use the word geography and he tried to
calculate the Earth’s circumference.
Polynesian
Stick Chart
Maps of the Marshall Islands
A Polynesian “stick chart” depicts patterns of waves on the sea route between two South
Pacific islands. Modern maps show the locations of these Marshall Islands.
Marshall Islands
depicted in stick chart
Marshall Islands in the South Pacific
• Map Scale—How
much of the Earth’s
surface is depicted
on the map? Scale
refers to the
relationship of a
feature’s size on a
map to it’s actual
size on Earth.
Scale
Differences
Maps of
Washington
State
Fig. 1-3: The effects of scale in maps of Washington State. (Scales from 1:10 million to
1:10,000)
Washington State
(1:10 million scale)
Western Washington
(1:1 million scale)
Downtown Seattle, Washington
(1:10,000 scale)
Seattle Region
(1:100,000 scale)
• Projection—The scientific method of
transferring locations on the Earth’s
surface to a flat map
Projection group work activity
• Get into groups of groups of 3. You will
need a piece of paper and paper
You can have distortion—4 types
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
Shape
Distance
Relative Size
Direction
US Land Ordinance 1875
• Divided the country
into a system of
townships and
ranges to facilitate
the sale of land to
settlers in the west.
• A township was 6 square miles
• North and South lines were principal
meridians, while the east and west lines
were called baselines
• A township was divided into 36
sections—1 by 1 miles
• All this explains location in the western
United States
Township &
Range
System in
the US
Fig. 1-4: Principal meridians & east-west baselines of the township system. Townships in
northwest Mississippi & topographic map of the area.
How has this affected Mesa?
Principal Meridians & Baselines
U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
World Political Boundaries (2007)
Fig. 1-2: National political boundaries are among the most significant elements of
the cultural landscape
Tallahatchie River,
Mississippi
The topographic map of the U.S. Geological
Survey has a scale of 1:24,000
Contemporary Tools
• GIS: Store info and produce maps using
various bit of info.
• GPS: Can show the exact location on
the world
• Remote Sensing: ie mapping
vegetation, ice cap, urban sprawl
Layers of
a GIS
Fig. 1-5: A geographic information system (GIS) stores information about a location in
several layers. Each layer represents a different category of information.
Google Map
Chicago pizza restaurants