Key Issue #1: How Do
Geographers Describe
Where Things Are?
• Word coined by Eratosthenes
• Geo = Earth
• Graphia = writing
• observable patterns that have evolved
through time
• Studying people and places and how they fit in
with the world
• Diffusion (spread) of popular culture (music,
architecture) are making more people and
place look alike
• No place on Earth is untouched by people
• Each place we see is affected by and created
by people, which represents their culture in that
place over time
• Contemporary geographers are concerned with
the tension between globalization and local
diversity
http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/article/crazymeals-mcdonalds-menus-around-world.html
• Place and Region
• Help explain why each point on Earth is
unique
•Places with shared characteristics can be
joined into a “region”
• Scale, Space and Connections
• Helps explain why different places on earth
have similar features
• Geographers ask themselves questions
about their surroundings
• Focuses on the spatial
•Arrangement of places and phenomena
• How are things organized on Earth?
• Human Geographers ask where and why
• Where are people and activities found on
Earth?
• Why are they found there?
The cultural landscape is a reflection of
the altered natural environment
• How have we altered the natural
landscape in Florida?
• Location- why are things where they are?
• Relative and absolute
• Human-environment interactions
• Humans adapting, modifying and depending on the
environment
• Region- concentrated areas of similar phenomena
• Formal, functional and vernacular
• Place- sense and perceptions of place
• Human made and naturally occurring
• Movement- mobility of people (immigration), goods
(imports/exports) and ideas (fashion, culture,
government); expresses the interconnected places
•
• TH
http://www.transpacificproject.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/06/SouthUpMapr.jpg
West wing clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVX-PrBRtTY
• Science of mapmaking
• Maps provide a visual tool
• Maps are subjective
• Map projections transfer locations on a
round surface to a flat surface
• some form of distortion always occurs
• greater distortion results from larger areas
depicted– Why?
• Aristotle (384-322 BC) was first to say world
was spherical
• Ptolemy in Europe (Greek)
• Chinese and Muslim cartographers as well
• Age of Exploration led to more accurate maps
Ptolemy (2nd century AD)
• How can maps solve realworld problems?
• Can they create problems?
• Globes are too bulky to carry around
• To represent a larger area than we can see
• To show a phenomenon or process we can’t
see with our eyes
• To present information concisely
• To show spatial relationships
• To wage war?
Represent a larger area
Show
what
we
can’t
see
Present info concisely; (where and why)?
Show spatial
relationships
Wage war?
During WWII,
Hitler claimed
the Sudetenland
for Germany.
• Serve two purposes
• As reference tools
• To find locations, to find one’s way
• As communications tools
• To show the distribution of human and physical
features
• Maps are generalizations of information:
larger scale = more accurate
• Precipitation averages of world, US, Florida,
counties, cities (small scale to large)
Reference Maps
- Show locations of places
and geographic features
- Absolute locations
Thematic Maps
- Tell a story about the
degree of an attribute,
the pattern of its
distribution, or its
movement.
- Relative locations
- Communication
Reference
Map
What is
useful
about this
reference
map?
Thematic
Map
What story
about median
income in the
Washington, DC
area is this map
telling?
Which is larger 1:500 or
1:5000 ? - Explain
• Specifically to maps, scale refers to the
relationship of a feature’s size on a map to its
actual size on Earth.
• Types of map scales:
• Ratio or fraction (1:100)
• Written (one inch = one mile)
• Graphic: bar scale
1:100
• Scale
•the larger the scale the
greater the detail
1:10
•for example one inch =
one mile (1:1) is more
detailed
than one inch = one
1:1
hundred miles (1:100)
• 1/1 = 1; 1/100 = .01
•So a large-scale map
1: .1
covers a small area
• The spatial extent of something.
• The local, regional, national, global levels
• More detail/more specific information as we
“zoom” in to a different scale ( going from
global to local)
• Rescale- to use scale politically; make a local
issue a national or global issue/raise awareness
• Projection= how cartographer chooses to
depict Earth’s surface
• Can cause distortions with:
• Shape
• Distance
•Relative size
• Direction
Mercator Projection
Robinson Projection
• Maps in our heads of places we have (or have
not) been to
• What is the Great Plains like? Southwest Asia
(Middle East)?
• Terra incognita- unknown lands that are off limits
• Activity spaces- places we travel to routinely in
our rounds of daily activity
• Detailed mental maps reflect activity spaces
Township and Range –
The cultural landscape of Garden City, Iowa reflects the
Township and Range system. Townships are 6x6 miles and
section lines are every 1 mile.
• Township and range system
•To facilitate sale of land
•Township = 6 sq. miles on each side
• North–south lines = principal meridians
• East–west lines = base lines
•Range- location east or west of a principle
meridian
•Divided into 36 sections
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opoWsz7Mbc8
• Geographic Information Science
(GIScience)
•Global Positioning Systems (GPS)- your
exact location on earth
•Remote sensing- scanning earth
•Geographic Information Systems (GIS)layering the different maps (Google
Earth)