Why are different places
similar?
• Distribution—three features
•Density (frequency)
•Concentration (dispersion)
•Pattern (arrangement)
• Spatial arrangement of a feature over space
• Clustered
• Dispersed
Did density or
concentration of
baseball teams
change?
• How objects are geometrically arranged in
space
• Emphasizes design rather than spacing
• linear – road, river, rail line
• centralized – city & suburbs
• random
• Rectangular system of land survey - U.S.
• rural: checkerboard, 1 mile squares
• cities: grid system
Fig. 1-25: Shows
examples of
distribution (density,
concentration and
pattern) on a local
scale. How are these
neighborhood plans
similar and/or
different in terms of
distribution?
24 Houses
32 Houses
32 Houses
• Humans often arrange their activities in
space along ethnic or gender divisions
• Before/after women in the workforce
•Gender- ball fields or dance studios?
• Blacks living in mostly all-black neighborhoods
(why?)
• Homosexuals living in an openly homosexual
city/neighborhood (San Francisco)
• Space-time compression: places becoming more
connected
• Better communication and transportation methods
• Spatial interaction- the level of how well
people can interact over space
• Distance decay and the “death” of geography?
• To show connectedness between places,
geographers use the term diffusion
• Whether a trait diffuses depends, in part, on
time and distance from the hearth.
• Distance decay and the “death” of geography?
• Cultural barriers to diffusion (taboos)
• The process by which a characteristic
spreads across space and over time from a
hearth
• Hearth = source area for innovations
• Two main types of diffusion
• Relocation
• Expansion
• Three sub-types: hierarchical, contagious,
stimulus
• Movement of individuals who carry an idea or
innovation with them to a new, perhaps distant
locale.
• Ex. Migration to a new country
What types of
innovations could
be diffused by
relocation?
• Idea or innovation spreads outward from
the hearth
• Hierarchical- refers to the growth of an idea
to new areas through a hierarchy (laws, hip
hop music)
• Contagious- rapid spread through popular
notions or even contact-everyone around is
affected
• Stimulus- Ideas that cannot take hold in their
original context, but develop into a new,
similar idea
Stimulus
Diffusionhow
example?
Because Hindus believe
cows are holy, cows often
roam the streets in villages
and towns. The McDonalds
restaurants in India
feature veggie and lamb
burgers.
• distance decay?- depends on your place!
• cultural barriers
• Taboos
• Language