The Five
Themes of
Geography
Chapter 1, Section 1
What is geography?
 Geography
is the study of the earth.
 Geographers
questions:


work to answer two specific
Where are things located?
Why are they there?
The Five Themes of Geography
 To
help answer those questions,
geographers look at the world from the
perspective of five different themes, or
ideas:





Location
Region
Place
Movement
Human-Environment Interaction
Location
 The
first theme geographers use to
understand the world is location.
Understanding where something is is a
major question for geographers.
 Geographers
location:


talk about two kinds of
Relative location – describing’s something
location in relation to something else
Exact location – describing something’s
location using a coordinate system
Location
•
One tool geographers
have for describing
location is the compass
rose.
•
The compass rose helps
geographers to identify
the cardinal directions –
north, south, east and
west – as well as the
intermediate directions –
northwest, northeast,
southeast and southwest.
Location: Latitude and Longitude


When geographers need to give an exact location,
they use latitude and longitude.
Latitude and longitude lines are measured in degrees.
These degrees divide the globe into a grid.
Location: Latitude
 Latitude
measures
the distance north or
south of the Equator,
or 0° latitude.
Location: Longitude
 Longitude
measures the
distance east or west of
the Prime Meridian, or 0°
longitude.
Location: Latitude and Longitude
 To
give an exact
location, geographers
can use a map to find a
location’s coordinates –
the latitude and
longitude degrees.
 For
example, Mount
Holly, NJ is located at 40
°N, 75 °W.
Location: The Hemispheres

Latitude and longitude lines
also allow geographers to
describe location with
hemispheres.

The Equator divides the
Earth into a Northern
Hemisphere and a Southern
Hemisphere.

The Prime Meridian divides
the Earth into a Western
Hemisphere and an Eastern
Hemisphere.
Place

The second theme geographers study is place.

Place looks at all of the physical and human
characteristics that exist within a location, such as
landmarks and landforms.

Places can often be locations themselves:

For example, New Jersey is a location, and Edison is
a place within that location. However, Edison can
also be a location, and Wardlaw-Hartridge is a
place within that location … and so on!
Region
 To
help compare and contrast different
locations, geographers use the theme region.
 Regions
are locations that are grouped together
because they have something in common.
 Regions
are often formed because of similarities
in their populations, history, climate, or physical
features.
Region
 What
features tie together the states in
the Southwest region?
Region
 What
features tie together the Catskills
region of New York?
Movement
 Geographers
use the theme
of movement to help
understand how people
move across locations and
regions.
 Movement
examines the ways that people, goods
and ideas travel around the world, influencing
culture, history and politics.
Human-Environment
Interaction
 The
final theme
geographers consider
when doing their work
is Human-Environment
Interaction.
 This
theme looks at
the ways people
depend on their
environment, adapt
to their environment,
and change their
environment.