Economic Activities
Bali, Indonesia
Oil Drilling in the Middle East
The mooring system consists of eight, 12-foot
diameter by 60-foot long suction anchors
embedded in the seafloor and attached to
10,000 feet of 3 ¾” wire rope
Economic Geography: the study of people’s livelihoods,
how livelihood systems vary, & how they are interrelated
to the environment & other people
TYPES OF ECONOMIC LIVELIHOOD
A. Categories of Economic Activity
4. “White-collar” information services
5. High-level decision making
3. “Service-sector” industries
2. “Value added” industries
1. Harvest or extraction
Human Economic Activities
Primary industry—those involved in extracting natural
resources from the Earth.
Secondary industry—processing stage, commonly
called manufacturing, processing, or construction.
Other three types all involve services of some sort, rather than the
extraction or production of commodities.
Tertiary: retail, wholesale, or personal/professional services
Quaternary: information, research, management
Quinary: executive decision makers
B. Locational Factors
for Economic Activities
1. Primary Economic Activities:
-- must be located close to the resource
Primary Economic Activity: Nga Trang, Vietnam
Fishing is an extractive activity: taking a natural
resource from the Earth.
Primary Activities:
I.
Subsistence Agriculture: for survival
II.
Commercial Agriculture: for profit
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Extensive Agriculture
Intensive Agriculture
The Green Revolution
Urban Subsistence Farming
III. Resource Exploitation: fishing, forestry, mining
2. Secondary Economic Activities
Needs to be accessible to:
- the resource
- an energy source
- a labor force
- a market
Why is Detroit located where it is?
3. Tertiary Economic Activities
-- proximity to the market the most important
locational factor for tertiary activities
4. Quaternary Economic Activities
-- access to telecommunications infrastructure &
highly-skilled work force most important
5. Quinary Economic Activities
-- locationally tend to cluster
Research Triangle Park, NC