Introduction to AP Human

Geography

Introductory Questions

1) Why do students study geography? (3

examples)

2) How does geography affect your life? (3

examples)

3) How would your life be different if you

lived in Japan? (3 examples)

Intro. Cont..

I. In this course, we will examine why different areas have developed differently in terms of culture, economics, politics, and urban development.

II. Geography is a means to understand why certain areas are similar to and different from each other. Human geography in particular, helps us to focus on “how the world is and how it might be.”

III. Geography is a means to understand why certain areas are similar to and different from each other. Human geography in particular, helps us to focus on “how the world is and how it might be.”

Intro. Cont… I. Human geography is different from other branches of geography because its

primary focus is people. It studies human groups and their activities, such as language, industry, and the building of cities; it is a social science. (It looks at how people modify their environment, how they interact over space, as opposed to with space).

II. Other Fields of Geography i. Population geography – The study of the distribution of humankind across the earth

ii. Cultural geography – The study of the geography of human cultures

iii. Political geography – The study of the interaction between political processes and the distribution of all other activities

iv. Economic geography – The study of how various people make their living and what they trade

v. Urban geography – The geographic study of cities

vi. Physical Geography – The study of the characteristics of the physical environment

vii. Historical Geography – The study of the geography of the past and how geographic distributions have changed.

Are You a Geo-Genius

1) Which state is bordered on the southwest by the

Savannah River- South Carolina or Indiana?

2) Which state produces more gold than any other state-

Nevada or Nebraska?

3) Which state is located closer to the Tropic of Cancer –

Louisiana or Wyoming?

4) Which state has a longer border with Canada – Alaska

or Idaho?

5) Which state does not have a coastline New Mexico or

New Hampshire?

Chapter 1

Introduction to Geography

History of Geography

Classical Western World (1) Erastosthones (275-195 B.C.) Director of library in Alexandria, calculated circumference of the Earth

Hipparchus (180-127 B.C.) – Alexandria library director, first two place a grid on the earth

(2) Ptolemy ( 127 A.D. – 150) – Wrote Guide to Geography

Non-European World Muslim Scholars - Al-Edrisi (1099-1154), Ibn-Battuta (1304-1378), and Ibn-Khaldun (1332-1406) produced texts

The Tribute of Yu 5th Century B.C. describes geogrpahy of Chinese Empire

Phei Hsiu – father of Chinese cartography

(3) Kangido – Korea 1402, included East Asia, India, Islamic World, Africa, and Europe, far more extensive than knowledge of the Roman World

Since the 1400’s…

General geography (1650) Bernhard Varen – German professor

• (4) Special geography = regional geography, begins with explanation of local physical env. and then analyzes places in terms of categories, such as local population, customs, and politics.

• (5) General geography = topical/systematic geography, examines topics of universal application, basic approach for the outline of your textbook

Human-environment tradition (6) Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)

• Cosmos – enormous intellectual impact in the United States, statue central park

(7) George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) • Man and Nature (1864) – U.S. ambassador to several Mediterranean

countries, precursor of today’s env. movement

“The information that any citizen

needs in order to make an

informed decision on an

important question of the day is

largely geographic.”

Geography Today

Association of American Geographers

(8) 55 topical specialties

www.aag.org

Where?, What?, When?, Why?, and Why there?

Four approaches

Area analysis – examines site, situation, and region.

Spatial analysis – examines patterns in the distribution of human actions, movements and env. processes across Earth’s surface

(9) Physical System Analysis – use models to analyze physical env.

Geographic information systems analysis – use computer based GIS and GPS systems

Area Analysis

Site

(10) Exact location of a place

Situation or relative location

Location of a place relative to other places

Accessibility

(11) Constant change

Scale

Regions

Formal regions

Exhibit uniformity across a cultural or physical

characteristic

Functional regions

Defined by interactions among places

Vernacular regions

(12) Widespread popular perception of

existence

Spatial Analysis

Distribution – the distribution of a phenomenon

means its position, placement or arrangement

throughout space

Three properties of distribution

(13) Density – describes the frequency of occurrence of

a phenomenon in relation to a geographic area (fig. 1-

11)

Concentration – refers to the distribution of a

phenomenon within a given area

(14) Pattern – geometrical arrangement of objects in

an area

Movement

Distance – Interaction of people and places across distance

Measurements (several ways to measure)

• (15) Absolute – measured in terms of miles or kilometers

• Time – i.e. something is 20 minutes away

• Cost – monetary amount required to overcome a distance (explains importance of water to growth of cities)

(16) Friction of distance – effort to overcome distance when we transport items

Distance decay

As distance increases, importance of a particular phenomena decreases

• Ex. Newspaper circulation

Three Types of Diffusion

(17) Relocation diffusion – i.e. a nomadic tribe relocating

Contiguous diffusion – occurs from one place directly to another place

(18) Hierarchical diffusion – upward or downward in an organization (Roman Catholic Church)

Barriers to diffusion

Cultural barriers

• Oceans, deserts, distance, time

• Political boundaries, cultural differences

4 Physical Systems

Atmosphere (air) –surrounding Earth to an altitude of less than 300 miles (lower atm. pure air is 78% N and 21% O)

(19) Lithosphere (Earth’s solid rocks) – consists of Earth’s crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust, extending down 45 miles

Hydrosphere (water) – surface water, vapor in the atmosphere, ice in glaciers, and groundwater in soil and rock

(20) Biosphere - living organisms on Earth

Human-Environmental

Interaction

(21) Reciprocal interaction – env. affects human life and cultures and humans alter the env.

Culture

Everything about the way people live: language, food, religion, social ceremonies

(22) Natural landscapes

Without evidence of human activity

Cultural landscapes

Reveals how humans modify local environment

The Geographic Grid

Longitude

Measures distance east to west around the globe beginning at the Prime Meridian

Prime Meridian – 0 Degree

International Date Line – see figure 1-19

0-180 degrees East or West

(23) Greenwich Mean Time

Latitude

Location on the Earth’s surface between the equator and either the north or south pole

(24) Parallels – lines connecting all points at the same latitude

0-90 degrees North or South

Map Making

Cartography

Scale

Fraction 1/24,000

Ratio 1:24,000

Written statement “1 inch equals 1 mile”

Bar style

Detail and area

(25) Small scale map = less detail, large denominator (1:1,000,000)

(26) Large scale map = more detail, small denominator (1:100,000)

0 1 2 4 3

Projection

Scientific method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map

4 types of distortion – (see page 30)

(27) Shape – objects are stretched more in some parts so that their shape changes

Distance – latitude and longitude lines

(28) Relative size – items become larger or smaller

Direction – lat. & long. orientation changes

Geographic Information

Technology

Automated cartography

Manual techniques - expensive

(29) Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD)

• Sophisticated, specialized digital cartography

systems

• Easier, cheaper editing

• Also used for product design, i.e. Cannondale

Natural Landscape – w/o evidence of

human activity

Cultural Landscape - Reveals how humans

modify local environment

Questions:

1) When does an area become a cultural

landscape and stop becoming a natural

landscape?

2) Are all landscapes cultural landscapes?

3) How much of land in the U.S. should be

preserved?

Accessibility – can be as valuable as

mineral deposits or fertile soil

Accessibility Survey

1. How accessible is NYC? Philadelphia? Tanzania?

2. How accessible are your teachers?

3. How accessible are you, can your friends easily

contact you?

4. How might your answers have been different

50 years ago?

5. What are the positives and negatives of increased

accessibility?

Remote Sensing

Acquisition of data about Earth’s

surface from a satellite orbiting the

planet or from high-flying aircraft

Satellites

(30) Landsat – see page 35

First launch 1972; most recent launch 1999

Sensors measure radiation of colors of visible light

Pixel size at first (resolution): 59 x 59 meters

IKONOS resolution now: 1.5 x 1.5 meters

Weather satellites

Very large pixels – cover several kilometers on a side

Remotely Sensed Data

Human activities

Changes in plant growth

Drainage patterns

Erosion associated with agriculture

(31) Logging and forest management

Wetland monitoring

Wartime applications

GIS – (32) Geographic Information

Systems

Database software for digital information

Contains same information as regular database

PLUS

• Spatial characteristics such as boundary information or coordinates

• An identifying characteristic that locates the item in space (i.e., address)

Layers

Information with specific characteristics

• Soils, hydrology, land ownership

Can be combined for analysis

Digital Geographic Information

(33) Raster

Grid cells of data

• Remote sensing images

• Pixels

(34) Vector

Point, line, polygon data

X and Y coordinates

Different uses and spatial accuracies

Digital Data

Conversion of paper to digital formats

Digital database creation

Remote sensing images

Digitizing

• Tracing lines

Available types of data

(35) Topographic maps

• DRG and DLG

US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory

Census Bureau TIGER files

GIS Spatial Analysis

Calculating densities and distribution of

population

“Counting” lakes

Monitoring environmental changes with

satellite images

Analyzing changes in (36) food production

and land use

End of Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Vocab.

Space-time compression – the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place

Hearth – the place where an innovation originates

Expansion diffusion – spread of features from one place to another

Contagious diffusion – rapid widespread diffusion throughout a population, for example a disease

Stimulus diffusion – spread of an underlying principle, like the use of Windows

Uneven Development – Increasing economic gap between regions in the core and periphery as a result of globalization

Chapter 1 Vocab. Cont..

Transnational Corporation – multinational corp. operates factories and sells products in many factories

Polder – piece of land created from draining water

Cultural Ecology – geographic study of human-environment relationships

Environmental Determinism – Human environment causes social development

Possibilism – People have the ability to adjust to their environment

MDCS and LDCs

Culture – body of customary beliefs, material traits and social forms that constitute a distinct group

Chapter 1 Vocab. Cont..

Regions

Formal

Functional

Regional