1. Thinking Geographically
Chapter One
Thinking Geographically

2. Issue 1 Why do Geographers Address Where things Are?
--ADDRESS the logical arrangement of human activities in space

3. Most important tool for a geographer is the map
Cartography—Science of map making
Two decisions are made when making a map
Scale
Projection

4. Maps serve two purposes
--A tool for storing reference materials
--Helps with the location of place
--Communicating geographic information
Maps move over time… How?

5. growth or decrease of a town
movement of a river
Change of political boundaries

6. New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Fig. 1.1: Most of the area of New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina was majority African American. Physical and political geography intersect in analyzing the impacts of the natural disaster

7. How Geographers Address Location
Maps
Early mapmaking
Map scale
Projection
U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
Contemporary Tools
GIS
Remote sensing
GPS

8. Early map making --Babylonians use the first maps 2300BC
--Polynesians used 3 dimension stick charts to show islands and currents
--Aristotle was the first to say the Earth was spherical
--Eratosthenes was the first person to use the word geography and he tried to calculate the Earth’s circumference.

9. Polynesian Stick Chart

10. Maps of the Marshall Islands
A Polynesian “stick chart” depicts patterns of waves on the sea route between two South Pacific islands. Modern maps show the locations of these Marshall Islands.

11. Marshall Islands depicted in stick chart

12. Marshall Islands in the South Pacific

13. Map Scale—How much of the Earth’s surface is depicted on the map
Map Scale—How much of the Earth’s surface is depicted on the map? Scale refers to the relationship of a feature’s size on a map to it’s actual size on Earth.

14. Scale Differences Maps of Washington State
Fig. 1-3: The effects of scale in maps of Washington State. (Scales from 1:10 million to 1:10,000)

15. Washington State (1:10 million scale)

16. Western Washington (1:1 million scale)

17. Downtown Seattle, Washington (1:10,000 scale)

18. Seattle Region (1:100,000 scale)

19. Projection—The scientific method of transferring locations on the Earth’s surface to a flat map

20. Projection group work activity
Get into groups of groups of 3. You will need a piece of paper and paper

21. You can have distortion—4 types
1. Shape
2. Distance
3. Relative Size
4. Direction

22. US Land Ordinance 1875
Divided the country into a system of townships and ranges to facilitate the sale of land to settlers in the west.

23. A township was 6 square miles
North and South lines were principal meridians, while the east and west lines were called baselines
A township was divided into 36 sections—1 by 1 miles
All this explains location in the western United States

24. Township & Range System in the US
Fig. 1-4: Principal meridians & east-west baselines of the township system. Townships in northwest Mississippi & topographic map of the area.

25. How has this affected Mesa?

26. Principal Meridians & Baselines U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785

27. World Political Boundaries (2007)
Fig. 1-2: National political boundaries are among the most significant elements of the cultural landscape

28. Tallahatchie River, Mississippi
The topographic map of the U.S. Geological Survey has a scale of 1:24,000

29. Contemporary Tools
GIS: Store info and produce maps using various bit of info.
GPS: Can show the exact location on the world
Remote Sensing: ie mapping vegetation, ice cap, urban sprawl

30. Layers of a GIS
Fig. 1-5: A geographic information system (GIS) stores information about a location in several layers. Each layer represents a different category of information.

31. Google Map Chicago pizza restaurants