1. Everything Happens in a Place: The Earth as Our “Stage” (Part 2)

2. PLACE How do we divide up the Earth? How do we organize it for study?  History of the Discipline; Early Thinkers  Mechanics  Latitude and Longitude  Scale  Projection  Orientation  GIS and Technology How do we THINK about the Earth and its events?  Region (2)  Scale  Location (1)  Place  Pattern  Globalizing Processes

3. Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? --Location--  A place is a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.  Describing the features of a place is an essential building block for geographers to explain similarities, differences, and changes across Earth.  Geographers describe a feature’s place on Earth by identifying its location, the position that something occupies on Earth’s surface.

4. Absolute location  Mathematical location  Latitude & Longitude  degrees, minutes, seconds  Township & Range (1785 Land Ordinance)  Subdivision: parallels & meridians  Topographic quadrangle, US Geological Survey  Metes & Bounds Relative location  “place” in relationship to surroundings

5. Location can be identified in three ways…

6. Toponym  Names derived from people of prominence, religious affiliation, physical features, or origins of its settlers  St. Louis  St. Paul  Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley)  Washington, D.C.  Athens  Rome  Charlotte

7. Site  Site is the physical character of a place.  Physical & cultural characteristics  Characteristics include climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation.  absolute location concept

8. Examples of Site

9. Harbor Sites  New York City  Alexandria, Egypt  Istanbul, Turkey

10. Island Sites  Hong Kong  Singapore

11. Fall Line Sites (where a river meets a waterfall)  Richmond, Virginia became a major city because it is located on the fall line of the James River

12. Confluence Sites (cities located where rivers meet)  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  Khartoum, Sudan

13. Situation  Situation is the location of a place relative to other places.  external relations of locale  relative location concept  dynamic

14. Examples of Situation

15. Command of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  Baghdad, Iraq

16. Focal point of religious pilgrimage  Mecca, Saudi Arabia  Varanasi (Benares), India

17. Cities that grew up along:  Trade Routes  Samarkand (Silk Road)  Timbuktu (Trans-Sahara trade);  Singapore (maritime trade)  Supply Station for Ships  Capetown, South Africa  U.S. Transcontinental Railroad  Omaha, Nebraska  Sacramento, California  Trans-Siberian Railroad  Novosibirsk, Russia  Vladivostok, Russia

18. Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? --Region--  An area on Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics is a region.  Most often applied at two scales 1. Spanning political states 2. Constrained within one political state.  A region derives its unified character through the cultural landscape ─ a combination of cultural, religious, and physical features.  “Culture is the agent, the natural area the medium, the cultural landscape is the result.” – Carl O. Sauer, American Geographer

19. Geographers identify three types of regions…

20. Formal Region  Aka Uniform Region or Homogeneous Region  Areas of essential uniformity  An area in which everyone shares in commone one or more distinctive characteristics  Physical or cultural  Common language, economic activity, or climate  Characteristic may be predominant rather than universal.  Sahara Desert, “Bible Belt”

21. Functional Region  Aka Nodal Region  An area organized around a node or focal point  Spatial system defined by interactions/ connections  The characteristic chosen to define a functional region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward.  Circulation of a newspaper, such as The New York Times Newspaper Route

22. Perceptual Region  Aka Vernacular Region  Less structured & more culturally based  An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.  The American South is a region individuals recognize as having distinct environmental, cultural, and economic preferences. The “Valley’ China Town

24. PLACE How do we divide up the Earth? How do we organize it for study?  History of the Discipline; Early Thinkers  Mechanics  Latitude and Longitude  Scale  Projection  Orientation  GIS and Technology How do we THINK about the Earth and its events?  Region (2)  Scale (3)  Location (1)  Place  Pattern (4)  Globalizing Processes (5)

25. Scale

26. spatial interaction  Accessibility  how easy/difficult to overcome time & space separation  Connectivity  how places are connected  Spatial diffusion  process of dispersion of ideas or items from a center of origin to more distant points  Globalization  Increasing interconnection of peoples and societies worldwide

27. Time-space compression  With globalization comes idea that the word is shrinking – ability of person, object or idea to interact with a person, object, or idea into another place is fast-paced –  Result is a world that is more uniform, integrated, interdependent

29. Pattern (Spatial Distribution)  Space refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects.  Geographers think about the arrangement of people and activities in an attempt to try to understand why they are in such a distribution = Arrangement of items on Earth’s surface  Density  Concentration  Pattern

30. 1. density  frequency with which something occurs in space  Measure of the number/quantity within a defined unit of areas

31. 2. concentration  Extent of a feature’s spread over space  clustered, agglomerated = closely spaced together  dispersed, scattered = relatively far apart

32. 3. pattern  Geometric arrangement of objects in space  Emphasizes design rather than spacing  linear (a) – road, river, rail line  centralized (b) – city & suburbs  random (c)

34. Globalizing Processes  People, ideas, and objects move via connections through one of three types of diffusion.  Relocation Diffusion  Expansion Diffusion  Hierarchical Diffusion  Contagious Diffusion  Stimulus Diffusion

35. Relocation Diffusion  Spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another  Ex. Language brought to a new locale by a migrant

36. Hierarchical Diffusion  spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places

37. Contagious Diffusion  rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population

38. Stimulus Diffusion  Spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.  Ex. Innovative features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad have been adopted by competitors.

40. PLACE How do we divide up the Earth? How do we organize it for study?  History of the Discipline; Early Thinkers  Mechanics  Latitude and Longitude  Scale  Projection  Orientation  GIS and Technology How do we THINK about the Earth and its events?  Region (2)  Scale (3)  Location (1)  Place (6)  Pattern (4)  Globalizing Processes (5)

41. Place  Associations among phenomena in an area  The uniqueness (or sameness) of an area “… the forms superimposed on the physical landscape by the activities of man.” – Carl O. Sauer, American Geographer

42. The cultural landscape has the ability to communicate to people what the accepted norm is within a place.

43.  Culture is the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.  Culture: What People Care About  Geographers study why the customary ideas, beliefs, and values of a people produce a distinctive culture in a particular place.  Especially important cultural values derive from a group’s language, religion, and ethnicity.  Culture: What People Take Care Of  The second element of culture of interest is production of material wealth, such as food, clothing, and shelter that humans need in order to survive and thrive.

44. Cultural Ecology  Concerned with culture as a system of adaptation to and alteration of the environment  Two theories:

45. Theories  Environmental Determinism – physical environment caused social development  Possibilism - physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have ability to adjust to their environment

46. Why Are Some Human Actions Not Sustainable?  Sustainability and Resources  Geographers observe two major misuses of resources:  Humans deplete nonrenewable resources.  Humans destroyed otherwise renewable resources through pollution of air, water, and soil.  Three Pillars of Sustainability 1. Environment Pillar  Sustainable development can only exist if conservation is embraced more fully than wasting resources or preservation of all resources. 2. Economy Pillar  Efforts to set prices of commodities and goods based not only on supply and demand but also on costs to the environment. 3. Society Pillar  Modifying the wants of cultures in regards to shelter, food, and clothing to objects that are sustainable

47. Why Are Some Human Actions Not Sustainable?  Interactions in the Biosphere  People are now the most important agents of change on Earth.  Human modification of the abiotic systems has ongoing ramifications.  Examples  Atmosphere contains pollutants, humans have trouble breathing.  Without water, humans waste away and die.  Excessive extraction of resources from lithosphere limits availability of materials for building and fuel for energy.  Excessive erosion or depletion of nutrients limits biosphere’s ability to provide food for humans.

48. Why Are Some Human Actions Not Sustainable?  Modifying the Environment  Few ecosystems have been as thoroughly modified as those of the Netherlands and Florida.  Netherlands  Much of the Netherlands would be underwater, if it weren’t for polders- a piece of land that is created by draining water from an area.  Dutch have become world leaders in reducing the causes of global warming and industrial pollution.  Florida  Unsustainable modifications made to ecosystem, as a result of draining portions of the Everglades and water pollution from cattle grazing

49. Environmental Modification in the Netherlands

50. Environmental Modification in Florida View of Miami Beach The barrier Island - Orchid Island