Human Geography

What is Human Geography? Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask: Where are things located? Why things are located where they are? How places differ from one another? How people interact with the environment?

Example of Differences: Hurricane Katrina Physical geographers - focus on how hurricanes form, storm surges, etc. Human Geographers - focus on the levees that failed, effects on the population, and the economic implications.

Human Geography The study of where humans — their activities and institutions such as ethnic groups, cities, and industries — are located and why they are there. It also examines interactions of humans with their environments.

Human Geography It is also concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence How people and their activity are distributed in space How they use and perceive space How they create and sustain the places that make up the earth's surface. Human geographers work in the fields of urban and regional planning, transportation, marketing, real estate, tourism, and international business.

The Five Themes of the Spatial Perspective Human-Environment Interaction Location Place Region Movement

Human-Environment Interaction How human activities affect their environment and how environmental changes impact human life. Positive and negative effects of interaction

Location Where something is on the earth and the effects that position has on human life. Absolute and Relative Location

Place Combination of physical and cultural attributes that give each location on the earth its individual identity Components: Religion Language Politics Artwork

Sense of Place Feelings evoked by people as a result of certain experiences and memories associated with a particular place. Questions to ask: Do all places have a sense of place? Are some better than others? Do some places have a stronger sense of place than others? What makes places more memorable than others? What environments do you remember best? Examples? Physical factors versus experiential factors.

Region Spatial units that share some similar characteristics Understanding a region allows us to make sense of information about places

Types of Regions Formal Region Functional Region Perceptual Region A type of region marked by a certain degree of similarity. Examples: a country linked by government, a climate region, a religious region. Functional Region Defined by the places affected by the movement of something from its source to other places. Examples: airline routes, area affected by a disease. Perceptual Region A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity, e.g. in the US, “the South” and “ the Mid- Atlantic region”

Movement Analysis of the movement occurring in space Information People Goods Other phenomena

Evolution of Human Geography Technology has evolved the study of humanity The internet allows for instant access to data, information, and processes from anywhere Globalization Allows specific aspects of culture to easily travel across the globe Becoming increasingly important to human geography as it is

GPS and GIS Global Positioning Systems (GPS) allows geographers to monitor all of Earth from a distance and gather data Provides location and time information anywhere on Earth Remotely sensed images can be incorporated into a map Geographic Information Systems (GIS) compares spatial data by creating digitized representations of the environment, combining layers of spatial data and creating maps in which patterns and processes are superimposed. Used to analyze data Example: Google Earth/Google Maps

Areas of Study in Human Geography Population/Migration Cultural Political Urban Economic (Industrial) Development Agriculture and Rural Land Use