1. The Cultural Landscape
Chapter 1 -
Basic Concepts

2. Five Themes of Geography
Location- absolute and relative location.
Place- the distinctive physical and human characteristics of a place.
Human-Environmental Interaction- how people interact with their environment.
Movement-
the mobility of people, goods and ideas
the patterns and change in human spatial interactions
accessibility & connectivity of places.
Regions- an area that displays a selected criteria- one or more distinctive characteristics. (example- New England)

3. The Two Types of GEOGRAPHY•
Physical Geography –
Topography –
Climate –
Flora and Fauna –
soil •
Human Geography –
Culture –
Population –
Economics –
Political –
Urban –
Agriculture 2

4. Geography?
Geography is the study of where things are found on Earth’s surface and the reasons for their locations.
Human Geographers ask two simple questions…
Where are people and activities found on Earth?
Why are they found in these places?
The word, geography, was invented by ancient Greek scholar, Eratosthenes.
Geo means earth
Graphy means to write.
Therefore, Geography can be thought of the discipline charged with the task to write about and to describe the phenomena spatially distributed on Earth.

5. Geographers work with… MAPS!
A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of Earth’s surface, or a portion of it.
Cartography is the science and practice of mapmaking.
Maps serve two purposes…
As a reference tool to identify an object’s absolute and relative location.
As a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features.
A map is an abstract representation of the Earth’s surface set to a scale that is accommodating to the user.
Maps help one to understand the reasons for the spatial distributions by comparing maps showing various features or activities.

6. Early Mapmaking
Earliest maps were reference tools—simple navigation devices to show a traveler how to get from one point to another.
Early maps reflected the limits of knowledge and interaction in the era of their production

7. First ‘world map’ was prepared by ERATOSTHENES (276–194 B.C.)
He also coined the term GEOGRAPHY.

8. Eratosthenes’ map reflected the limits of the world known by Greeks
Lands beyond Greek experience are non-existent; the world is an island.

9. AL-IDRISI, 1154 ce
This Muslim cartographer’s map reflected an expansion of geographic knowledge- and the recognition that not all of the world was ’known’
FIGURE 1-5 WORLD MAP BY AL-IDRISI, 1154 Al-Idrisi built on Ptolemy’s map, which had been neglected for nearly a millennium.

10. ORTELIUS, 1521 ce
This Italian cartographer produced the first map depicting all of the world’s landmasses, influenced by reports from seagoing explorers.
FIGURE 1-6 WORLD MAP BY ORTELIUS, 1571 This map was one of the first to show the extent of the Western Hemisphere, as well as Antarctica.

11. Contemporary Mapping
Maps have shifted from being simply a tool that provides simple location reference to a tool used by geographers to communicate complex geographic phenomena.

13. PRINCIPLES OF MAPS AND MAPPING

14. Map Scale
The level of detail and the amount of area covered on the map depend on its map scale.
Scale is the relationship of a feature’s size on a map to its actual size on Earth
First decision a cartographer faces is how much of Earth’s surface to depict on the map.
Ratio or Fraction scale- If you measure the distance between Point A and Point B as 1 inch, then their distance apart on Earth’s surface is 24,000 inches.

15. Map scale is presented in three ways…
) Ratio or Fraction Scale
Ex. 1:24,000 or 1/24,000
Number on left is one unit of distance on the map, while number on right represents its equivalent on Earth’s surface.

16. How many feet would this be?
If a map has a scale of 1:6000 and you measure a distance between objects of 5 Inches, how many inches would this represent on the Earth’s surface?
How many feet would this be?

17. Map scale is presented in three ways…
2.) Written Scale
Ex. 1 inch equals 1 mile
Number on left is a unit of measurement on the map, while that on right represents its equivalent on the surface of the Earth.

18. Map scale is presented in three ways…
3.) Graphic Scale
Consists of a bar marked on the map to show equivalent distance on the Earth’s surface

19. LG v. SM Scale
Small scale (or small fraction) maps show a large area on the earth such as 1/1,000,000.
Less Detail
Large scale (or large fraction) maps show a small area on the Earth such as 1/25,000 or 1/1000.

20. Note the symbols used on the map-dots for cities-size of dot indicates the size of the city.
A star or dot with a circle=capital city
Red lines=roads
Double red line=4-lane highway
Black line=railroad
Patterns and appropriate color indicate water, forests, farmland, etc.
Lines used to represent political and administrative boundaries.

21. Projection
The scientific method of depicting Earth’s round surface to a flat map is called projection.
Earth’s spherical shape becomes distorted when rendering it on a flat piece of paper.
The shape, distance, relative size, and direction in maps can be impacted by distortion

22. ONLY a globe lacks distortion.
In order to counter the impact of distortion, cartographers have created several different MAP PROJECTIONS.
ONLY a globe lacks distortion.
ALL flat maps are distorted in one way or another.

23. How can a WORLD MAP convey the POWER or INFLUENCE of a particular country?
Where a country is depicted- and its relative size – is a controversial aspect of mapmaking. This Australian map is radically different from those we know.

24. Geographic Grid
Geographic grid is a system of imaginary arcs drawn in a grid pattern on Earth’s surface.
MERIDIANS (lines of LONGITUDE) Run North/South from pole to pole.
Values range from 0º (prime meridian) to 180º east or west longitude (Int’l Date Line)
PARALLELS (Lines of LATITUDE) run East/West parallel to the equator from 0º equator) to at north/south poles.
Longitude values are assigned east or west based on whether they are east or west of the prime meridian.
Latitude values are assigned north or south based on whether they are north or south of the equator.

25. FIGURE 1-10 GEOGRAPHIC GRID Meridians are arcs that connect the North and South poles. The meridian through Greenwich, England, is the prime meridian, or 0° longitude. Parallels are circles drawn around the globe parallel to the equator. The equator is 0° latitude, and the North Pole is 90° north latitude.

26. Geographic Grid, cont’d
Points on Earth’s surface can be communicated by referencing intersections of latitude and longitude.
Ex: Denver, Colorado’s location is 40º north latitude and 105º west longitude (40ºN/105ºW)

27. Telling Time Using the Globe
The Earth is divided into 24 ‘time zones,’ each 15º longitude wide
Location in a certain time zone determines what ‘time’ it is relative to other places on Earth.
The Prime Meridian, located at 0º Longitude, is the basis for the time system. Others are either ‘ahead’ or ‘behind’ this line.
Because this line runs through Greenwich, England, it is called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

28. We are in the EASTERN TIME ZONE, and are 5 HOURS BEHIND (GMT -5).
When it is 12:00pm here, it is 5:00pm in Greenwich, England

29. Thematic Maps – Not in Book
Isoline Maps- use lines of equal value to represent data like elevation, barometric pressure or temperature
Contour Maps are a good example of isoline maps-they use lines to represent elevation above sea level. Spaced at 100 feet apart-if the lines are close together-steep, if lines are far apart-flat or gently sloped land.

30. ISOLINE MAPS

31. ISOLINE MAPS
Topographic map of the H-F area is an isoline map. All of the brown lines connect places of equal elevation.

32. Choropleth Maps- maps in which a specific variable is depicted with shading, patterns, or colors.

33. Chloropleth maps
Left
Population density and map scale-truth depends on the scale
Map a reveals the max. pop. Density as no more than 123 but Map b reveals that pop. In 2 Illinois counties exceeds 494.
If we reduced the scale further we would find city blocks in Chicago with densities of 2000 per sq. Km
Right
4 types of Thematic maps

34. Chloropleth maps

35. Proportional Symbol- maps in which the size of the symbol varies in proportion to the intensity of the mapped variable.

36. Proportional Symbol Maps

37. Proportional Symbol Maps

38. Dot Map- a thematic map in which a dot represents some frequency/occurrence of the mapped variable.

39. Dot Map

40. Cartogram- maps using relative size of political units to convey a value.

41. Cartograms

43. Contemporary Mapping
Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is the collection/analysis of data acquired by satellites and other electronic technologies; this is called REMOTE SENSING

44. GPS is one of the most impressive aspects of modern mapping.
It uses a constellation of satellites to determine the ABSOLUTE (Lat./Long.) location of any object on Earth’s surface.

45. Contemporary Tools Layering Data: GIS
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system that captures, stores, queries, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
Data are stored in layers.
Layers can be compared to show relationships among different kinds of information.
Data can be overlaid in one GIS from a variety of different sources through a process known as a mashup.
Each layer is representative of one dataset, such as roads, rivers, school locations, and zones used by city planners.
The term mashup comes from the hip-hop practice of mixing two or more songs.
Applications include showing the locations of businesses and activities near particular street within a neighborhood or in a city.

46. GIS Geographic Information Systems
Layers of maps to describe many levels of information on a location.

47. FIGURE 1-13 GIS Geographic information systems store information about a location in layers. Each layer represents a different piece of human or environmental information. GIS involves two types of data: vector and raster. Vector data consists of points (such as forcities) and lines (such as for highways). Raster data consists of areas, such as particular landforms.