1. Spatial Analysis Density Concentration Pattern
Geography by its nature is a spatial science. Geographers therefore study space in order to locate the distribution of people and objects.
Spatial analysis is concerned with analyzing regularities achieved through interaction.
Regularities result in a distinctive distribution of a feature. Distribution has three properties:
Density
Concentration
Pattern

2. Spatial Association at Various Scales
Fig. 1-13: Death rates from cancer in the U.S., Maryland, and Baltimore show different patterns that can identify associations with different factors.

3. World Political Boundaries (2004)
Fig. 1-1: National political boundaries are among the most significant elements of the cultural landscape

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

5. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Cartography: the art and science of making maps
Reference maps: show locations of places and geographic features
Thematic maps: tell stories, typically showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

6. Ptolemy’s view of the world c150AD

7. Maps of the Marshall Islands
Fig. 1-2: 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.

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

9. Township and Range System in the U.S.
Fig. 1-4: Principal meridians and east-west baselines of the township system. Townships in northwest Mississippi and topographic map of the area.

10. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Reference maps focus on accuracy in showing the absolute locations of places, using a coordinate system that allows for the precise plotting of where on Earth something is.
Satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) allows us to locate things on the surface of Earth with extraordinary accuracy.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Thematic maps: tell stories showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon.
Relative location: describes the location of a place in relation to other human and physical features
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Absolute locations do not change.
Relative locations are constantly modified and change over time.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

13. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Mental Maps
Mental maps are maps in our minds of places we have been and places we have merely heard of.
Activity spaces are those places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity.
Mental maps include terra incognita, unknown lands that are off limits.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. Contemporary Tools Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Remote sensing
Geographic information systems (GIS)

15. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Remote Sensing and GIS
GIS (geographic information systems) compare spatial data by creating digitized representations of the environment, combining layers of spatial data and creating maps in which patterns and processes are superimposed.
Figure 1.14
Two Representations of St. Francis, South Dakota. (left) panchromatic raster satellite
image collected in 2002 at 10 m resolution during a grassland wildfi re; (right) vector data—
rivers, roads, cities, and land use/land cover digitalized from the image. Courtesy of: Joseph J.
Kerski using ArcGIS software from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

16. Layers of a GIS
A geographic information system (GIS) stores information about a location in several layers. Each layer represents a different category of information.

17. GPS
Global Positioning Systems

18. Uniqueness of Places and Regions
Place: Unique location of a feature
Place names
Site
Situation
Mathematical location
Regions: Areas of unique characteristics
Cultural landscape
Types of regions
Regional integration of culture
Cultural ecology

19. Why Are Geographers Concerned with Scale and Connectedness?
The scale at which we study a geographic phenomenon tells us what level of detail we can expect to see.
Geographers’ concern with scale goes beyond an interest in the scale of individual phenomena to how processes operating at different scales influence one another.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

20. Election 2000: Regional Differences
Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county and state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.