What’s distinctive about the study of human geography?

1. What’s distinctive about the study of human geography? • More about the perspective used to study phenomena on Earth than about discrete facts and figures. • The goal of APHG is to understand how and why interconnections are maintained on Earth. • Not simply interested in where things are located and why they’re there…but also interested in the causes, effects, and relationships of patterns and processes.

2. A projection is a method for representing the three-dimensional surface of the earth on a two-dimensional map is known as projection. There are many different methods of map projection, including cylindrical, conical, and azimuthal. No single method of projection perfectly represents the three-dimensional surface of the earth

3. Geography as a field of inquiry Key geographic concepts and models Notable geographers The geographical perspective Space, place, scale Key geographical skills Sources of geographical data and information: census data, field observation, archival information, APHG Unit I - Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives A mental map is a subjective image of an area informed by individual perceptions and experiences in that area. Unlike other kinds of maps, which are typically material representations shared by multiple users, mental maps are highly personal images about a place composed of subjective perceptions, memories, biases, and feelings

4. Possibilism is the notion that the physical environment offers certain constraints and opportunities that influence cultural practices without entirely determining them. Possibilism stands contrary to the antiquated theory of environmental determinism, which posited that the physical environment offers certain possibilities that influence how a culture develops without absolutely determining this course of development

5. Four good reasons to be geographically informed… • The Existential Reason: We humans intrinsically want to understand the nature of our home on planet earth. How did the cultures, peoples, and built environment on Earth come to look the way they do?

6. Why be geographically informed? 2) The Ethical Reason: Earth will no doubt continue to whirl through space for many more millennia. But can it remain in a condition where humans can thrive or even live? Geography provides knowledge about the critical interdependency of all living things.

7. Four reasons to be geographically informed… • The Intellectual Reason: Geography captures our imagination! It stimulates curiosity about people and places in the world. Geography focuses attention on critically important topics and thus contributes to creating wiser decision-makers…

8. Another pragmatic reason to be geographically informed… 4) The Practical Reason: Geography has ultimate value in the ‘real world.’ Imagine a doctor who treats diseases who doesn’t understand the environment where it first began and how it spread? Or marketers who don’t know where rice will sell better than french fries - or Portuguese sausages will sell better than bacon?

9. Culture is an abstract concept in human geography that broadly refers to human practices, beliefs, and behaviors that are specific to a place or region and that are created, shared, and altered over time. Cultures vary from place to place, converge and diverge over time, diffuse across space, and express human adaptations and innovations.

10. Spatial Perspective Environmental Perspective Cultural Perspective Synthesizing these three ways of thinking into a holistic approach And integrating some exciting case studies along the way… What is the ‘Geographic Perspective’

11. The White Mountains (Nevada-California border) Location? Early settlers’ mental maps of California? Human impacts? Economic/cultural relevance?

12. Spatial analysis is key… A few key concepts: • Location (absolute, relative) • Distance and direction • Accessibility (utility of location, relationships) • Spatial interaction (time-space convergence, interconnections, relationships) • Scale

13. The concept of scale Definition: Scale is the ratio of distance on map to distance on the ground. Types of map scales: 1) verbal scale (e.g. “one inch on the map = one mile on Earth”) 2) graphic or bar scale 3) representative fraction scale (1:63,360 – numerous advantages!)

14. Student challenges? Are you comfortable with this? Map scale has a significant impact on how much detail can be shown on a map. - So the smaller the scale, the larger the area shown on the map. - Large scale maps can show rivers, houses, and all kinds of other details

16. The regional approach… • Defining regions: The meta-geography of space and place (at local to global scales) • Core concepts: Formal region - political identity Functional region - connected by common themes or activities Vernacular region - defined by local identities

17. Political regions (states, counties, metropolitan areas) Environmental or physical regions (landforms, climate zones, eco-regions) Economic regions (Silicon Valley, Silicon Hills, Silicon Forest) Cultural regions (based on religions, dialects, ethnicity or race of residents) Regionalizing places close to home

22. Emerging metro regions?

23. More on spatial thinking(or ‘we all see the world differently’) • Mental maps • Perception • Sense of place Examples of mental maps? Measuring your mental maps of the U.S.?

24. What is the spatial perspective and how is it used by human geographers? • Why and how do geographers use regions to teach and learn about places on Earth? • List, define, and give an example of three types of map scale.