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Geography

Discover spatial analysis techniques in geography, from distribution to topography. Learn how geographers utilize maps, GIS, and more to analyze spatial information on Earth's surface.

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Geography

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  1. Geography The Science of Spatial and Descriptive Analysis

  2. Spatial Analysis • Space • Different than raw numbers, statistics • Distribution, distance, density, area, autocorrelation, topography, topology, and more. • Theories and techniques for Spatial Analysis have been present for centuries, but only lately have they been available (computers, GIS, remote sensing). • Output/Results: MAPS

  3. Spatial Analysis Geographers use specialized tools including maps, geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing, mathematical modeling and statistics to allow them to portray information that varies spatially on the Earth’s surface

  4. Spatial Analysis

  5. Spatial Analysis • The Visual Nature of Spatial Analysis • Viewing maps is a integrative action • Compare to reading (linear) • Information is absorbed as a whole • Spatial information shown differently • Spatial information is processed differently by your brain

  6. Graphic vs. Visual/Map Display

  7. Text/Graphic vs. Visual/Map Display

  8. Place • Not well defined

  9. Scale • Not well defined

  10. Geography Geography looks at the world from the viewpoint of geographic space by synthesizing ideas from different disciplines and developing special techniques to represent and manipulate spatial information

  11. Introducing Geography Geography can be subdivided into human geography and physical geography human geography examines economic, social and behavioral processes physical geography examines natural processes, and is generally composed of biogeography, climatology and geomorphology.

  12. Introducing Geography

  13. Introducing Physical Geography • Introducing Geography • Spheres, Systems and Cycles • Physical Geography, Environment, and Global Change

  14. Introducing Physical Geography • Introducing Geography • Spheres, Systems and Cycles • Physical Geography, Environment, and Global Change

  15. Physical Geography • Spheres, Systems and Cycles • Physical Geography, Environment, and Global Change

  16. Introducing Physical Geography • Introducing Geography • Spheres, Systems and Cycles • Physical Geography, Environment, and Global Change

  17. Spheres, Systems and Cycles The natural systems and processes involved in physical geography are considered to operate within four great spheres (or realms): the atmosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere

  18. Spheres, Systems and Cycles The life layer is the shallow Earth surface layer where the four realms (or spheres) interact and where most life forms are found

  19. Spheres, Systems and Cycles Scale, pattern and process are three interrelated geographic themes Scale: the level of structure or organization at which a phenomenon is studied Pattern: variation in phenomenon observed at a particular scale Process: how the factors that affect a phenomenon act to produce a pattern at a particular scale

  20. Spheres, Systems and Cycles processes operating in the four spheres are studied at different spatial scales or levels of detail (global, continental, regional, local, individual)

  21. Spheres, Systems and Cycles a system is a collection of physical processes that are linked and act together in an organized way a systems approach to physical geography looks for linkages and interactions between processes

  22. Spheres, Systems and Cycles Time cycles are periodic changes in system flow rates that occur over periods ranging from hours to millions of years

  23. Physical Geography, Environment, and Global Change Physical geography is also concerned with the relationships between humans and their environments Environmental change is caused by both natural processes and human interference Some important topics of global change that physical geographers are investigating are global climate change, the carbon cycle, biodiversity, pollution, and extreme events

  24. Why Physical Geography? • Non-human processes that formed landscape fall into this realm • Understanding of how life forms developed and arrived in our landscape

  25. Three areas of Physical Geography • Geomorphology • Climatology • Biogeography

  26. Spheres of Interest: Pedosphere Atmosphere Hydrosphere Biosphere Lithosphere global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance

  27. Geomorphology • Study of the structure and formation of landforms (think patterns and processes) • Important in understanding internal earth processes and structures, how the surface arrived at present and former states • Sub areas of interest to us: • Plate Tectonics • Orogeny • Volcanism • Erosion and Mass Wasting • Glacial landforms • Deposition

  28. Coastal and Oceanic Landforms

  29. Why do we have barrier islands on the Atlantic but not he Pacific Coast of N. America? Pattern Process Landforms

  30. Climatology • The Study of the Earth’s Weather Systems and the Weather Patterns they create • “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get” • Regional Climates (deserts, polar, alpine) • Swing Climates (Hot dry then cold dry then cold wet…) • Glaciation • Erosion events/floods • Storms

  31. Climatology and Scale • Climatology was one of the first sciences to struggle with scale • Weather is affected by many variables at multiple spatial scales • E.g. Lifting by Pressure systems, Frontal, Convective, Orographic

  32. Where does the weather come from?

  33. Which way is the Wind blowing?

  34. Climatic variables • Some climatic variables affecting climate and weather operating at multiple spatio-temporal scales • Continental Arrangement • Air Currents/Jet Stream • Ocean Currents • Landforms • Water bodies

  35. Continental Arrangement

  36. Air Currents/Jet Stream

  37. Ocean Currents

  38. Biogeography • Biogeography is the science which deals with patterns of species distribution and the processes that result in such patterns • Speciation • Extinction • Continental Drift • Glaciation

  39. Biogeography and Continents Permian 225mya Triassic 200mya Jurassic 135mya Cretaceous 65mya Present

  40. Extra Questions for All Geographers • How do things work (differently) at different scales? • What are the important patterns? • What are the important processes? • What patterns will I see at different scales? • How do living things respond to these patterns? • How do people respond to these patterns?

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