5 Themes of Geography

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5 Themes of Geography
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• Location

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• Where are we?

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• Absolute location
• Global (23 deg. N, 135 deg. W)
• Local (302 15th Street North)
• Relative location
• Landmarks (Pepsi water tower)
• Time (15 minutes to Willmar)
• Distance (3 blocks to the café)

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• Place

Physical or human characteristics of a location
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• What is it like to live there?

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• Physical
• Mountains, rivers, beaches, wildlife
• Human
• Ideas, actions, cultures, governments

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• Human/Environment Interaction

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• How do people relate to the land?

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• Humans
• Adapt
• Modify
• and
• Depend
• on their environment

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• Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav
• Levees
• Living below sea level
• 2005 Tsunamis
• Earthquakes, volcanoes, mudslides
• Sometimes earth will revert back to nature

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• Movement

How people/things change location
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• How are people, goods, and ideas moved into and
  out of this place?

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• People (planes, trains, and automobiles)
• Goods (ships, trucks, etc.)
• Ideas (internet, books, tv)

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• What if movement options changed?
• No planes, ships, internet?
• How would we get our info?

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• Region

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• Geographers invent regions
• Can be any size
• One place could be in many different regions

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• Formal
• Defined by govt or group
• Political or physical (Brazil, Alabama, Lake
  Superior, Big 10, etc)
• Functional
• Defined by function
• TV News viewing area, Radio listening area, sales
  team area, etc.
• Vernacular/Perceptive
• Loosely defined by perception
• Middle East, Midwest, Bible Belt, South

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• Why?
• Easier to study
• - 7 cultural regions than 50 states
• - 7 continents than 200 countries