Introduction%20to%20AP%20Human%20Geography

1
Introduction to AP Human Geography
2
Introductory Questions

1. Why do students study geography? (3 examples)
2. How does geography affect your life? (3 examples)
3. How would your life be different if you lived in
   Japan? (3 examples)

3
Intro. Cont..

1. In this course, we will examine why different
   areas have developed differently in terms of
   culture, economics, politics, and urban
   development.
2. Geography is a means to understand why certain
   areas are similar to and different from each
   other. Human geography in particular, helps us
   to focus on how the world is and how it might
   be.
3. Geography is a means to understand why certain
   areas are similar to and different from each
   other. Human geography in particular, helps us
   to focus on how the world is and how it might
   be.

4
Intro. Cont

• Human geography is different from other branches
  of geography because its primary focus is people.
  It studies human groups and their activities,
  such as language, industry, and the building of
  cities it is a social science. (It looks at how
  people modify their environment, how they
  interact over space, as opposed to with space).
• Other Fields of Geography
• Population geography The study of the
  distribution of humankind across the earth
• Cultural geography The study of the geography
  of human cultures
• Political geography The study of the
  interaction between political processes and the
  distribution of all other activities
• Economic geography The study of how various
  people make their living and what they trade
• Urban geography The geographic study of cities
• Physical Geography The study of the
  characteristics of the physical environment
• Historical Geography The study of the geography
  of the past and how geographic distributions have
  changed.

5
Are You a Geo-Genius

• 1) Which state is bordered on the southwest by
  the Savannah River- South Carolina or Indiana?
• 2) Which state produces more gold than any other
  state- Nevada or Nebraska?
• 3) Which state is located closer to the Tropic of
  Cancer Louisiana or Wyoming?
• 4) Which state has a longer border with Canada
  Alaska or Idaho?
• 5) Which state does not have a coastline New
  Mexico or New Hampshire?

6
Chapter 1

• Introduction to Geography

7
History of Geography

• Classical Western World
• (1) Erastosthones (275-195 B.C.) Director of
  library in Alexandria, calculated circumference
  of the Earth
• Hipparchus (180-127 B.C.) Alexandria library
  director, first two place a grid on the earth
• (2) Ptolemy ( 127 A.D. 150) Wrote Guide to
  Geography
• Non-European World
• Muslim Scholars - Al-Edrisi (1099-1154),
  Ibn-Battuta (1304-1378), and Ibn-Khaldun
  (1332-1406) produced texts
• The Tribute of Yu 5th Century B.C. describes
  geogrpahy of Chinese Empire
• Phei Hsiu father of Chinese cartography
• (3) Kangido Korea 1402, included East Asia,
  India, Islamic World, Africa, and Europe, far
  more extensive than knowledge of the Roman World

8
Since the 1400s

• General geography (1650)
• Bernhard Varen German professor
• (4) Special geography regional geography,
  begins with explanation of local physical env.
  and then analyzes places in terms of categories,
  such as local population, customs, and politics.
• (5) General geography topical/systematic
  geography, examines topics of universal
  application, basic approach for the outline of
  your textbook
• Human-environment tradition
• (6) Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
• Cosmos enormous intellectual impact in the
  United States, statue central park
• (7) George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882)
• Man and Nature (1864) U.S. ambassador to
  several Mediterranean countries, precursor of
  todays env. movement

9
The information that any citizen needs in order
to make an informed decision on an important
question of the day is largely geographic.
10
Geography Today

• Association of American Geographers
• (8) 55 topical specialties
• www.aag.org
• Where?, What?, When?, Why?, and Why there?
• Four approaches
• Area analysis examines site, situation, and
  region.
• Spatial analysis examines patterns in the
  distribution of human actions, movements and env.
  processes across Earths surface
• (9) Physical System Analysis use models to
  analyze physical env.
• Geographic information systems analysis use
  computer based GIS and GPS systems

11
Area Analysis

• Site
• (10) Exact location of a place
• Situation or relative location
• Location of a place relative to other places
• Accessibility
• (11) Constant change
• Scale

12
Regions

• Formal regions
• Exhibit uniformity across a cultural or physical
  characteristic
• Functional regions
• Defined by interactions among places
• Vernacular regions
• (12) Widespread popular perception of existence

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Spatial Analysis

• Distribution the distribution of a phenomenon
  means its position, placement or arrangement
  throughout space
• Three properties of distribution
• (13) Density describes the frequency of
  occurrence of a phenomenon in relation to a
  geographic area (fig. 1-11)
• Concentration refers to the distribution of a
  phenomenon within a given area
• (14) Pattern geometrical arrangement of objects
  in an area

17
(No Transcript)
18
Movement

• Distance Interaction of people and places
  across distance
• Measurements (several ways to measure)
• (15) Absolute measured in terms of miles or
  kilometers
• Time i.e. something is 20 minutes away
• Cost monetary amount required to overcome a
  distance (explains importance of water to growth
  of cities)
• (16) Friction of distance effort to overcome
  distance when we transport items
• Distance decay
• As distance increases, importance of a particular
  phenomena decreases
• Ex. Newspaper circulation

19
(No Transcript)
20
Three Types of Diffusion

• (17) Relocation diffusion i.e. a nomadic tribe
  relocating
• Contiguous diffusion occurs from one place
  directly to another place
• (18) Hierarchical diffusion upward or downward
  in an organization (Roman Catholic Church)
• Barriers to diffusion
• Cultural barriers
• Oceans, deserts, distance, time
• Political boundaries, cultural differences

21
(No Transcript)
22
4 Physical Systems

• Atmosphere (air) surrounding Earth to an
  altitude of less than 300 miles (lower atm. pure
  air is 78 N and 21 O)
• (19) Lithosphere (Earths solid rocks) consists
  of Earths crust and a portion of upper mantle
  directly below the crust, extending down 45 miles
• Hydrosphere (water) surface water, vapor in the
  atmosphere, ice in glaciers, and groundwater in
  soil and rock
• (20) Biosphere - living organisms on Earth

23
Human-Environmental Interaction

• (21) Reciprocal interaction env. affects human
  life and cultures and humans alter the env.
• Culture
• Everything about the way people live language,
  food, religion, social ceremonies
• (22) Natural landscapes
• Without evidence of human activity
• Cultural landscapes
• Reveals how humans modify local environment

24
The Geographic Grid

• Longitude
• Measures distance east to west around the globe
  beginning at the Prime Meridian
• Prime Meridian 0 Degree
• International Date Line see figure 1-19
• 0-180 degrees East or West
• (23) Greenwich Mean Time
• Latitude
• Location on the Earths surface between the
  equator and either the north or south pole
• (24) Parallels lines connecting all points at
  the same latitude
• 0-90 degrees North or South

25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
Map Making

• Cartography
• Scale
• Fraction 1/24,000
• Ratio 124,000
• Written statement 1 inch equals 1 mile
• Bar style
• Detail and area
• (25) Small scale map less detail, large
  denominator (11,000,000)
• (26) Large scale map more detail, small
  denominator (1100,000)

28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
Projection

• Scientific method of transferring locations on
  Earths surface to a flat map
• 4 types of distortion (see page 30)
• (27) Shape objects are stretched more in some
  parts so that their shape changes
• Distance latitude and longitude lines
• (28) Relative size items become larger or
  smaller
• Direction lat. long. orientation changes

31
(No Transcript)
32
Geographic Information Technology

• Automated cartography
• Manual techniques - expensive
• (29) Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD)
• Sophisticated, specialized digital cartography
  systems
• Easier, cheaper editing
• Also used for product design, i.e. Cannondale

33
Natural Landscape w/o evidence of human activity
34
Cultural Landscape - Reveals how humans modify
local environment
35

• Questions
• 1) When does an area become a cultural landscape
  and stop becoming a natural landscape?
• 2) Are all landscapes cultural landscapes?
• 3) How much of land in the U.S. should be
  preserved?

36
Accessibility can be as valuable as mineral
deposits or fertile soil

• Accessibility Survey
• How accessible is NYC? Philadelphia? Tanzania?
• How accessible are your teachers?
• 3. How accessible are you, can your friends
  easily contact you?
• 4. How might your answers have been different
• 50 years ago?
• 5. What are the positives and negatives of
  increased accessibility?

37
Remote Sensing

• Acquisition of data about Earths surface from a
  satellite orbiting the planet or from high-flying
  aircraft

38
Satellites

• (30) Landsat see page 35
• First launch 1972 most recent launch 1999
• Sensors measure radiation of colors of visible
  light
• Pixel size at first (resolution) 59 x 59 meters
• IKONOS resolution now 1.5 x 1.5 meters
• Weather satellites
• Very large pixels cover several kilometers on a
  side

39
(No Transcript)
40
Remotely Sensed Data

• Human activities
• Changes in plant growth
• Drainage patterns
• Erosion associated with agriculture
• (31) Logging and forest management
• Wetland monitoring
• Wartime applications

41
(No Transcript)
42
GIS (32) Geographic Information Systems

• Database software for digital information
• Contains same information as regular database
• PLUS
• Spatial characteristics such as boundary
  information or coordinates
• An identifying characteristic that locates the
  item in space (i.e., address)
• Layers
• Information with specific characteristics
• Soils, hydrology, land ownership
• Can be combined for analysis

43
(No Transcript)
44
Digital Geographic Information

• (33) Raster
• Grid cells of data
• Remote sensing images
• Pixels
• (34) Vector
• Point, line, polygon data
• X and Y coordinates
• Different uses and spatial accuracies

45
Digital Data

• Conversion of paper to digital formats
• Digital database creation
• Remote sensing images
• Digitizing
• Tracing lines
• Available types of data
• (35) Topographic maps
• DRG and DLG
• US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands
  Inventory
• Census Bureau TIGER files

46
GIS Spatial Analysis

• Calculating densities and distribution of
  population
• Counting lakes
• Monitoring environmental changes with satellite
  images
• Analyzing changes in (36) food production and
  land use

47
Chapter 1 Vocab.

• Space-time compression the reduction in the
  time it takes for something to reach another
  place
• Hearth the place where an innovation originates
• Expansion diffusion spread of features from one
  place to another
• Contagious diffusion rapid widespread diffusion
  throughout a population, for example a disease
• Stimulus diffusion spread of an underlying
  principle, like the use of Windows
• Uneven Development Increasing economic gap
  between regions in the core and periphery as a
  result of globalization

End of Chapter 1
48
Chapter 1 Vocab. Cont..

• Transnational Corporation multinational corp.
  operates factories and sells products in many
  factories
• Polder piece of land created from draining
  water
• Cultural Ecology geographic study of
  human-environment relationships
• Environmental Determinism Human environment
  causes social development
• Possibilism People have the ability to adjust
  to their environment
• MDCS and LDCs
• Culture body of customary beliefs, material
  traits and social forms that constitute a
  distinct group

49
Chapter 1 Vocab. Cont..

• Regions
• Formal
• Functional
• Regional