1 / 42

Unique Locations: Identifying and Understanding Earth's Characteristics

Explore the concept of place and the four ways to identify location. Discover how place names come about and the significance of site, situation, and mathematical location. Dive into the cultural landscape and understand the differences between formal, functional, and vernacular regions. Gain insights into spatial associations and regional integration of culture.

alisonj
Download Presentation

Unique Locations: Identifying and Understanding Earth's Characteristics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Chapter 1

  2. Key Issue 2 • Why is Each Point on Earth Unique • Place: unique location of a feature • Regions: Areas of unique characteristics

  3. Place: Unique location of a feature • What are the four ways to identify location? • Place name • Site • Situation • Mathematical location

  4. Place Names • Toponyms: Where does the name come from? • People • Religion • Landscape/Environment • Names can change • Political reasons

  5. DISCUSSION • Where do names of some common places in this area come from? • Your School? • Your State? • Your country?

  6. Site • Physical Character of a place • Climate • Water sources • Topography • Soil • vegetation • Latitude • elevation

  7. Site • Physical characteristics important for settlement • Islands • Rivers • Can be manipulated by man

  8. Site:Lower Manhattan Island Fig. 1-6: Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.

  9. DISCUSSION • Why do you think some people live in areas that are prone to natural disasters?

  10. Situation • Location of a place relative to other places • 1) Helps us to find an unfamiliar place by comparing it to a familiar one • “Across from the fire station” • 2) Helps explain importance of location • Metro-access

  11. Situation: Singapore Fig. 1-7: Singapore is situated at a key location for international trade.

  12. DISCUSSION • How would you describe the “situation” of your school? • Your house? • Why would you do this instead of just giving the address?

  13. Mathematical Location • Precise location (longitude & latitude) • Meridian (North-South poles) measure longitude • Prime Meridian: Greenwich, England • Parallel (Equator) measure latitude • Lat Lines are the FLAT lines

  14. Telling Time • 24 time zones, one for each hour • Separated by 15° longitude • Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) • 12pm in Greenwich 0° • 7am in New York 75° West (-5hrs) • International Date Line, 180° longitude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk4XArc1xf4

  15. Regions: Areas of Unique Characteristics • Cultural Landscape • Combination of cultural, economic & physical features

  16. Cultural Landscape • Cultural Features • Language • religion • Economic Features • Agriculture • Industry • Physical Features • Climate • vegetation How is the New York region different than the DC Metro region?

  17. Cultural Landscape • “Regional Studies Approach” • Each region has its own distinctive landscape due to combination of social relationships & physical processes • Similarities IN the region, differences OUT

  18. Presidential Election 2004Regional Differences Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county & state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.

  19. Types of Regions • Area larger than a point, smaller than planet • Three types • Formal • Functional • Vernacular

  20. Formal Region • Uniform/Homogeneous Region • Everyone shares distinctive characteristics • Examples: • Language • Climate • Political Ideology (Red Republican State) • Used to describe patterns of a region

  21. Functional Region • Nodal Region • Organized around a focal point (node) • Reception of TV station • Distribution of Newspaper (Gazette)

  22. Formal and Functional Regions Fig. 1-11: The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

  23. Vernacular Region • Perceptual Region • What people envision as a place

  24. Vernacular Regions Fig. 1-12: A number of features are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

  25. Spatial Association • Important to look at scale and characteristics within a region to understand factors • Cancer rates • United States: higher on East Coast • MD: higher in Baltimore and East counties • Baltimore: lower levels in Northern zip codes

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

  27. Regional Integration of Culture • Culture: distinct tradition of group of people • To care about • Similarities in ideas, beliefs, values, customs • To care of • Production of Material Wealth • Food, clothing, shelter • How do they obtain these things? • Human Geographers research differences in culture between: MDC: More developed country LDC: Less developed country

  28. Cultural Ecology • Geographic study of Human-environment relationships • Environmental Determinism VSPossibilism • Environmental Determinism • Physical environment caused social development • Possibilism • People can adjust their environment Video 1

  29. Cultural Ecology • Human geographers study relationships between human activities and physical environment • Why do we grow grass in the yard, use water to make it grow, then cut it??? • Are we going to run out of food for our growing population??? • What are we doing to our environment? • What can be done?

  30. Global Environment • Climate • Vegetation • Soil • Landforms

  31. Climate • Long-term average weather condition • Koppen System • Tropical • Dry • Warm Mid-Lat • Cold Mid-Lat • Polar

  32. World Climate Regions Fig. 1-14: The modified Köppen system divides the world into five main climate regions.

  33. Climate • Humans have limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels • Who would want to live in these regions? • DRY or POLAR??? • Climate influences production of food • Monsoons in Southern Asia • Delay can cause wide-spread famine

  34. Physical Processes: Vegetation • Vegetation & soil influence types of agriculture • Four main biomes: • Forest: trees form canopy over ground • Savanna: mixture of trees & grasses • Grassland: covered by grass, lack of trees • Desert: dispersed patches of plants

  35. Physical Processes: Soil • Soil contains nutrients  plants  humans • Concerns with destruction of soil • Nature & human actions • Erosion • Depletion of nutrients

  36. Physical Processes: Landforms • Geomorphology: study of Earth’s landforms • Explains distribution of people & economic activities • Topographic maps: show detail of physical features, ex: elevation

  37. Topographic Maps • How might you use a topographic map if you were selecting? • 1. A route for a hike. • 2. The best location for an airport. • 3. A route for a new road

  38. Environmental Modification in the Netherlands Fig. 1-15: Polders and dikes have been used for extensive environmental modification in the Netherlands.

  39. The Netherlands • “God made Earth, but the Dutch made the Netherlands” • Polders: land created by draining water • Dikes: walls built to keep ocean out • Polder Dike Video

  40. Florida • Barrier Islands along coast • Sea walls & Jetties built to prevent them from washing away. • Erosion • Everglades • Modifications made to open up land • Led to polluted waters

  41. Environmental Modification in Florida Fig. 1-16: Straightening the Kissimmee River has had many unintended side effects.

  42. C-38 CanalFlorida The canal has carried water with agricultural runoff and pollution into Lake Okeechobee

More Related