1.2: Spatial Thinking
Geography is considered a science and thus also uses the scientific method for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. "The scientific approach is based on observation, experimentation, logical reasoning, skepticism of unsupported conclusions, and the willingness to modify or even reject long-held ideas when new evidence contradicts them," Darrell Hess from Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation. A simplified version of the scientific method is as follows:
Geography is also considered a spatial science, maybe the spatial science. It is concerned with spatial behavior of people, with the spatial relationships that are observed between places on the earth’s surface, and with the spatial processes that create or maintain those behaviors and relationships. Geographers are concerned about space (aerial extent) and place. The following are key concepts geographers focus on. Place is a specific location or point on Earth that has a particular characteristic. Every place on earth has a unique location physically and conceptually. A region is an area on the earth's surface that has distinctive physical and cultural characteristics. A very important concept in geography is scale, which is the relationship between the location of something on the earth compared to the entire earth. Scale can range from the atomic level to the entire planet or even space. Connection is the relationship between the physical or cultural components of the world (or both), that crosses barriers and boundaries.
- Observe a specific feature, phenomenon, or event in the world that stimulates a series of questions and thought process.
- Develop an educated idea that tries to answer the questions posed, called a hypothesis.
- Design an experiment or way to "test" your hypothesis.
- Implement the experiment and observe the results using unbiased data and measurement techniques.
- Propose a solution, answer, or rule that explains the hypothesis and experiment.
- Often times, publish the results in a scientific journal so that others can attempt to reproduce the same results.
Geography is also considered a spatial science, maybe the spatial science. It is concerned with spatial behavior of people, with the spatial relationships that are observed between places on the earth’s surface, and with the spatial processes that create or maintain those behaviors and relationships. Geographers are concerned about space (aerial extent) and place. The following are key concepts geographers focus on. Place is a specific location or point on Earth that has a particular characteristic. Every place on earth has a unique location physically and conceptually. A region is an area on the earth's surface that has distinctive physical and cultural characteristics. A very important concept in geography is scale, which is the relationship between the location of something on the earth compared to the entire earth. Scale can range from the atomic level to the entire planet or even space. Connection is the relationship between the physical or cultural components of the world (or both), that crosses barriers and boundaries.
Location is probably one of the most important aspects of the discipline, which is a position of an object that could be put on a map. That location doesn’t need to be on the Earth’s surface, it can be below, within the oceans, the atmosphere, or even in space. Location can also be divided into nominal, relative, and absolute. Nominal locations are the names of a position. Examples include Washington D.C., the Rocky Mountains, Nile River, or Florida. Nominal locations just specify a location’s name and their scale can vary.
Relative location is a very common form of location. How often have you given directions to your house using landmarks rather than just your address? Relative location is the location of something relative to other features. Often times, you can understand a lot about a location based on what’s around it. This directly relates to the 1st Law of Geography, which states that everything is related to everything, but features located near each other are more likely in common than features farther apart. |
Finally, the third type of location is called absolute location, which is the specific location of something. This is usually based on some form of geographic coordinate system like latitude and longitude. If you think about it, many navigation GPS systems use relative and absolute locations. If you were to type in an address and used your current location as the starting point into a mapping system like Google Maps, it will not only give you the location of your destination, but a few relative pathways to get there.
Next in our study of spatial thinking is direction and distance. Direction is the location of something relative to something else. If we refer back to our example with Google Maps, the online program will determine a direction based on your current location and your intended destination. Distance is a mathematical concept and used to determine the space between two or more features using some form of measuring unit.
Geographers are also concerned with issues of space. In particular, they are concerned with what exists between spaces. Are the features between the spaces related or similar to each other or dissimilar? The 1st Law of Geography states they are likely to be similar, but that isn’t always the case. Networks are concerned with the movement or flow of an object through space and time. This can apply to transportation, migration, trade, flow of rivers, glacier, or the atmosphere, and even the flow of cyber networks. |