Geographyis a sciencethatstudy all the physical features of the Earth's surface, including its climate and the distribution of plant, animal, and human life

Geo earth

The word geography was adopted in the 200s bc by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes and means earth description.

Geographic study encompasses the environment of the earth's surface and the relationship of humans to this environment, which includes physical, cultural and regional geographic features.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY

Physical (Natural) elements

Cultural (Human) elements

Water features: Major bodies oceans, seas, big lakes and rivers, soil water, underground water Minor bodies small lakes, rivers, bays and gulfs, ponds, canal, sheet flowsPopulation numbers, density, patterns of distribution and migration

Landforms: Major plains, hills, plateaus, mountains Minor mesa, delta, hill, coastal barsCultural heritage: Material culture Non-material culture

Soil soil types and orderEconomic activities a. Primary hunting, gathering, fishing, mining, lumbering, agriculture and animal industryb. Secondary manufacturingc. Tertiary trade and services

Minerals actual and potentialMajor works and accomplishments infrastructure, rural and urban settlements, networks and modes of transportation and communication

Climate and weather long term and short conditions of the atmospherePolitical systems

Natural vegetation trees, grasses, desert plants

Wild animal life first, second, third level consumers

TYPES OF GEOGRAPHY

1. Physical / Natural - dealswith the distribution, measurement and arrangement of all elements of the earth's surface.A. Geomorphology, the branch of geology that examines the formation and structure of the lands surface of the Earth or of another planet and the process that mold them.

B. Climatology, which involves meteorology and is concerned with the prevailing state of the atmosphere.

C. Biogeography, which uses biology and deals with the spatial distribution of past and present individual categories of plants and animal life.

D. Soil geography which is concerned with the areal distribution of soil types over the land and the principal factors in the formation of different types of soil.

E. Oceanography, which deals with the waves, tides, and currents of oceans and the ocean floor; Hydrography, which concerns the distribution of seas, lakes, rivers, and streams in relation to their uses.

F. Resource Management it emphasizes human direction in the utilization of natural resources for benefits of human usually on a long term basis.

G. Environmental Studies it tends to focus on the animal world and on the threats posed to them by human activities and the degradation of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere by pollution of many types.

2. Cultural / Human - explains the distribution, characteristics and achievements of people and all phases of human social life in relation to the physical earth.

A. Economic geography, analyzes the characteristics and differences among movements in between areas in the production, exchange and consumption of goods and services.

B. Political geography is concerned with the study of the organizations of the world into states, functions, delimitations, demarcations of boundaries, selection of capital sites, territorial waters, maritime boundaries and laws of the seas.

C. Cartography or mapmaking is the graphic representation and measurement of the surface of the earth.

D. Population- examines the distribution of population in relation to its various characteristics such as growth, numbers, density, age, sex, fertility and occupations.

E. Urban geography studies the factors affecting the location of individual cities, urban systems, regional differences in urbanization and functional types of cities.

F. Medical geography studies the diffusion of infectious diseases from the center of occurrence.

G. Historical geography is concerned with the description of the past periods or dates or with changes overtime as landscapes evolves.

3. Regional geography is concerned with various areas of the earth, particularly the unique combinations of physical and cultural features that characterize each region and distinguish one region from another.

Geographys position amidst the sciences

the synthesis and mother of all sciences and the parent of all sciences

It has connection with:

1. Natural Science- studies nature: the water, landforms, minerals, soil, climate, and flora and fauna over or close to the earths surface.

2. Social Science deals with structure and functions of society and its subsystems. It studies mans political system, economic system, religious system, population, the family, mans cultural values, folkways, beliefs as well as technology.

3. Humanities geography studies artistic works, and is involved with the arts like painting, sculpture music, literature, and dance, particularly in terms of spatial distribution and differentiation.