Geography 12

The Five Themes of Geography

• Location

• Nature of Place

• Relationships Between Places

• Regions

• Movement

Location

• Location of a place can be expressed in terms of its proximity or distance from another place.

• Absolute location pinpoints a place on the surface of the Earth.

• It is based on a grid system such as latitude and longitude.

• “Where is it?”

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.co.orange.nc.us/soilwater/images/AerialPhoto_Farm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.co.orange.nc.us/soilwater/AerialPhotos.asp&h=547&w=700&sz=88&tbnid=9YY22fWsbu1ZHM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=140&prev=/images?q=image+of+an+aerial+photo&zoom=1&q=image+of+an+aerial+photo&hl=en&usg=__zBidP2K7Azb9G6HZr8atS2_AC-8=&sa=X&ei=885ITdn5E4GesQPP_pDMCg&ved=0CCUQ9QEwAQ

Examples of Location:

• Latitude and Longitude

• UTM Grid References

• Topographic features

Nature of Place

• The physical, natural, and human characteristics that describe a place and distinguish it from other places.

• “What is it like when you get there?”

Examples of Place:

• Topography• Climate• Cultural features• Economics• …

Relationships Between Places

• The nature of the interactions between physical, natural, and human environments, and the consequences of those interactions for people and places.

• “What is happening there?”

Examples of Relationships Between People and Place:

• How one aspect depends on another (abiotic and biotic)

• How one aspect adapts to another apsect (abiotic and biotic)

• How one element can modify the environment for all the other aspects (biotic and abiotic)

Regions

• Areas that have similar characteristics, according to a set of chosen criteria.

• Regions are the basic units of geographic study

• “What is it similar to?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyXSksHqho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUU-0OvOEU&feature=related

Example of Regions:

• Common or distinctive characteristics (human, natural, abiotic or biotic)

– Ethnic Regions– Physiographic Regions– Climate Regions– Language Regions– …

Movement

• The interactions, interrelationships, and interdependencies of people and places across the face of the Earth.

• Movement can involve ideas, information, communications of many kinds, as well as the physical movement of people and goods.

• “What is going where and why?”

Examples of Movement:

• Identify patterns of movement with living populations

• Identify patterns with physical systems of the earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3_Qi7AOFg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95OOkTudI8&feature=related

Review of: The Five Themes of Geography