Physical Geography Author : H. It provides extended definitions of terms that are fundamental to physical geography and its many branches, covering topics such as: biogeography ecology climatology meteorology geomorphology hydrology pedology Complete with informative tables, diagrams, and suggestions for further reading, this is a highly accessible guide for those studying physical geography and related courses.
Physical geography etc Author : M. The book makes a specific effort to connect regional geography with natural forcing and influencing factors. The first section discusses general characteristics relating to the physical geography of Hungary on a more theoretical basis including relief evolution, climate, hydrography, soils and vegetation. The second part focuses on regional content and analyzes conflicts, environmental values, threats and impacts of the different geographical units.
This book appeals to researchers as well as students of physical geography and related disciplines and serves as a useful source for regional information on Hungary. This book can also be used as a field guide of the physical properties of this European country.
Includes diagrams and workings where necessary to ensure pupils understand how to present their answers. Also available from Galore Park www. It addresses an imbalance that exists in opinion, teaching and to a lesser extent research, between a philosophically enriched human geography and a perceived philosophically empty physical geography.
The text challenges the myth that there is a single self-evident scientific method that can, and is, applied in a straightforward manner by physical geographers. It demonstrates the variety of alternative philosophical perspectives and emphasizes the difference that the real world geographical context and the geographer make to the study of environmental phenomenon. This includes a consideration of the dynamic relationship between human and physical geography.
Finally, the text demonstrates the relevance of philosophy for both an understanding of published material and for the design and implementation of studies in physical geography. This edition has been fully updated with two new chapters on field studies and modelling, as well as greater discussion of ethical issues and forms of explanation.
The book explores key themes such as reconstructing environmental change, species interactions and fluvial geomorphology, and is complimented throughout with case studies to illustrate concepts.
Francis B. The last method of organizing knowledge involves understanding facts relative to spatial relationships. This field of knowledge is commonly known as geography. Kant also divided geography into a number of sub-disciplines. He recognized the following six branches: Physical, mathematical, moral, political, commercial, and theological geography.
Geographic knowledge saw strong growth in Europe and the United States in the s. This period also saw the emergence of a number of societies interested in geographic issues. Humboldt's publication Kosmos examines the geology and physical geography of the Earth. This work is considered by many academics to be a milestone contribution to geographic scholarship. Late in the 19th Century, Ratzel theorized that the distribution and culture of the Earth's various human populations was strongly influenced by the natural environment.
The French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blanche opposed this revolutionary idea. Instead, he suggested that human beings were a dominant force shaping the form of the environment. The idea that humans were modifying the physical environment was also prevalent in the United States. The subject of this speech was that human activity was having a destructive impact on land, especially through deforestation and land conversion. In this publication, Marsh warned of the ecological consequences of the continued development of the American frontier.
During the first 50 years of the s, many academics in the field of geography extended the various ideas presented in the previous century to studies of small regions all over the world. Most of these studies used descriptive field methods to test research questions. Starting in about , geographic research experienced a shift in methodology. Geographers began adopting a more scientific approach that relied on quantitative techniques. The quantitative revolution was also associated with a change in the way in which geographers studied the Earth and its phenomena.
Researchers now began investigating process rather than mere description of the event of interest. Today, the quantitative approach is becoming even more prevalent due to advances in computer and software technologies. In , William Pattison published an article in the Journal of Geography , that suggested that modern Geography was now composed of the following four academic traditions: Spatial Tradition - the investigation of the phenomena of geography from a strictly spatial perspective.
Area Studies Tradition - the geographical study of an area on the Earth at either the local, regional, or global scale. Human-Land Tradition - the geographical study of human interactions with the environment. Earth Science Tradition - the study of natural phenomena from a spatial perspective. This tradition is best described as theoretical physical geography.
Today, the academic traditions described by Pattison are still dominant fields of geographical investigation. However, the frequency and magnitude of human mediated environmental problems has been on a steady increase since the publication of this notion. These increases are the result of a growing human population and the consequent increase in the consumption of natural resources. As a result, an increasing number of researchers in geography are studying how humans modify the environment.
A significant number of these projects also develop strategies to reduce the negative impact of human activities on nature. Some of the dominant themes in these studies include: environmental degradation of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere; resource use issues; natural hazards; environmental impact assessment; and the effect of urbanization and land-use change on natural environments.
Considering all of the statements presented concerning the history and development of geography, we are now ready to formulate a somewhat coherent definition. Physical geography attempts to determine why natural phenomena have particular spatial patterns and orientation.
This online textbook will focus primarily on the Earth Science Tradition. Some of the information that is covered in this textbook also deals with the alterations of the environment because of human interaction.
These pieces of information belong in the Human-Land Tradition of geography. Elements of Geography In the previous section, we discovered that geography consists of at least two different sub-fields of knowledge with similar methodology:Physical geography and human geography.
The following table also helps to make the differences between these two types of geography more apparent. This table describes some of the phenomena or elements studied by each of these sub- fields of knowledge. Knowing what kinds of things are studied by geographers provides us with a better understanding of the differences between physical and human geography. Table 1b Some of the phenomena studied in physical and human geography.
Almost any area of human knowledge can be examined from a spatial perspective. Figure 1b-1 describes some of the main sub disciplines within human and physical geography. Physical geography's primary sub disciplines study the Earth's atmosphere meteorology and climatology , animal and plant life biogeography , physical landscape geomorphology , soils pedology , and waters hydrology.
Some of the dominant areas of study in human geography include: human society and culture social and cultural geography , behavior behavioral geography , economics economic geography , politics political geography , and urban systems urban geography.
Introduction to Physical Geography Figure 1b Major sub disciplines of physical and human geography. The graphic model in Figure 1b-1 indicates that the study of geography can also involve a holistic synthesis.
Holistic synthesis connects knowledge from a variety of academic fields in both human and physical geography. The fields of climatology and meteorology are required to understand the physical effects of adding addition greenhouse gases to the atmosphere's radiation balance. The field of economic geography provides information on how various forms of human economic activity contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel burning and land-use change.
Combining the knowledge of both of these academic areas gives us a more comprehensive understanding of why this serious environmental problem occurs. The holistic nature of geography is both a strength and a weakness. Geography's strength comes from its ability to connect functional interrelationships that are not normally noticed in narrowly defined fields of knowledge.
The most obvious weakness associated with the geographical approach is related to the fact that holistic understanding is often too simple and misses important details of cause and effect. Scope of Physical Geography We have now learned that physical geography examines and investigates natural phenomena spatially.
In the previous section, we identified some of the key elements studied by physical geographers. Combining these two items, we can now suggest that physical geography studies the spatial patterns of weather and climate, soils, vegetation, animals, water in all its forms, and landforms.
Physical geography also examines the interrelationships of these phenomena to human activities. This sub-field of geography is academically known as the Human-Land Tradition. This area of geography has seen very keen interest and growth in the last few decades because of the acceleration of human induced environmental degradation. Thus, physical geography's scope is much broader than the simple spatial study of nature.
It also involves the investigation of how humans are influencing nature. Academics studying physical geography and other related earth sciences are rarely generalists. Most are in fact highly specialized in their fields of knowledge and tend to focus themselves in one of the following well defined areas of understanding in physical geography: Geomorphology - studies the various landforms on the Earth's surface.
Introduction to Physical Geography Pedology - is concerned with the study of soils. Biogeography - is the science that investigates the spatial relationships of plants and animals. Hydrology - is interested in the study of water in all its forms.
Meteorology - studies the circulation of the atmosphere over short time spans. Climatology - studies the effects of weather on life and examines the circulation of the atmosphere over longer time spans. The above fields of knowledge generally have a primary role in introductory textbooks dealing with physical geography.
Introductory physical geography textbooks can also contain information from other related disciplines including: Geology - studies the form of the Earth's surface and subsurface, and the processes that create and modify it.
Ecology - the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environment. Oceanography - the science that examines the biology, chemistry, physics, and geology of oceans. Cartography - the technique of making maps. Astronomy - the science that examines celestial bodies and the cosmos.
Both human and physical geography provide an important intellectual background for studying the environment. History of Physical Geography The nature of understanding in physical geography has changed over time.
When investigating this change it becomes apparent that certain universal ideas or forces had very important ramifications to the academic study of physical geography. During the period from to , there seems to be four main ideas that had a strong influence on the discipline: 1. Uniformitarianism - this theory rejected the idea that catastrophic forces were responsible for the current conditions on the Earth.
It suggested instead that continuing uniformity of existing processes were responsible for the present and past conditions of this planet. Evolution - Charles Darwin's Origin of Species suggested that natural selection determined which individuals would pass on their genetic traits to future generations.
The theories of uniformitarianism and evolution arose from a fundamental change in the way humans explained the universe and nature. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries scholars began refuting belief or myth based explanations of the cosmos, and instead used science to help explain the mysteries of nature. Belief based explanations of the cosmos are made consistent with a larger framework of knowledge that focuses on some myth.
However, theories based on science questioned the accuracy of these beliefs. Exploration and Survey - much of the world had not been explored before Thus, during this period all of the fields of physical geography were actively involved with basic data collection. This data collection included activities like determining the elevation of land surfaces, classification and description of landforms, the measurement of the volume of flow of rivers, measurement of various phenomena associated to weather and climate, and the classification of soils, organisms, biological communities and ecosystems.
Conservation - beginning in the s a concern for the environment began to develop as a result of the human development of once natural areas in the United States and Europe. This book is often cited by scholars as the first significant academic contribution to conservation and environmentalism. After , the following two forces largely determined the nature of physical geography: 1.
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