GGH1501 Exam Prep 2021.

GGH1501 Exam Prep 2021. Different characteristics of latitude and longitude  Latitude: run east-west, run parallel, numbered from equator (0 degrees)  Longitude: runs north-south, not parallel, all lines meet at North and South pole, separated by distances Concept of a region: - Areas defined by 1 or more distinctive characteristics or a unique combination of features. - Such as climate and soil type - Language or economic activity Geographers define regions and describe as well as analyze the similarites and the diferences. They also study the paterns and how people organize their societes. Criteria to defne a region: Physical or cultural Typeo of regiono: 1. Formal – also called uniform region or homogeneous region - an area within which everyone share in common one or more distnctve chatacteristcs - shared future such as cultural values (common language) - Economic actvity (producton) -Environmental property (climate) Geographers identfy formal regions – explain broad global or natonal paterns and variatons or economic development. E.g. Chicago (government covers the legal cost and limits and collects the taxes) 2. Functonal region – also called the nodal region - an area organized around a node or focal point. - defned by the interactons among places such as trade / communicaton. Downloaded by: emmaameliakaipotgieter | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace GGH1501 Semester 1 NOTES – Created by Richelle Lambert Geographers use this region to display info about economic areas. - Boundaries of the region markes the limit of the trading area. E.g recepton areas of a tv staton (broadcast to diferent places) 3. Venacular region – perceptual region - place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identty. - defned by the wide spread popular percepton by people within or outside them - emerge from people’s formal sense -region does not have formal defned boundaries or agree upon boundaries - it’s in the minds of people E. g Karoo/ Bosveld Region is a concept an abstract idea Region io defned cultural phenomena that merge or overlap. (People who live between 2 cites might listen to radio statons located in both.) Countries of the world are grouped into regions according to Wealthier vs Improverished geographically described as Global North vs Global South. Concept of diotribuion: -(Falls under spatal analysis/ distributon) - Of a phenomenon it means it’s * positon * placement * arrangement throughout space - Also describe where individual elements of the phenomenon are located. Properieo of diotribuion: 1. Density – the frequency of occurrence of a phenomenon in relaton to geographic area. - feature being measured could be * people * houses *cars *volcanoes - expressed as a number per square kem or square mile - large populaton does not lead to high density. - E.g Russia has larger populaton in relaton to the Netherlands, but Netherlands has a much higher density because of the land area that is smaller. 2. Concentraton – extent of a feature spread over space. - concentrated or clustered objects in an area are close together (Farmers in a village) - Dispersed if they are scatered or relatvely far apart from each other (Farmers live on the farm North America) - Two areas must have the same number of objects and same size in area. 3. Patern – geometrical arrangement of objects within an area. - some features are organized in a geometric patern others are distributed irregularly - aodern cites street lights are arranged in rectangular grid paterns and older cites is irregular. Human Environmental interacion: a 2 way relatonship between humans and the environment and it has been associated with innovaton and disaster. - It also shows how the environment enable and inhibits the actvites of humans - Geographic study of human- environment relatonship is called cultural ecology. - Human societes must adapt to local climate, vegetaton and water resources - Interacton between the environment and humankeind is reciprocal - The environment afects the human life and cultures. Geographero are intereoted in 2 typeo of human- environment interaciono:  How people adjust to the environment  How they modify it Downloaded by: emmaameliakaipotgieter | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace GGH1501 Semester 1 NOTES – Created by Richelle Lambert Environmental determiniom physical environment caused social development - Belief that human events can be explained entrely as the result of the efects of the physical environment. - Climate of produced beter health conditons and lower death rated in Europe - To explain relatonships between human actvites and physical geographers reject the determinism in favour of possibilism. Poooibiliom theory that the physical environment itself will neither suggest nor determine what people will atempt. - aight limit what people can achieve - People have the ability to adjust to their environment Spaial interacion: - All places on earth are interconnected in some or other way - Can be triggered when one place (region) has something on ofer or in demand at another region - Depending on the distance between 2 places and the value of commodity and supply the demand relatonships can develop - E.g Port of Durban and Johannesburg doing trading Diotance decay impact of any phenomenon may diminish away from its origin. Diffuoion – process of an item or feature spreading through tme. - Suggests how people and cultures interact and infuence one another. - Occurs through cultural interacton involving persons, objects or ideas 1. Relocaion diffuoion – process by which a characteristc spreads across space from 1 place to another over tme. - Place from which an innovaton originated called hearth - spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another. - when people move they carry with them their culture, language and religion - E.g Nomadic tribe that moves around to fnd a new environment similar to the one they had. 2. Coniguouo/ contagiouo diffuoion – occurs from one place to a neighboring place through direct contact. - is analogous to spread a disease such as infuenza - culture and innovaton can also spread by this difusion as ideas are passed from 1 area to another without populaton relocaton. E.g Iran and Saudi Arabia where Western music and flms are enjoyed and now available on the Internet. 3. Hierarchical diffuoion – spread of an idea from persons or node of authority or power to other persons or places. - may result from the spread of ideas from politcal leaders, social elite people or other important people to others in the community. - infuence travel up and down a hierarchy E.g Fly from 1 city to another small city and then to a bigger city and then a smaller city that’s local. 4. Expansion difusion – spread of feature from one place to another in an additve process. 5. Stmulus difusion – spread of an underlying principle E.g innovatve features of Apple’s iPhone operatng systems have been adopted by compettors Path of difusion reveals the world’s interconnectedness Spaial Variaion – climate map of the world is not the same everywhere and varies from place to place - Varies in space and very cold places are indicated - Also how a phenomenon varies across space. - The landscape is not homogenous and varies in locaton to locaton as well - E.g likee Universites have diferent names, student numbers, fees Downloaded by: emmaameliakaipotgieter | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace GGH1501 Semester 1 NOTES – Created by Richelle Lambert Spaial variaion of Biomeo – Focus on describing how biomes vary across the surface of the earth - Desert’s are hot and vegetaton is spare - Well adapted to moisture stress. - Places likee forests and so can have diferent tmes that they are open and presentng diferent animals - Spaial Aooociaion degree to which things are arranged in space - Spatal distributon of the world’s populaton is strongly related to major climates - Large concentratons of the world populaton tend to be arranged in close proximity to areas providing climatc conditons that are conductve to human habitat. Phenomenon diotribuion of biomeo: - Biomes cover the entre earth - Focus on one sub-biome across the world - Distributon appears random but is not - Desert’s are hot but vegetaton is sparse - Temperatures and rainfall is important factors Explaining Area analyoio and concepto to oite: Site – describe the exact locaton of a place (lattude or longitude) - Characteristcs can be human/ physical - Refering to language, customs, food or landscapes System – group of items that interact in a regular way to form a unifed whole. aodels of systems help geographers see how factors are interrelated Individual environment oyotemo include: - climate processes that produce precipitaton - Hydrologic processes that determine what happens to rain - Human actvites infuenced by environment conditons Why each locaion of Earth io uniuue: - Each place has distnct features of site and situaton - Each locaton has diferent site chatacteristcs - Locatons can be interrelated (share the same atmoshphere or might be trading partners - Interacton also points to interrelatedness (connecton) Earth’o phyoical oyotem: the 4 spheres are interrelated and interact with each other. - Physical systems are classifed as biotc / abiotc Biotc – system composed of living organisms Abiotc – system is composed of nonliving or inorganic mater The Atmoophere thin layer of gases surrounding the Earth - aovement of air driven by solar radiaton creatng weather and climate - Variatons in air pressure caused winds to blow and control precipitaton paterns. The Hydroophere All of the water on and neat the Earth’s surface - Water can be as vapour, liquid or solid such as oceans (71% is oceans) The Lithoophere Solid Earth composed by rockes and overlying sediments - Crust from mountain chains and shape crust to form contnents and ocean basins - Crust infuence climate conditons The Bioophere All the living organisms on Earth - The atmosphere and all the others functon together to create the environment of the biosphere. Downloaded by: emmaameliakaipotgieter | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace GGH1501 Semester 1 NOTES – Created by Richelle Lambert  Plants and animals live on the surface of the Lithosphere. The Hydrosphere provides the water for humans and animals to drinke and gives physical support for the aquatc life.  Life forms depend on inputs of solar energy  Humans also interact with the 4 spheres such as Air, food  Plants and animals interact through exchange of mater, energy and stmuli Technology uoed for gathering opaial data: - Remote sensing (Arial photography and satellite remote sensing) - Global positoning systems (GPS) - Geographic Informaton systems (GIS) - Populaton consus or countng number of vehicles Symbolo uoed on Mapo: - Point system represent the real world phenomena found in fxed locatons (dots, circles and leters) - Line symbols used to represent real world with linear character (roads, rivers) - Area symbols represent 2 dimentonal objects (dam or nature reserve) A topographic map – represent the physical characteristcs of the Earth (Rivers, mountains, roads) A thematc map – focused on a geographic phenomenon (rainfall, populaton, density) Value of nature mapo Data vs Informaton Date – unprocessed facts and Informaton data that have been processed to add value Defniiono: aaps – two dimentonal representatons of some portons of the Earth’s surface. Characterioico of geographical data:  Spatality – locaton (absolute/ relatve) and the distributon that varies across space.  Temporality – locaton of phenomena as well as their chatacteristcs can very over tme. Scale – extent to which reality has been reuced to ft on the map. - Larger area (entre world will show less detail) - Smaller area (property with a house on) more detail shown - aacro means large meso medium and micro means small Scale of meaourement 1. Nominal the lowest scale measurement – they only want to kenow what type of phenomenon is represented E.g *S shows school on a map 2. Ordinal is possible to compare the relatve sizes or level of importance of observatons. N roads more important than R roads on maps 3. Interval is measures quanttatve in nature and the interval is not fxed. 4. Rato is the highest level of measurement Typeo of opaial diotribuion (Diocrete vo Coninuouo) Discrete – not presented everywhere (sport felds and nature reserves) Contnuous – presented everywhere (high above sea level, temperature, atmospheric pressure) Geographic phenomenon: that can relate to spatal characteristcs such as locaton, distributon and variaton. Geographic variable: aeasurable characteristcs of a geographic phenomenon (amount of rainfall) Geographic Informaion oyotem (GIS): - Form of database sofware in which spatal informaton is important - Computer system that captures and stores and analyze the data that’s used to create maps - Spatal data and informaton place phenomena at their correct positon on the Earth’s surface - GIS has layered structures and it contains data about diferent themes. - Data is generally referenced according to locaton Downloaded by: emmaameliakai.