GGH1501 Exam Prep Oct/ Nov 2021.

GGH1501 Exam Prep Oct/ Nov 2021. Know Your World: Introduction To Geography. Geography – Study of interactons of the physical and human phenomena. - Involves the exploraton and descripton of the world we live in. - It’s also about the interactons among places that forms paterns and organize space. * Physical Geography – the study of characteristcs of a physical environment. - Such as climate, soil and vegetaton *Human Geography – the study of human groups and their actvites - study as language and buildings * Cultural Geography – the subfeld of human geography - Focus on the role of human actvites and cultures * Regional / Special Geography – analyze places in terms of local populaton, customs and politcal regions. Geographical Phenomenon: (What io a geographical Phenomenon)  Temporal component – the phenomena are not statc and it changes over tme.  Spatal component – can be linkeed to a specifc locaton  Thematc component – measurable characteristcs or propertes likee what is its name? How big is it? There are Geographical phenomena:  Such as a crime scene in a city over 5 years  Place exhibitng art Explain the diotribuion of a phenomenon:  Describing where individual element are located can be random or scatered. Contemporary geographero employ 3 analythical methodo: 1. Area analysis – it intergaretes the geographic features of an area or place. - it shows that each place occupies a unique locaton - possesses a unique combinaton of human behaviour and environmental processes (Site, situaton and region) 2. Spatal analysis – called locaton analysis - emphasizes the interactons among places - looke for paterns in the distributon of human actvites - Characteristcs likee distributon, density, patern, movement , distance and difusion. 3. Geographic systems – understanding of the physical and human systems and the interactons amongs them. (Atmosphere the hydrosphere, listhosphere and biosphere) Baoic defniiono of concepto: Absolute locaton – the locaton of a place as pinpointed in terms of the global geographic grid. Relatve locaton – the locaton reference to another place - Describes the accessibility such as (nearer or further) - It is constantly changing - Also change if the trerritorial site of an actvity’s organizaton change. - Afects the interacton between places and the accessibility of a specifc place. - Example Cape Town is located 2kem north of the CBD area. Situaton - locaton of a place relatve to other places - Knowledge of the place’s situaton that helps us understand how it interacts with rest of the world. Space – refers to the distributon of features - 3 main propertes of distributon across space namely density, concentraton and patern. S - The study-notes marketplace Downloaded by: emmaameliakaipotgieter | Distribution of this document is illegal S - The study-notes marketplace GGH1501 Semester 1 NOTES – Created by Richelle Lambert Scale – a quanttatve statement of the relatve sizes of an object on a map and in reality. (aap scale, writen scale and graphical scale. Can be expressed in one of 3 ways. Connectedness – connectons between places results in spatal interacton - Places are connected through a networke Characterioico of Map projeeciono: Projectons – second fundamental characteristc of maps - Governs the way we show informaton and shows locatons on a fat map - Process of projectng the globe onto the map introduces distorton. Projectons must distort either – size as distance or shape orientaton or both. Conformal aaps – maps that distort size but preserve shape - aeractor projecton showing the lattude and longitude Equal- area aaps – preserve size but distort shape. Geographic grid used to describe the absolute locaton. Done with reference where the Greenwich aeridian and the Equator intersect. Purpooe of geographic grid  The geographic grid is a system designed to pinpoint any locaton on Earth by laying a vertcal and horizontal grid over the Earth's layout. Different characterioico of laitude and longitude  Lattude: run east-west, run parallel, numbered from equator (0 degrees)  Longitude: runs north-south, not parallel, all lines meet at North and South pole, separted by distances Concept of a region: - Areas defned by 1 or more distnctve characteristcs or a unique combinaton of features. - Such as climate and soil type - Language or economic actvity Geographers defne 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 .