Overview
-Maps and cartography
-Intellectual History of Geography
Cartographic tradition – properties of the globe grid
• All meridians are of equal
length; each is one-half the length
of the equator.
• Maps as models
• Intellectual history of geography
• All meridians converge at the
poles and are true north-south
lines.
• All lines of latitude (parallels)
are parallel to the equator and to
each other.
• Parallels decrease in length as
one nears the poles.
Stuart H. Sweeney
Department of Geography
University of California, Santa Barbara
• Meridians and parallels intersect
at right angles.
• The scale on the surface of the
globe is the same in every
direction.
Winter 2004
Cartographic tradition – properties of the globe grid
Cartographic tradition – properties of the globe grid
Cartographic tradition – properties of the globe grid
• All meridians are of equal
length; each is one-half the length
of the equator.
• All meridians are of equal
length; each is one-half the length
of the equator.
• All meridians are of equal
length; each is one-half the length
of the equator.
• All meridians converge at the
poles and are true north-south
lines.
• All meridians converge at the
poles and are true north-south
lines.
• All meridians converge at the
poles and are true north-south
lines.
• All lines of latitude (parallels)
are parallel to the equator and to
each other.
• All lines of latitude (parallels)
are parallel to the equator and to
each other.
• All lines of latitude (parallels)
are parallel to the equator and to
each other.
• Parallels decrease in length as
one nears the poles.
• Parallels decrease in length as
one nears the poles.
• Parallels decrease in length as
one nears the poles.
• Meridians and parallels intersect
at right angles.
• Meridians and parallels intersect
at right angles.
• Meridians and parallels intersect
at right angles.
• The scale on the surface of the
globe is the same in every
direction.
• The scale on the surface of the
globe is the same in every
direction.
• The scale on the surface of the
globe is the same in every
direction.
Cartographic tradition – GIS
Maps in human geography
Cartographic tradition – projections and mapmaking
• Problem:
Project a sphere onto a flat surface.
• Geographic Information Systems & GIScience
– “GISs are simultaneously the telescope, the microscope, the computer, and
• Distortions
- area
- angle
- shape
- distance
the Xerox machine of regional analysis and synthesis of spatial data.”
-- Ron Abler
– GIScience involves research emerging from “…the generic issues that
surround the use of GIS technology, impede its successful implementation, or
emerge from an understanding of its potential capabilities.”
-- Michael Goodchild.
• Maps and place attributes
– cultural and physical attributes
– structured place attributes/spatial distribution
– regionalization
– interaction among places (accessibility, connectivity)
• Maps and environmental issues
– pollution monitoring, remote sensing, global positioning system
- direction
• Movement maps (human mobility)
Maps in human geography (cont.)
Intellectual traditions in geography – Early History
Intellectual traditions in geography – Early Modern History
• Maps in the mind
Early History
Early Modern History
– culturally influenced and subjective
– mental maps
– environmental perception/cognition
• Mathematics
– Thales, Herodotus, Ptolemy, Varenius
• Exploration
– Muslim, Scandinavian, Chinese, Medieval Christians
• Exploration
– American Geographical Society, Royal Geographical Society
– Assoc. of American Geographers, National Geographical Society
• Environmental Determinism and Possibilism
– Magellan, Columbus, James Cooke, Darwin.
– Darwin - Origin of Species
– The Longitude Act of 1714
– Ellen Sample (1911)- ‘Man is the product of the earth’s surface’
• Cartography
– Possibilist reaction
– Gerard Mercator
– “if a geographer is not fascinated by maps to the extent of always needing to be
surrounded by them, then that is a clue that he or she has chosen the wrong profession.”
--C. Sauer.
Intellectual traditions in geography – Early Modern History
Intellectual traditions in geography – Modern History
Intellectual traditions in geography – Modern History
Early Modern History
Modern History
Modern History
• Regional Geography
• Systematics & Scientific Method
• Iowa School
– 1930s American Regionalism
– Hartshorne (1939) The Nature of Geography
– “…a science that interprets the realities of areal differentiation of the world
– Schaefer (1953) Exceptionalism in Geography: A
Methodological Examination
– Positive Science (Logical Positivism)
as they are found, not only in terms of the differences in certain things from
place to place, but also in terms of the total combination of phenomena in each
place, different from those at every other place.”
– General laws / quantitative methods / policy analysis
– “…integration of relevant characteristics to provide a total description of
place- or region- which is identifiable by its peculiar combination of those
characteristics.”
– Science of spatial arrangements / spatial social science
– temporal-section of history; spatial-sections of geography
– ‘bumbling amateurism and antiquarianism’
– Center for Spatially Integrated Social Sciences
• Wisconsin School
• Washington School
– Garrison
– Brian Berry, A. Getis, D. Marble, R. Morrill,, J. Nystuen, W.
Tobler.
• Social Physics
– J. Stewart (astronomer at Princeton)
• Regional Science
– Walter Isard (1956)
Intellectual traditions in geography – Modern History
Simonett Cube
Environmental System Science
Modern History
• Ocean Modeling
• Hydrologic Modeling
• Structuralism
• Atmospheric Modeling
• Post-modernism
• Vegetation/Soil Modeling
• Pluralism
Human-Environment Relations
• Behavioral Geography
• Regional/Urban Modeling
• Natural Resources Management
Geographic Skills
• Spatial Analysis
Modeling Skills
• Statistical Modeling
• Computer Modeling
• Mathematical Modeling
• Remote Sensing
• Computer Cartography
• Geographic Information Systems
Metalworking, 1997
Richard Church
Keith Clarke
Helen Couclelis
Reg Golledge
Mike Goodchild
Dan Montello
Jim Proctor
Stuart Sweeney
Waldo Tobler
David Carr
Fabricated Textiles, 1997
(M8590 -M7580)<0
Maps in human geography (cont.)
• Depicting regions on maps
– criteria and attributes
– formal regions
(M8590 -M7580)>0
– functional regions
– perceptual regions
– hierarchical regions
Wood Products, 1997