Chapter 1

Introduction to Geography
Jinat Hossain1, Farhana Rafiq 2

1.1Definition:
Since the beginning of humankind, the study of geography has captured the imagination
of the people. In ancient times, geography books extolled tales of distant lands and
dreamed of treasures. The ancient Greeks created the word "geography" from the roots
"geo" for earth and "grapho,"where ‘Geo’ means earth and ‘Graphos’ means description.
So, ‘Geography’ means description of the earth. So, the word ‘Geography’ is rooted
from the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A
literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The science which
treats of the world and its inhabitants; a description of the earth, or a portion of the earth,
including its structure, features, products, political divisions, and the people by whom it
is inhabited. It also includes the responses and adaptations of people to topography,
climate, soil and vegetation is defined as geography.

Mr. Bowerman's definition of geography is –

‘ The study of the world, its people, and the interactions between the two.’

The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 BC). Four
historical traditions in geographical research are :

1. Spatial Analysis of natural and human phenomena (geography as a study of

distribution),
2. Area Studies (places and regions),
3. Study of man-land relationship, and
4. Research in earth sciences.
Nonetheless, modern geography seeks to understand the Earth and all of its human
and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed
and come to be. Geography has been called "the world discipline" and "the bridge
between the human and the physical science".

1
Faculty, FASS, AIUB, Email: jhossain@aiub.edu

2
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, AIUB, Email: farhana_r@aiub.edu

1
1.2 Themes of Geography:
There are five themes in geography:

Location
 Relative Location
 Absolute Location
Place
 Human Characteristics
 Physical Characteristics

Human-Environmental Interactions
 Humans adapt to the environment
 Humans modify the environment
 Humans depend on the environment
Movement
 People
 Goods
 Ideas
Regions
 Formal
 Functional
 Vernacular (perceptual)

1.2.1 LOCATION

"Where are we?"   is the question that the theme Location answers. Location describes
the position or placement of us. Location may be absolute or it may be relative.  These
locations, whether relative or absolute, may be of people or places.

  Absolute (or mathematical) location describes an exact position or point

on the earth’s surface as defined by a set of mapped coordinates obtained
from a superimposed grid or measurement system. The use of latitude and
longitude, e.g.: Dhaka - latitude 23° 43' 23N , longitude 90° 24' 31E

2
  Relative location refers to the relational characteristics of a location
as described in generalized terms or with respect to other areas or
reference points on the earth. IT is described by landmarks, time,
direction or distance from one place to another and may associate a
particular place with another Measuring: N, S, E and W; km/ml; in
Asia, etc

  Pic of Dhaka’s Location.

1.2.2 PLACE

What kind of place is it?  What do you think of when you imagine China?  Japan? 
Russia?  Saudi Arabia?

Differences might be defined in terms of climate, physical features, or the people

who live there and their traditions.

Places have both human and physical characteristics:

 Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, soil, beaches,

wildlife, soil.  
 Human characteristics are derived from the ideas and actions of
people that result in changes to the environment, such as buildings,
roads, clothing, and food habits.

So, The image people have of a place is based on their experiences, both
intellectual and emotional.  People's descriptions of a place reveal their values,
attitudes, and perceptions.

How is your hometown connected to other places?  What are the human and
physical characteristics of Florence?  How do these shape our lives?
 

1.2.3.HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION

The relationship between human and enviornment is known as human and

environment interation. How do humans and the environment affect each other? 
We change the environment and then sometime Mother Nature changes it back. 

3
I
P
M
G
f
o
d
a
l
p
n
m
e
v
s
For example, floods in the mid-West, Hurricane Emily (Hatteras), and earthquakes
and mudslides in California.

There are three key concepts to human/environmental interaction:

Humans adapt on the environment.

 Humans modify the environment.
Humans depend to the environment.
Examples:
o We depend on the river for our water and transportation.  
o People modify our environment by heating and coolings buildings for
comfort.  
o People adapt to the environment by wearing clothing that is suitable for
summer and winter; rain and shine.

1.2.4. MOVEMENT

The movement includes movement of people, the import and export of goods, and
mass communication. All these have all played major roles in shaping our world. 
People is habituated to interct with each other everywhere.  They travel from place
to place and they communicate.  People interact with each other through
movement.  Humans occupy places unevenly on Earth because of the environment
but also because we are social beings.  We interact with each other through travel,
trade, information flows (E-Mail) and political events. Not only do humans move
but also ideas move; fashions move; fads move, informations move.  

1.2.5.REGION

4
A region is one of the basic unit of study in geography.  A region is an area that
displays a coherent unity in terms of the government, language, or possibly the
landform or situation.  Regions can be defined by a number of characteristics including
area, language, political divisions, religions, and nature.

Regions are human constructs that can be mapped and analyzed.

There are three basic types of regions.

Formal regions are those defined by governmental or administrative boundaries (i.

e., United States, Birmingham, Brazil).  These regional boundaries are not open to
dispute, therefore physical regions fall under this category (i. e., The Rockies, the
Great Lakes States).

Functional regions are those defined by a function (i. e., TVA, United Airlines
Service area or a newspaper service area).  If the function ceases to exists, the
region no longer exists.

Vernacular regions are those loosely defined by people's perception (i. e., The
South, The Middle East).  

5
 Figure 1: Five themes of Geography

1.3. Elements of Geography:

 Any phenomenon whose distribution differs from place to place is termed a spatial
variable and qualifies as an element of geography.There are many phenomena that
can be a focus of geographers, e.g. natural resources, humans, political systems,
economic activities, travel patterns, etc.

Figure 2: Major sub disciplines of physical and human

geography
6
The above graphic model indicates that the study of geography can also

variety of academic fields in both human and physical geography.

1.3.1. Example

The study of the enhancement of the Earth's greenhouse effect and the
resulting global warming requires a multidisciplinary approach for
complete understanding. The fields of climatology and meteorology are

P
H
G
p
c
i
s
m
u
a
r
g
o
e
y
h
n
involve a holistic synthesis. Holistic synthesis connects knowledge from a

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.

1.4 Types of Geography

These elements determine the type of geography in focus. Geography broadly is

divided into physical geography and cultural/ human geography.

Figure 3 : Types of Geography

So, we discovered that geography consists of at least two different sub-

fields of knowledge with similar methodology: Physical geography and

7
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.

 Physical Geography  Human Geography

 Rocks and Minerals  Population
 Landforms  Settlements
 Soils  Economic Activities
 Animals  Transportation
 Recreational
 Plants
Activities
 Water  Religion
 Atmosphere  Political Systems
 Rivers and Other
 Social Traditions
Water Bodies
 Environment  Human Migration
 Agricultural
 Climate and Weather
Systems
 Oceans  Urban Systems

Figure 4 : Major sub disciplines of physical and human geography.

8
1.4.1 Physical Geography:

Physical geography basically examines and investigates natural

phenomena. It 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.
Physical geography includes the following fields:

 Geomorphology - studies the various landforms on the Earth's surface.

 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.
 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.

1.4.2.Human/ Cultural Geography:

Human geography is one of the two major branches of geography and is often
called cultural geography. Human geography is the study of the many cultural
aspects found throughout the world and how they relate to the spaces and places

9
where they originate and then travel as people continually move across various
areas. Some of the main cultural phenomena studied in human geography include
language, religion, different economic and governmental structures, art, music, and
other cultural aspects that explain how and/or why people function as they do in
the areas in which they live.

It includes the following sub-discipline:

 Economic geography: study of the location, distribution and spatial

organization of economic activities across the earth.
 Political geography : is concerned with the study of both th espatially
eneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political
processes are themselves affected by spatial structure.
 Military geography : is used to military, academics and politicians to
understand the geopolitical sphere through the military lense.
 Ethnography : is aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena
which reflect the knowledge and system of meaning guiding the life of
a cultural group.
 Historical geography: is concerned with the geographies of the past
and with the influence of the past in shaping the geographies of the
present and future.
 Linguistic geography: deals with regional linguistic variations within
languages.

1.5 Definition of Economic Geography

Economic Geography is the study of the spatial variation on the earth’s
surface of economic activities related to producing, exchanging and
consuming goods and services.

Economic geography has taken to many different subject matters, including

the location of industries, economies of agglomeration (also known as
"linkages"), transportation, international trade and development, real estate,
gendered economies, core-periphery theory, the economics of urban form,
the relationship between the environment and the economy and
globalization.

10
1.6 What is economic activity?

In the world, people engage in different activities; the production, exchange (or
distribution) and consumption of goods and services. Anything people buy, barter
or work to produce, consume or exchange is an economic item.

1.6.1. Production:

It’s an economic process of converting inputs into outputs. Production uses

resources to create a good or service that is suitable for use.

A production process can be defined as any activity that increases the similarity
between the pattern of demand for goods and services, and the quantity, form,
shape, size, length and distribution of these goods and services available to the
market place.

 Primary:

Primary production includes activities such as harvesting commodities

from nature, hunting animals, extracting minerals from earth’s crust
fishing from river, lakes and oceans and the harvesting of trees.

 Secondary:

Secondary production increases the value of an existing item by

changing its form. Such activities include manufacturing and
commercial agriculture. For example, the farmer applies hybrid
seeds, fertilizers and modern technology in the form of cultivating and
harvesting equipment to increase the yield of crops.

 Purposeful tending of crops and livestock (commercial

agriculture)

 Increasing the value of commodities by changing their form

(manufacturing)

 Tertiary:

11
 Tertiary production involves the service sector rather than tangible
goods. It refers to a range of personal and business services involving
a rapidly growing share of labor force in the areas such as –
financial, health, entertainment, education, information, and data-
processing services; middle-management administrative services;
government bureaucrats.

 Quaternary:

Quaternary represents a special type of service work focusing on high-

level managerial and executive administrative positions (public and
private).

1.6.2 Exchange:
Exchange is simply an intermediate phase between production and distribution.
Goods and services are produced through the production process, people engaged
in the exchange of items whether it involves handling freight, wholesaling,
storage, telecommunications or passengers movement. Most such exchange
increases the value of an item.

 Transportation and distribution services:

 Increasing the value of commodities by changing their location

(freight transportation)

 Satisfying the needs of people by changing their location

(Passenger transportation)

 Telecommunications

 Exchanging services and ideas by telecommunication or face-

to-face contact

12
  Trade

 Warehousing and distribution function

 Wholesale trade

 Retail trade

An item, for example, a TV, is worth more when it leaves a distributor than
when it leaves the manufacturer, and its value continue to increase as it
passes from distributor to retailer and from retailer to consumer. This value
is increased at each level of exchange including promotion, financing and
merchandizing of the product.

1.6.3 Consumption:

Third aspect of all economic activity involves the consumption of goods and
services.
The term consumption refers to the final or direct use of goods and services
to satisfy the wants and needs of people. People of an economy consume
durable goods, such as automobiles, furniture’s and nondurable goods, such
as food, clothes and services such as doctor visit, haircut, and education.
Still other forms of consumption such as tourism and travel. Occasionally,
consumption may increase the worth of an object, as in enjoying an antique
table or a Rembrandt painting.

1.7. Importance of studying Economic Geography

Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and organization of

economic activities across the world. Economic geographer study not only highly
developed areas such as USA. Canada but also developing areas and centrally
planned economies. The growing interdependence among activities in all these
areas has intensified recent years. Therefore, economic geography provides the
student with a conceptual understanding of the changing fortunes of the world
economy. The economic geographer can explain patterns of economic activities
using a locational analysis that incorporates relevant theories and generalizations.

13
In turn these theories account for the variable level of economic development in
various world regions.

14