ECOLOGY Y GEOGRAPHY

TOPIC 1 - SESSION 01
INTRODUCTION TO
GEOGRAPHY
By Bárbara Nova-Franco, PhD
INTRODUCTION TO
GEOGRAPHY
Geography was born from that need, as a
science that helps to comprehend how the Earth
Works and the reasons for all phenomena
happening in your community and in the whole
world.
The word geography comes from the Greek
geo that means Earth and graphos that means
description; so we are going to talk about the
Earth description and all that means.
ERATOSTENES OF
CYRENE
Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a
Greek mathematician, astronomer
and geographer who invented the
word geography, and was the first
to demonstrate that Earth was
round and to calculate its
dimensions.
STRABO
The Roman philosopher and
historian Strabo was the first to
write a work called Geographica
where he recognized the
Aristotelian works as a basis, and
described some of the main
geographical concepts
PTOLEMY
The Greek philosopher Ptolemy
compiled most of Aristotle’s and
Strabo’s work, and based on them,
he wrote some world maps and
elaborated an important work
called Geographia, which included
ideas of the planetary order that
he obtained from his own research
and observations from the celestial
vault.
TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO
Other important investigations and
progresses for this science, were
given by the travels of Marco Polo
in the 12th century, the crusades,
and of course, the Spanish and
Portuguese explorations, since
these travels brought very relevant
information that was added to the
existing corpus of valuable
resources.
ALEXANDER VON
HUMBOLDT
Who was considered the father
of modern geography, and
studied the natural factors
regarded as a whole, and also
included historical studies.
CARL RITTER

He centered his
geographical work on the
analysis of cultural,
historical and economical
phenomena.
FRIEDRICH RATZEL
Presented a new theory
focused on demonstrating that
the physical medium determines
the social behaviors. This
thought is called geographical
determinism.
EMMANUEL D ́MARTONE
Defined Geography as “the study of the
distribution of physical, biological and
human phenomena, and the causes of such
distribution and the local relationships of
these phenomena with the Earth surface”
(Salinas, 2012).
D’Martone was the person who established
geography as both an authentic science as
well as a multidisciplinary science. This idea
was really different from that of the
Greeks, who regarded it merely as a
descriptive science.
GEOGRAPHICAL
INFORMATION
SYSTEMS (GIS)
More recently, new and
different challenges have
added up to geography, such
as the creation of Geographical
Information Systems (GIS), which
allow experts to perform
simultaneous data analysis and
to produce special models that
present new ways of regarding
and approaching to geography,
as well as new trails to explore.
 Ecology y Geography
Topic 1 – Session 2
Geography, a
Multidisciplinary Science
By Bárbara Nova-Franco, PhD
Geography, a
Multidisciplinary
Science
• Geography is a perfect example
of a multidisciplinary science that
integrates knowledge from many
sciences around it; given that in
order to study and explain its
object of study, the geographical
facts and phenomena, it needs
the help from other sciences. .
Ecology
• Ecology is one of them, which
you will study in the next
module, and deals with the
relationship between humans
and environment, how
mankind modifies it and how
they are changed by their
environment.
Economy
• Nonetheless, geography not only
has ecology on its side, it works also
very close with economy, which
studies the movement and
transport of goods, people and
services, and, therefore, needs to
know distances and Eme zones that
have an effect on goods arrivals and
departures.
Economy
• For instance, when the Mexican
stock exchange market has closed,
the Asian stock markets would be
opening, and then, the brokers
would need to know and observe
the time difference that could affect
their operations.
Tourism:
• Geography is also related
to Urbanism, which has to do
with the design of spaces in
the cities and, of course,
with Architecture, one of the
basis for tourism.
History:
• Likewise, it is related to
History, because it is
impossible to understand
how a population
behaves as it does,
without regarding the
geographical space in
which it dwells.
History:
• Do they have ready access to
water?
• Were their fields fer5le?
• Do their crops were easy to
grow?
• Were there good animals to
hunt?
• If the answers were affirma5ve,
the society would be likely to
spend 5me to develop in its
own territory and probably to
produce more and be@er
expressions in every field of
their lives.
History:
• On the contrary, if the
answers were negative,
this people would most
likely look forward to
conquer other lands, and
obtain the natural
resources they lack, or
move to more fertile
grounds.
Therefore, geography is related to many
other sciences that support it in its
mission to understand the human
activities and processes within its
particular environment.
 ECOLOGY AND
GEOGRAPHY
TOPIC 1 – SESSION 3
THE BRANCHES OF
GEOGRAPHY

By Bárbara
Nova-Franco, Phd
A S YO U H AV E J U S T S E E N , G E O G R A P H Y
H A S A G R E AT R E L AT I O N W I T H O T H E R
S C I E N C E S , A N D T H AT I S W H Y I T I S
D I V I D E D I N TO T H E FO L L OW I N G
BRANCHES:
 PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY
• Deals with the studies of
natural phenomena; that
is, those not involved with
human activity, such as
hurricanes, earthquakes,
tsunamis, storms or
tornados.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

• It supports on other
sciences,
• such as orography,
which is the study of land
reliefs, for example the
mountains and their
structure, form and
origin
 PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY

• It supports on other
sciences,
• hydrology, which
deals with the
surface continental
water and
groundwater;
P H YS I C A L G E O G R A P H Y

• It supports on other
sciences,
• glaciology, that is the
science that works on
and studies the
glaciers on Earth.
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY:

Studies societies and how the

occupation of territory affects
them and the environment.

It supports on sciences such

as:
 HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY:

• Anthropology
, that studies
the biological
and social
evolution of
the human
being
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY:

• Ethnography, which
examines the
cultural
characteristics of
society, including its
distribution.
 B I OLOG I CAL
G EOG RAP H Y

• Its field of study is

the flora and fauna
distribution and their
relationship with the
environment in
which they are
present
BIOLOGICAL
GEOGRAPHY
• why the
xerophytes
(e.g. cactus)
prevail in the
desert and not
in the jungle.
 BIOLOGICAL
GEOGRAPHY
• It is related to
sciences such
as
• Botany, which
studies the
plants, their
distribution and
relation with the
environment
 BIOLOGICAL
GEOGRAPHY
• Zoology, which
work field is the
distribution of
animals and
their relation
with their
habitat.
H AV I N G T H AT I N M I N D , A L L S C I E N C E S A R E
I N T E RC O N N E C T E D , A N D W H AT I S M O R E
R E L E VA N T, N O N E O F T H E M I S M O R E
I M P O RTA N T T H A N O T H E R O R I S A B OV E O F
O N E A N O T H E R , B U T T H E Y H AV E T O B E
R E GA R D E D W I T H A N I N T E R D I S C I P L I N A RY
V I E W.

I N T H I S C A S E , F RO M A G E O G R A P H I C A L
P E R S P E C T I V E , YO U C A N B E T T E R
U N D E R S TA N D T H E WO R L D YO U L I V E I N ,
A N D H OW D E C I S I O N S C A N R E C O N F I G U R E
T H E F U T U R E O F T H E P L A N E T.
 Ecology y Geography
Topic 1 – Session 4
Natural and Cultural Landscape
By Bárbara Nova-Franco, PhD
 • Earlier you read about
geography as a
multidisciplinary science,
Natural and which field of study is the
explanation of
Cultural Landscape geographical phenomena
and facts; however, what is
a phenomenon? What is a
fact?
Geographical
phenomena:

• The geographical phenomena

are temporary processes
occurring on the Earth´s
surface, including cyclones,
rain, volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, wildfires, a street
demonstration, etc.
Geographical facts:

• On the other hand,

geographical facts are
permanent elements on the
Earth’s crust such as seas,
rivers, forests, mountains,
cities, and the climate.
Facts and Phenomena:

• These facts and phenomena can

be physical, biological or human.
They happen on the terrestrial
surface and cause what is called
the landscape. Two different
kinds of landscapes can be
distinguished:
Natural landscape:
The one that has not been modified by
human action.
 Cultural landscape:
The one that has been created or changed by the
people, in order to adapt it to their needs.
Natural Landscape:

• A natural landscape has not

been altered by humans in
any sense; it is only nature’s
work and is formed by the
following elements:
• Soil: formed by minerals and organic particles
produced by wind and water erosion, as well
as the degradation of the vegetal cover.
• Water: vital for every living organism on Earth.
The main portion of water on Earth is liquid
and salty, and is found in the oceans.
• Climate: is the main state of the atmosphere in a
given Earth’s zone. It will determine how flora and
fauna can develop in that specific location, as well
as human activities that can be carried out in such
place.
 • Flora: the plant population in a location will be
defined for all the above factors. Consequently
different kinds of plants grow in different
ecosystems, for example the lianas that need big
amounts of water and shadow, grow in the jungle and
not in the deserts.
• Fauna: the animal population that dwells
in certain place, and it is determined also
by the earlier discussed elements.
Cultural landscape:

• On the other hand, the cultural

landscape is the one modified in one way
or another by human kind. That can be
done by building, mining, farming,
deforesting or other activities in the
region.

• In addition to the factors mentioned

above, we will add the following
components of cultural landscape:
Population:
vIt has to do with human population,
which is not distributed uniformly, rather
influenced by the water availability, the
kindness of the climate and the existence
of natural resources.
vThat is why the concept of demographic
density is analyzed, which is the ratio
between population and surface, and
indicates how population is distributed in
a given area.
vUsually, the higher the resources within a
region, the more densely populated;
which explains the low population living
in the deserts.
Production:
vThe objective is to transform those
resources given by nature into
satisfiers for all of us; for instance, to
produce coats from animal pelts, or a
delicious bread from a series of
grains.
vIn this case, the pelts and the grains
are called raw materials, while the
coats and the bread would be the
product.
vProduction changes and alters the
natural landscape and is the base of
the transportation into a cultural
landscape.
Communication:
vSince the adaptation of human
groups to the landscape,
communication became necessary to
exchange goods, people and
products, modifying in that way the
natural landscape.
vThe big Roman roads, the railroads
and any other communication means
for the goods exchange, change the
landscape, to satisfy the needs of
humans when they arrive to new
places beyond the horizon.