Geography

Vermeer, The geographer, Frankfurt amndt Hand, of: Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 1669

geography is the study of surface Ground. The word comes from :

  • ? ?? (hê gê) : Ground
  • ??????? (graphein) : to write

The geographers do not limit themselves to cartography - the study of the charts. They not only seek to establish what one can find on Earth and at which place, but also with to explain the organization present. They seek to determine:

  • causes, as well natural as human;
  • when they observe differences, theirs consequences.

Synopsis

Principal branches

Academically in France, one distinguishes:


Since about thirty years, one should add:

  • geopolitics, which it also has specialities, like the geopolitics of oil for example;

because, according to Yves Lacoste, creator and founder of the review Hérodote ([ 1 ]) in 1975 (review of geography and of geopolitics) : "the geography, that is initially used to make the war". See also the reviews Files, Geographical space founded in 1973 by Brownish Roger, Space time ([ 2 ]) founded in 1975 by Jacques Levy and Christian Grataloup, and full with others.

a field with the borders of economic geography and of microeconomy who studies the questions of economic localization, and economic relations between the world one (universalization) and the room (regional planning, pole of competence, delocalization...)

  • geomatic, which is even more recent. This branch of the geography is distinguished from the preceding ones by the recourse to the tool data processing, to analyze the territory. It supplements the Information systems developed in addition in other disciplines by a space reference: geographical localization, usually defined by a frame of reference géographiques(X, Y, Z). One distinguishes the Geographical Information systems thus (SIG) and satellite teledetection.
  • analyze space cover a unit with tools but also with concepts allowing to model the space structures and to analyze space dimensions of the life in company.
Potentiel de richesse dans le Monde en 1990
Potential of richness in the World in 1990


Finally the concept of scale is essential in geography: according to whether the geographer studies all planet (small scale) or only one part of this one (great scale), one speaks about general geography or of regional geography.

History of the geography

The Greeks are the first civilization known to have studied the geography, at the same time like science and philosophy. Thalès de Milet, Hérodote, Eratosthene, Hipparque, Aristote, Ptolémée major contributions to the discipline brought. The Romans brought new techniques whereas they charted new areas.

During the Middle Ages, Arab geographers, such asIdrisi, Ibn Battuta, and Ibn Khaldun preserved and enriched the heritage gréco-Roman. The interest for the geography in Europe re-appeared starting from the voyages of Marco Polo with XIIIE century. XVe with XVIIIe century, by great forwardings, often maritime, immensely increased the knowledge of planet. One can quote, among many others, forwardings of Vasco de Gama, Christophe Colomb, Magellan and James Cook. The cartography progressed at the same time, at the same time by new methods, solid theoretical foundations, and by the quantity of new knowledge brought by exploration. Charts of the world of Geographica Generalis, by Bernard Varenius and those of Gerardus Mercator illustrate with glare.

With XVIIIE century, the geography is recognized like a discipline with whole share, taught in the universities. Vidal of Blache is the French geographer marking of the end of XIXème.

During two centuries spent, one attended an explosion of the techniques and knowledge. There are very strong bonds between the geography, and of sciences like geology, botany, climatology, etc.

Techniques

The geography requires to be able to locate the various parts of the Earth the ones compared to the others. With this intention many techniques were developed through the history:

The introduction of Data processing in Geography made it possible to the Geographers to develop a discipline with whole share: " Géomatique ». Géomatique is a whole of methods and tools allowing acquisition, storage, management as well as the data dissemination to space reference. They are tools like the "Geographical Information systems" (SIG), which is used to cross geolocalized information and to carry out multi-criteria space analyses.

See too

Lists

Related articles

External bonds

Gate Geography - Reach the articles of Wikipédia concerning the geography.

 

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