What is physical geography What does spatial mean and how does it apply to physical geography?

‘Physical geography focuses upon the character of, and processes shaping, the land-surface of the Earth and its envelope, emphasizes the spatial variations that occur and the temporal changes necessary to understand the contemporary environments of the Earth. Its purpose is to understand how the Earth’s physical environment is the basis for, and is affected by, human activity. Physical geography was conventionally subdivided into geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, and biogeography, but is now more holistic in systems analysis of recent environmental and Quaternary change. It uses expertise in mathematical and statistical modelling and in remote sensing, develops research to inform environmental management and environmental design, and benefits from collaborative links with many other disciplines such as biology (especially ecology), geology and engineering’ (K. Gregory 2002). However, R. Inkpen (2005) makes the soundly based claim that there is not a single history of physical geography.

Between 1850 and 1950, the main ideas that had a strong influence on the discipline were uniformitarianism, evolution, exploration and survey, and conservation (G. P. Marsh 1864). In the 1960s, ‘a new type of physical geography began to emerge that accentuated a concern with dynamic processes of earth systems. This new approach, which has evolved to the present, is founded on basic physical, chemical, and biological principles and employs statistical and mathematical analysis. It has become known as the “process approach” to physical geography…Over the past fifteen years, physical geographers, who have always acknowledged that the systems they study are complex, have turned to emerging ideas in the natural sciences about nonlinear dynamical systems and complexity to explore the relevance of these ideas for understanding physical-geographic phenomena’ (Rhoads (2004) AAAG 94, 4). ‘Advances in remote sensing, geographical information systems and information technology have enabled a more global approach; a second new development has been the advent of a more culturally-based approach throughout many branches of physical geography. By 2000 a series of issues can be identified including the increasingly holistic trend, greater awareness of a global approach and of environmental change problems, and of the timely opportunities which can arise from closer links with human geography and with other disciplines’ (Gregory (2001) Fennia 179, 1).

Harden (2011) Phys. Geog. 33, 1, 1 writes that ‘while the sub-discipline of physical geography remains firmly grounded in research undertaken to explain Earth’s landscapes and its geomorphic, hydrologic, atmospheric, cryospheric, petrologic, and biogeographical processes, which change over time and space, the extent of the human “footprint” on this planet challenges physical geographers to pay greater attention to the role of people in environmental change and the interactions between people and their environments’.

This page focuses on general resources for Physical Geography. For specific subjects under Physical Geography, see the other pages in this guide.

The geographically informed person must understand that physical and human phenomena are distributed across Earth’s surface and see meaning in their arrangements across space. Geography usually starts with questions such as, “Where?” “What is it like here?” and “Why is this located there and not here?” When considering “where” questions, geographers seek regularities—that is, patterns as well as relationships among phenomena (the features of Earth and activities that take place on Earth). They describe and explain patterns in terms of distance, direction, density, and distribution. They use spatial concepts, processes, and models as powerful tools for explaining the world at all scales, local to global.

Therefore, Standard 3 contains these themes: Spatial Concepts, Spatial Patterns and Processes, and Spatial Models.

Spatial concepts provide a language for describing the arrangement of people, places, and environments. Arrangements can be characterized in terms of proximity, distance, scale, clustering, distribution, etc.

Once students start to identify spatial patterns and use maps and remotely sensed images to discover patterns, then they can begin to explore why the patterns and relationships among phenomena exist as they do, that is, what processes produce the patterns. Processes are the driving forces and underlying causes of observable patterns.

Students must understand the mechanisms underlying processes, from the physical activities that shape the environment to the human processes of economic development, urbanization, migration, and cultural change. Models are idealized and simplified representations based on assumptions about reality, and they can help students analyze spatial organization by demonstrating properties of physical and human features, by simplifying the complexity of reality, and by serving as a source of working hypotheses in research. Models can be organized along a continuum from concrete reality (a globe or a diorama) to higher degrees of abstraction and generalization (models of urban structures, spatial interactions, and physical processes).

Understanding these themes and related concepts enables students to explore the patterns of human and physical phenomena and the processes that influence these patterns. Students use models to convey knowledge and generalizations related to Earth’s spatial organization. The use of spatial thinking brings a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexity and interconnectedness of the physical and human world.

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