THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Geography 101
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Geography
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BOX 1 |
Did anyone ever ask you where something was or how to get to a place? How did you answer? What reference points did you use? Did you tell them it was near something? Or perhaps use either compass points or local directions, like "Go mauka about two blocks ...." In answering, you were displaying your knowledge of local geography and struggling with one of the oldest mental challenges in science: how to describe where something is.
This challenge forms the basis of the science of Geography, which describes where things are and then goes on to explain why they are there. The science's professional organization, the Association of American Geographers, summarizes:
"Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment. Geography is unique in linking the social sciences and natural sciences together. Geographers also study the relationships between human activity and natural systems. There are two main branches of geography: human geography and physical geography. Human geography is concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence. Physical geographers study patterns of climates, land forms, vegetation, soils, and water. Geographers use many tools and techniques in their work, and geographic technologies are increasingly among the most important emerging fields for understanding our complex world. They include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), online mapping such as Google Earth, and others." |
This class focuses on physical geography of the natural environment: its climate, land forms, vegetation, soils, and water. For example, we might look at Hawaiian rainfall. First, we discuss what we know about the processes that affect rainfall, then study a map of the rainfall distribution and try to understand the rainfall pattern in terms of those processes, i.e. we study where the rainfall is and why it is there.
In Hawai'i, hundreds of physical geography studies have been done. They include:
- wind mapping on Maui using tree deformation
- fog drip effect on recharge in the Kohala mountains
- wind and solar energy potential mapping
- UV-B exposure in Hawaiian mountains
- erosion by small landslides in O'ahu valleys
- water balance of the Pearl Harbor aquifer
- monk seal population on Laysan Island
- and many, many more.
All of these studies mapped something in the environment. A rule of thumb is: if you can map it, it's geography. Remember that simple rule if you see a question on a test asking you to identify a geographic study.
The Four Spheres
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BOX 2 |
Once a phenomenon has been identified and mapped, geographers attempt to explain the distribution. In other words, they ask, "What explains the pattern?" This requires a physical understanding of the subject in question. All natural phenomena interact with their surroundings and thus, geographers must have an integrated understanding of components of the natural environment.
Natural phenomena group conveniently into four categories, or spheres: atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, each of which interacts continuously with the others. Please read a description of the four spheres from NASA's Classroom of the Future (or click the Earth's Spheres icon above). Read through the information given and try to answer the study questions in Box 2.
In this course, our study of physical geography will be organized around Earth's four environmental spheres. First, however, we look at a classical geographic description of the Earth from the mapmaker's perspective.