• A place is a specific point on Earth distinguished by a par-ticular characteristic. Every place occupies a unique loca-tion, or position, on Earth’s surface, and geographers havemany ways to identify location.

• A region is an area of Earth distinguished by a distinctivecombination of cultural and physical features. Human geog-raphers are especially concerned with the cultural featuresof a group of people in a region—their body of beliefs andtraditions, as well as their political and economic practices.

The third key issue in this chapter looks at geography’s othermain “why” question. Geographers want to know why differentplaces on Earth have similar features. For example, why dopeople living far apart from each other practice the same reli-gion and earn a living in similar ways?

Three basic concepts—scale, space, and connections—helpgeographers explain why these similarities do not result fromcoincidence.

• Scale is the relationship between the portion of Earthbeing studied and Earth as a whole. Although geographersstudy every scale from the individual to the entire Earth,increasingly they are concerned with global-scale patternsand processes.

• Space refers to the physical gap or interval between twoobjects. Geographers observe that many objects are distrib-uted across space in a regular manner, for discernable reasons.

• Connections are relationships among people and objectsacross the barrier of space. Geographers are concerned withthe various means by which connections occur.

KEY ISSUE 1

How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

■ Maps■ Contemporary Tools

Geography’s most important tool for thinking spatiallyabout the distribution of features across Earth is a map:“[B]efore travel began a map existed first” (Zbigniew Her-bert, “Home,” in Still Life with a Bridle).

As you turn the pages of this book, the first thingyou may notice is the large number of maps—more than200. These maps range in size from small boxes coveringpart of a city (Figure 2-31) to two-page spreads of theentire world (Figures 5-16 and 6-2). Some are highlydetailed, with complex colors, lines, points, and shad-ings, whereas others seem highly generalized and unre-alistic. For centuries, geographers have worked toperfect the science of mapmaking, called cartography.Contemporary cartographers are assisted by computersand satellite imagery. ■

FIGURE 1-1 Satellite image of the world. The composite image was assembled by the Geosphere Project ofSanta Monica, California. Thousands of images were recorded over a ten-month period by satellites of theNational Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The images were then electronically assembled,much like a jigsaw puzzle.

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts 5

6 The Cultural Landscape

MapsA map is a scale model of the real world, made small enough towork with on a desk or computer. It can be a hasty here’s-how-to-get-to-the-party sketch, an elaborate work of art, or a precisecomputer-generated product. A map serves two purposes: It isa tool for storing reference material and a tool for communicat-ing geographic information.

• As a reference tool. A map helps us to find the shortestroute between two places and to avoid getting lost along theway. We consult maps to learn where in the world some-thing is found, especially in relation to a place we know,such as a town, body of water, or highway. The maps in anatlas or a road map are especially useful for this purpose.

• As a communications tool. A map is often the bestmeans for depicting the distribution of human activities orphysical features, as well as for thinking about reasonsunderlying a distribution.

A series of maps of the same area over several years canreveal dynamic processes at work, such as human migration orspread of a disease. Patterns on maps may suggest interactionsamong different features of Earth. Placing information on amap is a principal way that geographers share data or results ofscientific analysis.

Early MapmakingFrom the earliest human occupancy of Earth, people have beencreating maps to assist with navigation. The earliest survivingmaps were drawn in the Middle East in the seventh or sixth cen-tury BC (Figure 1-2). Miletus, a port in present-day Turkey,became a center for geographic thought and mapmaking in theancient world. Thales (624?–546? BC) applied principles ofgeometry to measuring land area. His student, Anaximander(610–546? BC), made a world map based on information fromsailors, though he portrayed Earth’s shape as a cylinder. Hecateusmay have produced the first geography book around 500 BC.

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was the first to demonstrate thatEarth was spherical. He observed that matter falls togethertoward a common center, that Earth’s shadow on the Moon iscircular during an eclipse, and that the visible groups of starschange as one travels north or south.

Eratosthenes (276?–194? BC), the first person of record touse the word geography, also accepted that Earth was sphericaland calculated its circumference within a remarkable 0.5 per-cent accuracy. He prepared one of the earliest maps of theknown world, correctly dividing Earth into five climaticregions—a torrid zone across the middle, two frigid zones at theextreme north and south, and two temperate bands in between.

Two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire controlled anextensive area of the known world, including much of Europe,northern Africa, and western Asia. Taking advantage of infor-mation collected by merchants and soldiers who traveledthrough the Roman Empire, the Greek Ptolemy (AD

100?–170?) wrote an eight-volume Guide to Geography. Hecodified basic principles of mapmaking and prepared numer-ous maps, which were not improved upon for more than a

thousand years. Ancient Greek and Roman maps were com-piled in the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. “Wecan’t truly understand the Greeks and Romans without goodmaps that show us their world,” explained Barrington Atlaseditor Richard J. A. Talbert.

After Ptolemy, little progress in mapmaking or geographicthought was made in Europe for several hundred years. Mapsbecame less mathematical and more fanciful, showing Earthas a flat disk surrounded by fierce animals and monsters.Geographic inquiry continued, though, outside of Europe.

FIGURE 1-2 The oldest known maps. (top) A seventh-century BC map of a plan for the town of Çatalhöyük, in present-day Turkey. Archaeologistsfound the map on the wall of a house that was excavated in the 1960s. (middle)A color version of the Çatalhöyük map. A volcano rises above the buildings ofthe city. (bottom) A world map from the sixth century BC depicts a circular landarea surrounded by a ring of water. The ancient city of Babylon is thought to beshown in the center of the land area and other cities are shown as circles.Extending out from the water ring are seven islands that together form a starshape.

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts 7

• The oldest Chinese geographical writing, from the fifthcentury BC, describes the economic resources of the coun-try’s different provinces. Phei Hsiu (or Fei Xiu), the “fatherof Chinese cartography,” produced an elaborate map of thecountry in AD 267.

• The Muslim geographer al-Idrisi (1100–1165?) prepared aworld map and geography text in 1154, building onPtolemy’s long-neglected work. Ibn-Battutah (1304–1368?)wrote Rihlah (“Travels”) based on three decades of journeyscovering more than 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles)through the Muslim world of northern Africa, southernEurope, and much of Asia.

A revival of geography and mapmaking occurred during theAge of Exploration and Discovery. Ptolemy’s maps were redis-covered, and his writings were translated into European lan-guages. Columbus, Magellan, and other explorers who sailedacross the oceans in search of trade routes and resourcesrequired accurate maps to reach desired destinations withoutwrecking their ships. In turn, cartographers such as GerardusMercator (1512–1594) and Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598)took information collected by the explorers to create moreaccurate maps (Figure 1-3).

By the seventeenth century, maps accurately displayed theoutline of most continents and the positions of oceans. Bern-hardus Varenius (1622–1650) produced Geographia Generalis,which stood for more than a century as the standard treatise onsystematic geography.

Map ScaleThe first decision a cartographer faces is how much of Earth’s sur-face to depict on the map. Is it necessary to show the entire globe,or just one continent, or a country, or a city? To make a scale

model of the entire world, many details must be omitted becausethere simply is not enough space. Conversely, if a map shows onlya small portion of Earth’s surface, such as a street map of a city, itcan provide a wealth of detail about a particular place.

The level of detail and the amount of area covered on a mapdepend on its scale. When specifically applied to a map, scalerefers to the relationship of a feature’s size on a map to its actualsize on Earth. Map scale is presented in three ways (Figure 1-4).

• A ratio or fraction shows the numerical ratio between dis-tances on the map and Earth’s surface. A scale of 1:24,000 or1/24,000 means that 1 unit (inch, centimeter, foot, fingerlength) on the map represents 24,000 of the same unit (inch,centimeter, foot, finger length) on the ground. The unit cho-sen for distance can be anything, as long as the units ofmeasure on both the map and the ground are the same. The1 on the left side of the ratio always refers to a unit of dis-tance on the map, and the number on the right always refersto the same unit of distance on Earth’s surface.

• A written scale describes this relation between map andEarth distances in words. For example, the statement “1inch equals 1 mile” on a map means that 1 inch on the maprepresents 1 mile on Earth’s surface. Again, the first num-ber always refers to map distance, and the second to dis-tance on Earth’s surface.

• A graphic scale usually consists of a bar line marked toshow distance on Earth’s surface. To use a bar line, firstdetermine with a ruler the distance on the map in inches orcentimeters. Then hold the ruler against the bar line andread the number on the bar line opposite the map distanceon the ruler. The number on the bar line is the equivalentdistance on Earth’s surface.

Maps often display scale in more than one of these three ways.

FIGURE 1-3 Map of the world made in1571 by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius(1527–1598). Compare the accuracy of thecoastlines on Ortelius’s map with the recent imageof the world based on satellite photographs(Figure 1-1).

8

The appropriate scale for a map depends on the informationbeing portrayed. A map of a downtown area, such as Figure 1-4bottom, has a scale of 1:10,000, whereas the map of Washing-ton State (Figure 1-4 top) has a scale of 1:10,000,000. One inchrepresents about 1/6 mile on the downtown Seattle map andabout 170 miles on the Washington State map.

At the scale of a small portion of Earth’s surface, such as adowntown area, a map provides a wealth of details about theplace. At the scale of the entire globe, a map must omit manydetails because of lack of space, but it can effectively communi-cate processes and trends that affect everyone.

ProjectionEarth is very nearly a sphere and therefore accurately repre-sented in the form of a globe. However, a globe is an extremelylimited tool with which to communicate information aboutEarth’s surface. A small globe does not have enough space todisplay detailed information, whereas a large globe is too bulkyand cumbersome to use. And a globe is difficult to write on,photocopy, display on a computer screen, or carry in the glovebox of a car. Consequently, most maps—including those in thisbook—are flat. Three-dimensional maps can be made but areexpensive and difficult to reproduce.

Earth’s spherical shape poses a challenge for cartographersbecause drawing Earth on a flat piece of paper unavoidablyproduces some distortion. Cartographers have invented hun-dreds of clever methods of producing flat maps, but none hasproduced perfect results. The scientific method of transfer-ring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map is calledprojection.

The problem of distortion is especially severe for mapsdepicting the entire world. Four types of distortion can result:

1. The shape of an area can be distorted, so that it appearsmore elongated or squat than in reality.

2. The distance between two points may become increasedor decreased.

3. The relative size of different areas may be altered, so thatone area may appear larger than another on a map but isin reality smaller.

4. The direction from one place to another can be distorted.

Most of the world maps in this book, such as Figure 1-19,are equal area projections. The primary benefit of this type ofprojection is that the relative sizes of the landmasses on themap are the same as in reality. The projection minimizes distor-tion in the shapes of most landmasses. Areas toward the Northand South poles—such as Greenland and Australia—becomemore distorted, but they are sparsely inhabited, so distortingtheir shapes usually is not important.

WaterfrontPark

SeattleArt Museum

Pike PlaceMarket

DowntownSeattleDowntownSeattle

Bellevue

Shoreline

EdmondsLynnwood

KirklandRedmond

Sammamish

Auburn

Bothell

WASHINGTONSeattle

0 .05 .1 MILE

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0 0.5 1 MILE

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All

sate

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imag

ery

pro

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BellevueSammamishh

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ShorelineShoreli

EdmondsndsLynnwoodnw

KirklandKiRedmond

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SeattleSeattleDowntownDowntownS ttlS tl

FIGURE 1-4 Map scale. The four images show Washington State (first), western Washington(second), the Seattle region (third), and downtown Seattle (fourth). The map of Washington State hasa fractional scale of 1:10,000,000. Expressed as a written statement, 1 inch on the map represents 10million inches (about 158 miles) on the ground. Look what happens to the scale on the other threemaps. As the area covered gets smaller, the maps get more detailed, and 1 inch on the map representssmaller distances.

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts 9

To largely preserve the size and shape of landmasses, how-ever, the projection in Figure 1-19 forces other distortions:

• The Eastern and Western hemispheres are separated intotwo pieces, a characteristic known as interruption.

• The meridians (the vertical lines), which in reality con-verge at the North and South poles, do not converge at allon the map. Also, they do not form right angles with theparallels (the horizontal lines).

Two types of uninterrupted projections display informationas shown in Figure 1-13 and 1-23 on pages 18 and 30.

• The Robinson projection, in Figure 1-23, is useful for dis-playing information across the oceans. Its major disadvan-tage is that by allocating space to the oceans, the landareas are much smaller than on interrupted maps of thesame size.

• The Mercator projection in Figure 1-13 has several advan-tages: Shape is distorted very little, direction is consistent,and the map is rectangular. Its greatest disadvantage is thatarea is grossly distorted toward the poles, making high-lat-itude places look much larger than they actually are.

Compare the sizes of Greenland and South America in themaps shown in Figures 1-13 and 1-19. The map in Figure 1-19illustrates their size accurately.

U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785In addition to the global system of latitude and longitude, othermathematical indicators of locations are used in different partsof the world. In the United States, the Land Ordinance of1785 divided much of the country into a system of townshipsand ranges to facilitate the sale of land to settlers in the West.The initial surveying was performed by Thomas Hutchins, whowas appointed geographer to the United States in 1781. AfterHutchins died in 1789, responsibility for surveying was trans-ferred to the Surveyor General.

In this system, a township is a square 6 miles on each side.Some of the north–south lines separating townships are calledprincipal meridians, and some east–west lines are designatedbase lines (Figure 1-5, upper left).

Each township has a number corresponding to its distancenorth or south of a particular base line. Townships in the firstrow north of a base line are called T1N (Township 1 North),the second row to the north is T2N, the first row to the south isT1S, and so on.

Each township has a second number, known as the range,corresponding to its location east or west of a principal merid-ian. Townships in the first column east of a principal meridianare designated R1E (Range 1 East). The Tallahatchie River, forexample, is in township T23N R1E, north of a base line thatruns east–west across Mississippi and east of a principal merid-ian along 90° west longitude.

A township is divided into 36 sections, each of which is1 mile by 1 mile (Figure 1-5, lower left). Sections are numberedin a consistent order, from 1 in the northeast to 36 in the south-east. Each section is divided into four quarter-sections, designatedas the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest quarters of aparticular section. A quarter-section, which is 0.5 mile by 0.5 mile,

or 160 acres, was the amount of land many Western pioneersbought as a homestead. The Tallahatchie River is located in thesoutheast and southwest quarter-sections of Section 32.

The township and range system remains important inunderstanding the location of objects across much of theUnited States. It explains the location of highways across theMidwest, farm fields in Iowa, and major streets in Chicago.

Contemporary ToolsHaving largely completed the formidable task of accuratelymapping Earth’s surface, which required several centuries,geographers have turned to Geographic Information Science(GIScience) to learn more about places. GIScience helps geog-raphers to create more accurate and complex maps and tomeasure changes over time in the characteristics of places.

Satellite-based ImageryGIScience is made possible by satellites in orbit above Earthsending information to electronic devices on Earth to recordand interpret information. Satellite-based information allowsus to know the precise location of something on Earth and dataabout that place.

GPS. The system that accurately determines the precise positionof something on Earth is GPS (Global Positioning System). TheGPS system in the United States includes three elements:

• Satellites placed in predetermined orbits by the U.S. military(24 in operation and 3 in reserve)

• Tracking stations to monitor and control the satellites• A receiver that can locate at least 4 satellites, figure out the

distance to each, and use this information to pinpoint itsown location.

GPS is most commonly used for navigation. Pilots of aircraftand ships stay on course with GPS. On land, GPS detects avehicle’s current position, the motorist programs the desireddestination, and GPS provides instructions on how to reach thedestination. GPS can also be used to find the precise location ofa vehicle, enabling a motorist to summon help in an emergencyor monitoring the progress of a delivery truck or position of acity bus. Geographers find GPS to be particularly useful in cod-ing the precise location of objects collected in fieldwork. Thatinformation can later be entered as a layer in a GIS.

GPS devices enable private individuals to contribute to theproduction of accurate digital maps, through web sites likeGoogle's OpenStreetMap.org. Travelers can enter informationabout streets, buildings, and bodies of water in their GPSdevices, so that digital maps can be improved or in some casesbe created for the first time.

REMOTE SENSING. The acquisition of data about Earth’ssurface from a satellite orbiting Earth or from other long-distancemethods is known as remote sensing. Remote-sensing satellitesscan Earth’s surface, much like a television camera scans animage in the thin lines you can see on a TV screen. Images aretransmitted in digital form to a receiving station on Earth.

10

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Memphis

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Biloxi

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FIGURE 1-5 Township and range system. To facilitate thenumbering of townships, the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785designated several north–south lines as principal meridians andseveral east–west lines as base lines (upper left). As territory fartherwest was settled, additional lines were delineated. Townships aretypically 6 miles by 6 miles, although physical features, such asrivers and mountains, result in some irregularly shaped ones(upper right). The Tallahatchie River, for example, is located in thetwenty-third township north of a base line that runs east–westacross Mississippi and in the first range east of the principalmeridian at 90° west longitude. Townships are divided into 36sections, each 1 square mile. Sections are divided into fourquarter-sections. The Tallahatchie River is located in the southeastand southwest quarter-sections of Section 32, T23N R1E. Thetopographic map (lower left), published by the U.S. GeologicalSurvey, has a fractional scale of 1:24,000. Expressed as a writtenstatement, 1 inch on the map represents 24,000 inches (2,000 feet)on the ground. The map displays portions of two townships,shown on the above map. The brown lines on the map are contourlines that show the elevation of any location.

11

CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHIC TOOLSNavigation Devices from Hand-Drawn to Electronic

The earliest maps were simple navigationdevices designed to show the travelerhow to get from Point A to Point B. Forexample, Polynesian peoples navigatedamong South Pacific islands for thou-sands of years using three-dimensionalmaps called stick charts, made of stripsfrom palm trees and seashells. The shellsrepresented islands, and the palm stripsrepresented patterns of waves betweenthe islands (Figure 1-6).

After 3,000 years of ever more com-plex, detailed, and accurate cartography,contemporary maps have reverted totheir earliest purpose, as simple naviga-tion devices. But to figure out how to getfrom one place to another, you no longerhave to unfurl an ungainly map filledwith hard-to-read information irrelevantto your immediate journey. Instead, youprogram your desired destination into anelectronic navigation device. Because itknows where you are now, the device can

tell you the route to take from your cur-rent location to your desired location.Electronic navigation devices have beeninstalled in the dashboards of motor vehi-cles and in handheld devices such asmobile phones, personal digital assistants(PDAs), and personal navigation devices(PNDs). All of these devices depend onGPS receivers to pinpoint your currentlocation.

Most trips involve making a choicefrom among alternative routes. Naviga-tion devices calculate which route willget you from Point A to Point B in thefastest time. Time is a function of a com-bination of speed and distance. Theshortest route may not always be thequickest, because every road segmenthas an expected speed depending on itsnature—an interstate highway has ahigher expected speed than a local road.

The best route is also affected by attrib-utes of the road, such as the presence of

crosswalks, traffic lights, and turn restric-tions. Current technology does not incor-porate every possible attribute, such asconstruction, weather, and time of day, butpresumably, future models will.

Two companies are responsible forsupplying most of the information fedinto navigation devices: Navteq, short forNavigation Technologies, and Tele Atlas,originally known as Etak. Navteq, basedin the United States, and Tele Atlas, basedin the Netherlands and Belgium; bothwere founded in 1985. Navteq and TeleAtlas get their information from whatthey call “ground truthing.” Hundreds offield researchers drive around, buildingthe database. One person drives whilethe other feeds information into a note-book computer. Hundreds of attributesare recorded, such as crosswalks, turnrestrictions, and name changes. Thus,electronic navigation systems ultimatelydepend on human observation. ■

FIGURE 1-6 Polynesian “stick chart,” a type of ancient map. Islands were shown with shells, and patterns ofswelling of waves were shown with palm strips. Curved strips and straight strips made of palm representeddifferent wave swells. This ancient example depicted the sea route between Ailinglapalap and Namu, two islandsin the present-day Marshall Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. The top of the stick chart faces southeast.

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.5000 m

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At any moment a satellite sensor records the image of a tinyarea called a picture element or pixel. Scanners are detectingthe radiation being reflected from that tiny area. A map createdby remote sensing is essentially a grid containing many rowsof pixels. The resolution of the scanner determines the small-est feature on Earth’s surface that can be detected by a sensor.Some can sense objects as small as 1 meter across.

GISA computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze,and display geographic data is a GIS (geographic informationsystem). The key to GIS is geocoding: The position of anyobject on Earth can be measured and recorded with mathemat-ical precision and then stored in a computer.

GIS can be used to produce maps (including those in thisbook) that are more accurate and attractive than those drawnby hand. A map can be created by asking the computer toretrieve a number of stored objects and combine them to forman image. In the past, when cartographers drew maps with penand paper, a careless moment could result in an object beingplaced in the wrong location, and a slip of the hand could ruinhours of work. GIS is more efficient for making a map thanpen and ink: Objects can be added or removed, colors bright-ened or toned down, and mistakes corrected (as long ashumans find them!) without having to tear up the paper andstart from scratch.

Each type of information can be stored in a layer. Forexample, separate layers could be created for boundaries ofcountries, bodies of water, roads, and names of places. A sim-ple map might display only a single layer by itself, but mostmaps combine several layers (Figure 1-7), and GIS permitsconstruction of much more complex maps than can be drawnby hand.

The value of GIS extends beyond the ability to make com-plex maps more easily. Layers can be compared to showrelationships among different kinds of information. To under-stand the impact of farming practices on water pollution, aphysical geographer may wish to compare a layer of vegeta-tion with a layer of bodies of water. To protect hillsides fromdevelopment, a human geographer may wish to compare alayer of recently built houses with a layer of steep slopes.

Scottish environmentalist Ian McHarg pioneered a tech-nique of comparing layers of various physical and social fea-tures to determine where new roads and houses should bebuilt and where the landscape should be protected fromdevelopment. When McHarg was developing the techniqueduring the 1960s—before the diffusion of powerful micro-computers and GIS software—he painstakingly created lay-ers by laying hand-drawn plastic transparencies on top of each other. A half-century later, his pioneering techniquecan be replicated quickly on a desktop computer with GISsoftware.

GIS enables geographers to calculate whether relationshipsbetween objects on a map are significant or merely coinciden-tal. For example, maps showing where cancer rates are rela-tively high and low (such as those in Figure 1-17) can be

combined with layers showing the location of people withvarious incomes and ethnicities, the location of differenttypes of factories, and the location of mountains and valleys.Desktop computer users have the ability to do their own GIS,because computer mapping services provide access to theapplication programming interface (API), which is the lan-guage that links a database such as an address list withsoftware such as mapping. The API for mapping software,available at such sites as www.google.com/apis/maps, enablesa computer programmer to create a mash-up that places dataon a map.

The term mash-up refers to the practice of overlaying datafrom one source on top of one of the mapping services andcomes from the hip-hop practice of mixing two or more songs.Mash-up maps can show the locations of businesses and activi-ties near a particular street or within a neighborhood in acity. The requested information could be all restaurants within1⁄2 mile of an address or, to be even more specific, all pizza par-lors. Mapping software can show the precise location of com-mercial airplanes currently in the air, the gas stations with thecheapest prices, and current traffic tie-ups on highways andbridges (Figure 1-8).

In some cities, mash-ups assist in finding housing. They canpinpoint the location of houses currently for sale and apart-ments currently for rent. A map showing the prices of recentlysold houses in the area can help a potential buyer determinehow much to offer. A map showing the locations of crimein the city can help the buyer determine the safety of the

Remotelysensedimage

Hydrology

Forest cover

Soils

Compositeoverlay

Topographicbase

Landownership

FIGURE 1-7 GIS. Geographic information systems involve storing informationabout a location in layers. Each layer represents a different piece of humanor environmental information. The layers can be viewed individually or incombination.

12 The Cultural Landscape

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts 13

surrounding area. Bars, hotels, sports facilities, transit stops,and other information about the neighborhood can be mapped.

KEY ISSUE 2

Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique?

■ Place: Unique Location of a Feature■ Regions: Areas of Unique Characteristics■ Spatial Association

Each place on Earth is in some respects unique and inother respects similar to other places. The interplaybetween the uniqueness of each place and the similaritiesamong places lies at the heart of geographic inquiry intowhy things are found where they are. ■

Two basic concepts help geographers to explain why everypoint on Earth is in some ways unique—place and region. Thedifference between the two concepts is partly a matter of scale:A place is a point, whereas a region is an area.

Place: Unique Location of a FeatureHumans possess a strong sense of place—that is, a feeling for thefeatures that contribute to the distinctiveness of a particular spoton Earth, perhaps a hometown, vacation destination, or part of a

country. Describing the features of a place orregion is an essential building block for geogra-phers to explain similarities, differences, andchanges across Earth. Geographers think aboutwhere particular places and regions are locatedand the combination of features that make eachplace and region on Earth distinct.

Geographers describe a feature’s place onEarth by identifying its location, the positionthat something occupies on Earth’s surface, andin doing so consider four ways to identify loca-tion: place name, site, situation, and mathemati-cal location.

Place NamesBecause all inhabited places on Earth’s sur-face—and many uninhabited places—havebeen named, the most straightforward way todescribe a particular location is often by refer-ring to its place name. A toponym is the namegiven to a place on Earth (Figure 1-9).

A place may be named for a person, perhaps its founder ora famous person with no connection to the community.George Washington’s name has been selected for one state,counties in 31 other states, and dozens of cities, including thenational capital. Places may be named for an obscure person,such as Jenkinjones, West Virginia, named for a mine opera-tor, and Gassaway, West Virginia, named for a U.S. senator.

Some settlers select place names associated with religion,such as St. Louis and St. Paul, whereas other names derive fromancient history, such as Athens, Attica, and Rome. A placename may also indicate the origin of its settlers. Place namescommonly have British origins in North America and Australia,Portuguese origins in Brazil, Spanish origins elsewhere in LatinAmerica, and Dutch origins in South Africa.

Pioneers lured to the American West by the prospect of find-ing gold or silver placed many picturesque names on the land-scape. Place names in Nevada selected by successful minersinclude Eureka, Lucky Boy Pass, Gold Point, and Silver Peak.Unsuccessful Nevada pioneers sadly or bitterly named otherplaces, such as Battle Mountain, Disaster Peak, and MassacreLake. The name Jackpot was given in 1959 by the Elko,Nevada, county commissioners to a town near the Idaho stateborder in recognition of the importance of legalized gamblingto the local economy.

Some place names derive from features of the physical envi-ronment. Trees, valleys, bodies of water, and other natural fea-tures appear in the place names of most languages. The capitalof the Netherlands, called �s-Gravenhage in Dutch (in English,The Hague), means “the prince’s forest.” Aberystwyth, inWales, means “mouth of the River Ystwyth,” while 22 kilome-ters (13 miles) upstream lies the tiny village of Cwmystwyth,which means “valley of the Ystwyth.” The name of the river,Ystwyth, in turn, is the Welsh word for “meandering,” descrip-tive of a stream that bends like a snake.

FIGURE 1-8 Mash-up. Chicago Transit Authority mash-up shows location of buses and bus stopsalong three routes. Rolling the mouse over a bus stop shows when the next three buses are expected.