Understanding Regional Geography

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Understanding Regional Geography

• IREL204

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Regions

• Like all concepts in Geography, Regions are human
  constructs. They are basic units in the study of
  Geography, that help us look at spatial extents.
• We conceptualize regions so we can
• organize phenomena spatially
• Understand patterns and make generalizations
  based on the spatial organization of phenomena
• This spatial organization is based on unique
  characteristics
• What can be organized this way?
• People
• Places
• Things/Activities
• Ideas

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Conceptualizing Regions

• How do we conceptualize regions?
• Special or unique criteria identify regions
• These criteria can be
• Spatial (a particular location on the earths
  surface)
• Boundaries that delimit spaces
• Physical
• Climate, Vegetation
• Cultural
• Like Language, or Religion, or Cultural Practices
• Economic
• Like Agriculture, Industry

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How do we identify Regions?

• We construct categories that help us identify,
  classify, categorize regions.
• These three categories are not mutually exclusive
  
• How we define something has much to do with what
  we are looking for or why we want to look for it
• So we can look at a very small snapshot of an
  area, or look at quite large territorial
  expanses, and both are considered regions
• We can look at Regions as Worlds within Worlds
• The Onion Metaphor Contextual reality, like
  peeling back layers of onion
• Formal
• Functional
• Perceptual

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Formal Regions

• A region is formal when its characteristics are
• relatively uniform, or homogeneous
• When those characteristics make it
• distinct from other regions
• give it a cohesiveness that sets it apart from
  other places
• More similarities exist within the region than
  between the region and someplace else
• Often defined by administrative boundaries
• (like official country borders, for example)
• Because regional boundaries are not open to
  dispute, physical regions (like mountains,
  plains, forests, etc, fall in this category)
• Example The Amazon Rainforest, The Alps, The
  Great Lakes

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Example of Formal Regions

• Remember we use many criteria to identify these
  categories
• Formal Regions can be purely locational,
  characterized by some aspect relating to their
  location
• Example Western Pacific, the Balkans, the Middle
  East
• Formal Regions can also be based on one criterion
  or multiple criteria
• The European Union covers a wide spatial extent
  of linguistically, culturally, religiously,
  industrially and politically diverse territory.
  It is a formal region not because there are
  language similarities, or religious similarities,
  or cultural similarities, but because it is a
  conceptual union of (primarily) distinct,
  homogeneous and cohesive economic activity. The
  Union is also working towards political
  uniformity and cohesiveness by devising a
  European Constitution. So even though many
  cultural, economic, and even physical variations
  exist within the region, the organizing
  characteristic that defines it as a formal region
  is primarily economic, and (soon to be?)
  political.

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Functional Regions

• A functional region is an area that does
  something performs a function over a particular
  space
• This function can be relatively uniform or nodal
  (spatial interaction) in its distribution
• Uniform distribution of a function (or utility)
  is when a particular characteristic is spread
  (relatively) consistently and with the same
  concentration across the entire region
• Example Physical criterion Climate
• Example Economic criterion the Euro
• Example Cultural criterion English-speaking
  countries

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• A functional region is a nodal region (from the
  Latin nodus knot) when it connects or serves as
  a point-to-point intersection between a
• Core (hub, center) and a
• Hinterland (periphery, surroundings)
• The function originates at the core and
  disseminates through the periphery
• At least one kind of spatial interaction has to
  occur between the core and hinterland for the
  region to be considered functional
• They can be Macro (large-scale) or Micro
  (small-scale)

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Examples of Functional Regions

• A city-transit system (like the Metro)
• Syntagma is the central, or core station from
  which all other lines originate and travel
  outward to the periphery
• Newspaper circulation
• National newspapers, printed at the core (hub of
  town, typically) disseminated throughout the
  country
• Malls
• Centralized core of commercial activity, all
  surrounding regions serviced by the shopping
  center
• Ports
• Act as the hub, core, center of shipping
  activity, imports, exports, trading that service
  the entire surrounding areas, entire country
• A Metro Area (MA) is a good example
• Metro Areas are large population centers
• major cities in an area with their surrounding
  zones
• They are often the core of political, economic,
  and cultural activity that spreads out to the
  surrounding areas
• Government centers for example
• Commuting patterns (people who work in the city,
  live outside the city)
• Recreation (theaters, stadiums, concert halls,
  etc)

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• Perceptual Regions
• A region is perceptual when it reflects shared,
  human attitudes about an area
• Because it reflects human attitudes, it is a
  subjective snapshot of a particular area
• May often bear bias, prejudice embedded in the
  way we conceptualize particular areas
• Often considered to be actual spatial units, even
  though
• they typically have no specific or clearly
  defined borders
• no official (formal, i.e., collectively and
  administratively agreed) name for the area

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Examples of Perceptual Regions

• The Balkans Powder Keg of Europe
• Political References the political tensions
  linked to linguistic, religious, and often ethnic
  considerations in the rise of nation-states and
  the fight for political self-determination in the
  Balkans of the 19th century
• The Bible Belt
• Religious/Cultural References the socially
  conservative religious beliefs of inhabitants of
  the Southern/Southeastern United States
• What examples can you think of?

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Worlds within Worlds

• Generalizing about the world in terms of regions
  helps us classify the vast information we have
  about the world in categories that we can compare
  and contrast
• Regionalization is sometimes necessary in order
  to differentiate people, places, events so that
  we can study them better.
• Regions are transitive they are subject to
  change over time, because borders are
  renegotiated, political systems or regimes rise
  and fall, migratory patterns, language diffusion
  and religious dissemination can all change the
  nature or character of a place

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Extended Application

• Think of Africa, one of the seven continents
• It is the second largest land mass on Earth after
  Asia
• It has a population of roughly a billion
• Comprised of 53 countries
• About 1/3 of the worlds languages are located in
  Africa
• Do you consider it one uniform region?
• Why? What criteria would you use to describe its
  uniformity?
• Why not? What criteria would you use to describe
  its variations?

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SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA NORTH AFRICA

Physical Criteria Physical Criteria
greater variety more dry
Sahara desert provides a large, strong, sparsely populated border Sahara desert provides a large, strong, sparsely populated border

Cultural Criteria Cultural Criteria
great variety of languages (1/3 of all languages are in Africa) Mostly Arabic
predominately Christian and local religions Mostly Islam
predominately Black African predominately Caucasian
political criteria not useful since realm boundary cuts through several countries political criteria not useful since realm boundary cuts through several countries

Economic Criteria Economic Criteria
subsistence agriculture nomadic herding
shifting cultivation subsistence agriculture
oil

Historical Criteria Historical Criteria
West African culture hearth Nile River culture hearth
part of Ottoman Empire
European colonization occurred in both realms European colonization occurred in both realms
Source Healy, Mark (2009) Harper College
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Thinking about Current Events

• Typhoon Ketsana
• List the countries that were hit by Typhoon
  Ketsana.
• Use the interactive GoogleEarth tool to find
  their coordinates (http//itouchmap.com/?rgooglee
  arth)
• You may have to download the GoogleEarth Plugin
• Plot points for the affected countries where
  Ketsana hit.
• What common physical characteristics do you see
  in their locations?
• Hint Use the Find Location tab to lookup the
  countries, they will automatically be plotted on
  the map.
• Typhoon Parma
• List the countries that were hit by Typhoon
  Parma.
• Use the tracker to view the course of Typhoon
  Parma (here) (http//www.wunderground.com/tropical
  /tracking/wp200919_flashtool.html?extraprodflasht
  oolMR1)
• Move your cursor over the plotted points on the
  map points will show the latitudinal
  longitudinal points of the storms progression.
• What is the coordinate range of Typhoon Parma?
• What common physical characteristics do you see
  in their locations?

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• Regional Analysis
• What part of the world did Ketsana hit? What part
  of the world did Typhoon Parma hit?
• (East or West? North or South? Continent? Region?
  Sub-region?)
• Consult the Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification
  Map.
• Use the map key to find the Letter Designation
  for the region.
• What type of climate characterizes the region?
• What is the latitude and longitude range for this
  climate?

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Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Philippines
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