1.

0 Introduction

Geography is a word that comes from two Greek roots. Geo refers to ―Earth,‖ and -graphy means
―picture or writing.‖ The primary objective of geography is the examination, description, and
explanation of Earth—its variability from place to place, how places and features change over time,
and the processes responsible for these variations and changes. Geography is often called the
spatial science because it includes recognizing, analyzing, and explaining the variations, similarities,
or differences in phenomena located (or distributed) on Earth’s surface.

Geography is distinctive among the sciences by virtue of its definition and central purpose. Unlike
most scientists in related disciplines (for example, biologists, geologists, chemists, economists), who
are bound by the phenomena they study, geographers may focus their research on nearly any topic
related to the scientific analysis of human or natural processes on Earth. Geographers generally
consider all of the human and natural phenomena that are relevant to a given problem or issue; in
other words, they often take a holistic approach to understanding aspects of our planet (i.e. the
Earth).

Geographers study the physical and/or human characteristics of places, seeking to identify and
explain characteristics that two or more locations may have in common as well as why places vary in
their geographic attributes. Geographers gather, organize, and analyze many kinds of geographic
data and information. The unifying factor among geographers is the focus on explaining spatial
locations, distributions, and relationships. They apply a variety of skills, techniques, and tools to the
task of answering geographic questions. Geographers also study processes that influenced Earth’s
landscapes in the past, how they continue to affect them today, how a landscape may change in the
future, and the significance or impact of these changes.

Because geography embraces the study of virtually any global phenomena, it is not surprising that
the subject has many subdivisions and it is common for geographers to specialize in one or more
subfields of the discipline. Geography is also subdivided along academic lines; some geographers are
social scientists and some are natural scientists, but most are involved in studying human or natural
processes and how they affect our planet, as well as the interactions among these processes.

Geographers are interested in how to divide and synthesize areas into meaningful divisions called
regions, which are areas identified by certain characteristics they contain that make them distinctive
and distinguish them from surrounding areas. A region can be defined by characteristics that are
physical, human, or a combination of factors. Geographic study that concentrates on both the
general physical and human characteristics of a region, such as the Sahara, is termed regional
geography.

1.1 The Subfields of Geography

1.1.1 Physical Geography

Physical geography encompasses the processes and features that make up Earth, including human
activities where they interface with the environment. In fact, physical geographers are concerned
with nearly all aspects of Earth and can be considered generalists because they are trained to view a
natural environment in its entirety, and how it functions as a unit. However, after completing a
broad education in basic physical geography, most physical geographers focus their expertise on
advanced study in one or two specialties. For example, meteorologists and climatologists consider how the
interaction of atmospheric components influences weather and climate. Meteorologists are
interested in the atmospheric processes that affect daily weather, and they use current data to
forecast weather conditions. Climatologists are interested in the averages and extremes of long-term
weather data, regional classification of climates, monitoring and understanding climatic change and
climatic hazards, and the long-range impact of atmospheric conditions on human activities and the
environment.

The study of the nature, development, and modification of landforms is a specialty called
geomorphology, a major subfield of physical geography. Geomorphologists are interested in
understanding and explaining variation in landforms, the processes that produce physical landscapes,
and the nature and geometry of Earth’s surface features. The factors involved in landform
development are as varied as the environments on Earth, and include gravity, running water, stresses
in the Earth’s crust, flowing ice in glaciers, volcanic activity, and the erosion or deposition of Earth’s
surface materials.

Biogeographers examine natural and human-modified environments and the ecological processes that
influence their characteristics and distributions, including vegetation change over time. They also
study the ranges and patterns of vegetation and animal species, seeking to discover the
environmental factors that limit or facilitate their distributions.

Many soil scientists are geographers, who are involved in mapping and analyzing soil types,
determining the suitability of soils for certain uses, such as agriculture, and working to conserve soil
as a natural resource.

Finally, because of the critical importance of water to life on Earth, geographers are widely involved
in the study of water bodies and their processes, movements, impact, quality, and other
characteristics. They may serve as hydrologists, oceanographers, or glaciologists. Many geographers involved
with water studies also function as water resource managers, who work to ensure that lakes,
watersheds, springs, and groundwater sources are suitable to meet human or environmental needs,
provide an adequate water supply, and are as free of pollution as possible.

1.1.2 Human Geography

The main subdivision that deals with human activities and the impact of these activities is called
cultural or human geography. Human geographers are concerned with such subjects as population
distributions, cultural patterns, cities and urbanization, industrial and commercial location, natural
resource utilization, and transportation networks.

Human geography deals with the world as it is and with the world as it might be made to be. Its
emphasis is on people: where they are, what they are like, how they interact over space, and what
kinds of landscapes of human use they erect on the natural landscapes they occupy. It encompasses
all those interests and topics of geography that are not directly concerned with the physical
environment or, like cartography, are technical in orientation.

The content of Human Geography provides integration for all of the social sciences, for it gives to
those sciences the necessary spatial and systems viewpoint that they otherwise lack. At the same
time, human geography draws on other social sciences in the analyses identified with its subfields,
such as behavioral, political, economic, or social geography.
Human geography admirably serves the objectives of a liberal education. It helps us to understand
the world we occupy and to appreciate the circumstances affecting peoples and countries other than
our own. It clarifies the contrasts in societies and cultures and in the human landscapes they have
created in different regions of the earth. Its models and explanations of how things are interrelated
in earth space give us a clearer understanding of the economic, social, and political systems within
which we live and operate. Its analyses of those spatial systems make us more aware of the realities
and prospects of our own society in an increasingly connected and competitive world. Our study of
human geography, therefore, can help make us better-informed citizens, more able to understand
the important issues facing our communities and our countries and better prepared to contribute to
their solutions. Importantly, it can also help open the way to wonderfully rewarding and diversified
careers as professional geographers.

NOTE
Geography in all its subdivisions is characterized by three dominating interests. The first is in the
areal variation of physical and human phenomena on the surface of the earth. Geography examines
relationships between human societies and the natural environments that they occupy and modify.
The second is a focus on the spatial systems that link physical phenomena and human activities in
one area of the earth with other areas. Together, these interests lead to a third enduring theme, that
of regional analysis: geography studies human–environmental—―ecological‖—relationships and
spatial systems in specific locational settings.

1.2 Why Geography Matters

There are three good reasons people study geography. First, it is the only discipline concerned with
understanding why and how both physical and cultural phenomena differ from place to place on the
surface of the earth. For example, the study of tectonic forces helps in the understanding of the
development of landforms. Similarly, the discussion of cultural geography gives the learner a
framework for understanding the technological, sociological, and ideological components of culture
and an awareness of the forces that bring about changes in a culture over time.

Second, a grasp of the broad concerns and topics of geography is vital to an understanding of the
national and international problems that dominate daily news reports. Global climate change, the
diffusion of AIDS and other diseases, international trade imbalances, inadequate food supply and
population growth in developing countries, turmoil in Africa and the Middle East—all of these
problems have geographic dimensions, and geography helps explain them. To be geographically
illiterate is to deny oneself not only the ability to comprehend local and world problems but also the
opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the development of policies for dealing with them.

Third, because geography is such a broad field of study, a great diversity of job opportunities await
those who pursue college training in the discipline. Geographic training opens the way to careers in a
wide array of fields. Geographical techniques of analysis are used for interpreting remotely sensed
images, determining the optimum location for new businesses, monitoring the spread of infectious
diseases, delineating voting districts, and a host of other tasks.
1.3 Core Geographic Concepts
Geographers use the word spatial as an essential modifier in framing their questions and forming
their concepts. Geography is a spatial science. It is concerned with the spatial behaviour of
people, with the spatial relationship that are observed between places on the earth‟s surface and
with the spatial processes that create or maintain those behaviors and relationships.
The word spatial comes from space, and to geographers, it always carries the idea of the way
items are distributed, the way movements occur, and the way processes operate over the whole
or a part of the surface of the earth. The geographer‟s space, then, is earth space, the surface area
occupied or available to be occupied by humans. Spatial phenomena have locations on that
surface and spatial interactions occur between places, things and people within earth area
available to them. The need to understand those relationships, interactions and processes helps
frame the questions that geographers ask.
Those questions have their starting point in basic observations about the location and nature of
places and about how places are similar to or different from one another. Such observations are
profoundly important to our comprehension of the world we occupy.

1.3.1 Location, Direction and Distance

Location
The location of places and objects is the starting point of all geographic study as well as of all
our personal movements and spatial actions in everyday life. We think of and refer to location in
at least two different senses, absolute and relative.
Absolute location is the identification of place by some precise and accepted system of
coordinates. It is sometimes called mathematical location. An example of such accepted system
of pinpointing positions is the global grid of parallels and meridians. With it, the absolute
location of any point on the earth can be accurately described by reference to its degrees, minutes
and seconds of latitude and longitude.
Absolute location is unique to each described place, is independent of any other characteristic or
observation about that place and has obvious value in the legal description of places, in
measuring the distance separating places, or in finding directions between places on the earth‟s
surface.
Relative location is the position of a place in relation to that of other places or activities. It
expresses spatial interconnection and interdependence and may carry social (neighbourhood
character) and economic (assessed valuation of vacant land) implications. On an immediate and
personal level, we think of the location of the school library not in terms of its street address or
room number but where it is relative to our classrooms, or the cafeteria, or some other reference
point. On the larger scene, relative location tells us that people, things and places exist not in
spatial vacuum but in a world of physical and cultural characteristics that differ from place to
place.
In view of these different ways of looking at location, geographers make a distinction between
the site and situation of a place. Site, an absolute location concept, refers to the physical and
cultural characteristics and attributes of the place itself. It is more than the mathematical location,
for it tells us something about the internal features of that place. Situation, on the other hand,
refers to the external relations of the locale. It is an expression of relative location with particular
reference to items of significance to the place in question

Direction
Like location, it has more than one meaning and can be expressed in absolute or relative terms.
Absolute direction is based on the cardinal points of north, south, east and west. These appear
uniformly and independently in all cultures, derived from the obvious “givens” of nature: the
rising and setting of the sun for east and west, the sky location of the noontime sun and of certain
fixed stars for north and south.
Relative or relational direction refers to a culturally based locational reference. Examples are
„the Far East‟, „the Near East‟ „the West‟, „the Middle East‟, „down south‟ „up North‟, and so on.
These directional references are culturally based and locationally variable, despite their reference
to cardinal compass points. The Near East and the Far East locate parts of Asia from the
European perspective. „Up North‟ and „Down South‟ reflect our accepted custom of putting
north at the top and south at the bottom of our maps

Distance
Distance joins location and direction as a commonly understood term that has dual meanings for
geographers. Distance may also be viewed in both an absolute and relative sense.
Absolute distance refers to the spatial separation between two points on the earth‟s surface
measured by some accepted standard unit such as miles or kilometres for widely separated
locales, feet or metres for some more closely spaced points.
Relative distance transforms linear measurements into other units more meaningful for the space
relationship in question. It considers distance in terms of time or money. Most people, in fact,
think of time distance rather than linear distance in their daily activities: the library is a 5-minute
walk, Kisumu Town is a 1-hour journey by Matatu. In some instances, money rather than time
may be the distance transformation. For instance, an urban destination may be estimated to be a
Ksh. 150 Matatu ride away. A psychological transformation of linear distance is also frequent.
The solitary late-night walk back home through an unfamiliar or dangerous neighborhood seems
far longer than a day-time stroll of the same distance through familiar and friendly territory. A
first-time trip to anew destination frequently seems much longer than the return trip over the
same path.
Distance relationships, their measurement, and their meaning for human spatial interaction are
fundamental to our understanding of Human Geography.
1.3.2 Size and Scale
Geographers are concerned with scale, though we may use that term in different ways. We can,
for example, study a problem-say population or agriculture- at the local scale, the regional scale
or on a global scale. Here, the reference is purely to the size of unit studied.
More technically, scale tells us the mathematical relationship between the size of an area on a
map and the actual size of the mapped area on the surface of the earth. In this sense, scale is a
feature of every map and essential too recognizing the areal meaning of what is shown on that
map.
In both senses of the word, scale implies the degree of generalization represented. Geographic
inquiry may be broad or narrow; it occurs at many different size scales. Climate may be an object
of study, but research and generalization focused on climates of the world will differ in degree
and kind from study of microclimates of a city.
Awareness of scale is very important. In geographic work, concepts, relationships and
understandings that have meaning at one scale may not be applicable at another.

1.3.3 Physical and Cultural Attributes

All places have physical and cultural attributes that distinguish them from other places and give
them character, potential and meaning. Geographers are concerned with identifying and
analyzing the details of those attributes, and particularly with recognizing the interrelationship
between physical and cultural components of area: the human-environment interface.
Physical characteristics refer to such natural aspects of a locale as its climate and soil, the
presence or absence of water supplies and mineral resources, its terrain features, and the like.
These natural landscape attributes provide the setting within which human action occurs. They
help shape- but do not dictate-how people live. The resource base, for example, is physically
determined, though how resources are perceived and utilized is culturally conditioned. People
modify the environmental conditions of a given place simply by occupying it. Virtually, every
human activity leaves its imprint on an area‟s soils, water, vegetation, animal life, and other
resources and on the atmosphere common to all earth space. The impact of humans has been so
universal and so long exerted that essentially no “natural landscape” any longer exists.
The cultural landscape is the natural landscape as modified by human activities and bearing the
imprint of a culture group or society. It is the built environment. Geographers are ever aware that
physical content of an area is also important in understanding the activity patterns of people and
the interconnections between people and the environments they occupy and modify. Thos
interconnections and modifications are not static or permanent, however, but are subject to
continual change. For example, wetlands when drained, may be transformed into productive,
densely settled farmland, while the threat or occurrence of eruption of a long-dormant volcano
may quickly and drastically alter established patterns of farming, housing and transportation on
or near its flanks.
1.3.4 The changing Attributes of Place
Characteristics of places, today, are the result of constantly changing past conditions. They are,
as well, the forerunners of differing human-environmental balances yet to be struck. Geographers
are concerned with places at given moments of time. But to fully understand the nature and
development of places, to appreciate the significance of their relative locations, and to
comprehend the interplay of their physical and cultural characteristics, geographers must view
places as the present result of past operations of distinctive physical and cultural processes.

1.3.5 Interrelations between Places

In describing the processes and patterns of spatial interaction, geographers add accessibility and
connectivity to the ideas of location and distance. A basic law of geography tells us that in a
spatial sense everything is related to everything else but that relationships are stronger when
items are nearer one another. Our observation, therefore, is that interaction between places
diminishes in intensity and frequency as distance between them increases- a statement of the idea
of distance decay
Consideration of distance implies assessment of accessibility. How easy or difficult is it to
overcome the „friction of distance‟? That is, how easy or difficult is it to surmount the barrier of
the time and space separation of places? Accessibility therefore suggests the idea of
connectivity, a broader concept implying all the tangible and intangible ways in which places are
connected: by physical telephone lines, street and road systems, pipelines and sewers, by
unrestrained walking across open countryside, by radio and TV broadcasts beamed outward
uniformly from a central source.
Where routes are fixed and flow is channelized, networks- the patterns of routes connecting sets
of places- determine the efficiency of movement and the connectedness of points. Demand for
universal instantaneous accessibility and connectivity is common and unquestioned in today‟s
advanced societies.
There is, inevitably, interchange between connected points. Spatial diffusion is the process of
dispersion of an idea or an item from a centre of origin to more distant points with which it is
directly or indirectly connected. The rate and extent of that diffusion are affected by the distance
separating the originating centre, say, a new idea or technology and other places where it is
eventually adopted. Diffusion rates are also affected by population densities, means of
communication, advantages of innovation and importance or prestige of the originating node.
Geographers study the dynamics of spatial relationships. Movement, connection and interaction
are part of the social and economic processes that give character to places and regions.
Geography‟s study of those relationships recognizes that spatial interaction is not just an
awkward necessity but a fundamental organizing principle of human life on earth. That
recognition has become universal, repeatedly expressed in the term globalization. Globalization
implies the increasing interconnection of all peoples and societies in all parts of the world as well
as full range of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental processes become
international in scale and effect. Promoted by continuing advances in worldwide accessibility
and connectivity, globalization encompasses other core geographic concepts of spatial
interaction, accessibility, connectivity and diffusion.
1.3.6 The Structured Content Place
A starting point for geographic inquiry is how objects are distributed in an area- for example, the
placement of churches or supermarkets within a town. That interest distinguishes geography
from other sciences, physical or social, and underlies many of the questions geographers ask:
where is the thing located? How is that location related to other items? How did the location we
observe come to exist? Such questions carry the conviction that the contents of an area are
comprehensibly arranged or structured.
The arrangement of items on the earth‟s surface is called spatial distribution and may be
analyzed by the elements common to all spatial distributions: density, dispersion and pattern.

Density
This is the measure of the number or quantity of anything within a defined unit of area. It is
therefore a count of items in relation to the space in which they are found. When the relationship
is absolute, as in population per square kilometre, or dwelling units per acre, we are defining
arithmetic density. Sometimes, it is more meaningful to relate item numbers to a specific kind of
area. Physiological density, for example, is a measure of the number of persons per unit area of
arable land.
Densities are normally employed comparatively, relative to one another. High or low density
implies a comparison with a known standard, with an average or with a different area.

Dispersion
Dispersion (or its opposite, concentration) is a statement of the amount of spread of a
phenomenon over an area. It tells us not how many or how much but how far things are spread
out. If they are close together spatially, they are considered clustered or agglomerated. If they
are spread out, they are dispersed or scattered.

Pattern
This is the geometric arrangement of items in space. Pattern refers to distribution, but that
reference emphasizes design rather than spacing. Settlement, for instance, may be described as
linear (distribution of settlements along a railroad, street or course of a river), centralized pattern
(settlements concentrated around a single node) or randomly distributed pattern (unstructured
irregular distribution).

1.3.7 Place Similarity and Regions

The physical and cultural content of an area and the dynamic interconnections of people and
places show patterns of spatial similarity. Often, the similarities are striking enough for us to
conclude that spatial regularities exist. They permit us to recognize and define regions.
Regions are earth areas that display significant elements of internal uniformity and external
difference from surrounding territories. Places are, therefore, both unlike and like other places,
creating patterns of areal differences and coherent spatial similarity.
 Region is a device of areal generalization that segregates into component parts the complex
reality of the earth‟s surface. In both the time and the space need for generalization, attention is
focused on key unifying elements or similarities of the area selected for study.
Regions are devised; they are spatial summaries designed to bring order to the infinite diversity
of the earth‟s surface. At their root, they are based on the recognition and mapping of spatial
distributions- the territorial occurrence of environmental, human or organizational features
selected for study.
Since regions are mental constructs, different observers employing different criteria may bestow
the same regional identity on differently bounded areal units. In each case, however, the key
characteristics that are selected for study are those that contribute to the understanding of a
specific topic or problem.

Types of Regions
Regions can be formal, functional or perceptual. `

Formal or Uniform Regions

These are areas of essential uniformity in one or a limited combination of physical or cultural
features. It is a region distinguished by uniformity of one or more characteristics that can serve
as the basis for areal generalization and of contrast with adjacent areas. Your home country is a
precisely bounded formal political region within which uniformity of law and administration is
found. In Formal or homogeneous cultural region, there exists standardized characteristics of
language, religion, ethnicity or economy. Whatever the basis of its definition, the formal region
is the largest area over which a valid generalization of attribute uniformity may be made.
Whatever is stated about one part of it holds true for its remainder.

Functional or Nodal region

This is a region differentiated by what occurs within it rather than by homogeneity of physical or
cultural phenomena. It is an earth area recognized as an operational unit based upon defined
organizational criteria. The concept of unity is based on interaction and interdependence between
different points within the area.
It has a core area in which its characterizing features are most clearly defined; they lessen in
prominence towards the region‟s margin or periphery. As the degree and extent of areal control
and interaction change, the boundaries of the functional region change in response. An example
is trade area of a town.

Perceptual /Vernacular/Popular Region

This is a region perceived to exist by its inhabitants or the general populace. It has reality as an
element of popular culture or folk culture represented in the mental maps of average people.
Perceptual regions reflect feelings and images rather than objective data and because of that may
be more meaningful in the lives and actions of those who recognize them than are the more
abstract regions of geographers.
Ordinary people have a clear idea of spatial variation and employ the regional concept to
distinguish between territorial entities. People individually and collectively agree on where they
live. The vernacular regions they recognize have reality in their minds and are reflected in
regionally based names employed in businesses, by sports teams or in advertising slogans.
Vernacular regions reflect the way people view space, assign their loyalties and interpret their
world. Less clearly perceived by outsiders but unmistakable to their inhabitants are the „turfs‟ of
urban clubs or gangs. Their boundaries are sharp, and the perceived distinctions between them
are paramount in the daily lives and activities of their occupants.

REFERENCES

Fellman, J.D., Getis, A., Getis, J. & Malinowski, J. (2005). Human Geography: Landscapes of Human
Activities (8th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill
Getis, A., Bjelland, M. & Getis, V. (2014). Introduction to Geography (14th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gabbler, R.E., Petersen, J.F., Trapasso, L.M. & Sack, D. (2009). Physical Geography (9th edition).
Belmont, CA, USA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.