Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
geographical research (by the work of anarchist
geographers such as Kropotkin and by the Marxist
critique of positivist science) at the beginning of
the seventeenth century, such concerns were far
from the thoughts of those practising geography.
Varenius, one of the founders of geography as a
formal academic discipline, justified the subject on
three grounds:
areas; by A.E.Smailes on the conurbations, local
administrative boundaries, the concept of a city-
region, and, most perceptively, on the possible
role of regional parliaments; and by L.D. Stamp,
who employed the methods of survey and
analysis in his land-use studies of Britain (Stamp
1946).
A similar concern with land-use issues
characterised applied geography in North
America between the wars. The tradition of
resource inventory encapsulated in the numerous
explorations and surveys of the American west was
continued in the work of C.Sauer on landuse
classification. Sauer's land-use survey of Michigan
was of the same genre as the First Land Utilisation
Survey of Britain, organised by Stamp. In the field
of water resource management, between 1935 and
1938, H.Barrows drew up plans for the
distribution of user rights to the waters of the
upper Rio Grande between the states of Colorado,
New Mexico and Texas. The importance of
applied geographical research was also
demonstrated in economic development planning
by the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as
overseas, as in the preparation of a rural land
classification and development plan for Puerto
Rico.
Geographical research was also applied in the
private sector during the inter-war years, notable
examples being C.Thornthwaite's use of
knowledge of climatology for the benefit of the
dairy industry in New Jersey, and the work of
W.Applebaum on the location of new retail
outlets for the Kroger company. This latter work
pioneered the development of marketing
geography as an applied field covering issues such
as competitive impact analysis and the application
of academic models of travel patterns to the
business sector (Applebaum 1961).
Applied geographers have also been called into
service in times of war and its aftermath. The skills
of terrain analysis, air-photograph and satellite
imagery interpretation, intelligence gathering,
weather forecasting, mapping, route planning and
logistics are all of vital importance for military
planning. Geographical knowledge and skills are
of equal value during the ensuing peace in, for
1
its value being well suited to man as the
dominant species on Earth;
2
its being a pleasant and worthy recreation to
study the regions of the Earth and their
properties; and
3
'its remarkable utility and necessity, since
neither theologians, nor medical men, nor
lawyers, nor historians, nor other educated
persons can do without knowledge of
geography if they wish to advance in their
studies without hindrance' (Bowen 1981: p.
282).
The commercial and political nature of applied
research continued as an important feature of the
discipline throughout the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In one of the earliest
published references to applied geography, Keltie
(1890) sought to demonstrate the importance of
geographical knowledge for history and especially
industry, commerce and colonisation. Similarly, in
North America the early efforts of the American
Geographical Society at the turn of the century
supported exploration and expeditions in the
hope of producing 'not only new scientific data
but facts of practical use to the merchant or
missionary' (Wright 1952: p. 69).
In the early decades of the twentieth century,
the development of applied geography was
advanced by A.J.Herbertson (1910), who
envisaged the role of geographical prospector
mapping the economic value and potential of
regions, and by P.Geddes (1915), who was both
the founding father of planning and an advocate
and exponent of applied geography based on his
dictum of 'survey before action'. The scope of
applied geography was broadened by 'action-
oriented' research undertaken in the 1930s in the
UK by G.H.Daysh on the problems of distressed
