Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
than at any previous time in its history. Neither the complexity
of the Earth's surface nor the short history of the discipline can
be regarded as the weaknesses they once were. Geography is now
well prepared to perform its mission.
Environmental concerns present geography with obvious
opportunities. First, there are the opportunities associated with
the need to understand the biophysical environment itself.
Past, present, and future patterns, processes, and changes
in the biophysical environment need to be reconstructed,
measured, monitored, modelled, mapped, and predicted by
physical geographers. Second, there are parallel opportunities
for human geographers to explore the economic, political,
social, and cultural dimensions of the human environment and
of human environmental change. But there are even greater
opportunities for integrated geographers, who focus on two-way
interactions between the biophysical environment and people,
including, amongst other topics, the perception and mitigation
of natural hazards, pollution, and disease; land degradation and
restoration; the exploitation and sustainability of resources; the
conservation and preservation of biodiversity, geo-diversity, and
heritage; and the human dimensions of local, regional, and global
environmental change.
There are parallel opportunities associated with the core
concepts of space and place. Technical advances in describing,
monitoring, and analysing spatial variation over the Earth's
surface by EO and GIS have matured to the extent that the focus
of attention is increasingly able to turn towards the scientifi c
principles, modelling, and theory, rather than the techniques
themselves. This is part of the 'modernization of geography', with
major implications for both its intellectual development and its
applications. At the other end of the spectrum of geographical
interests, the many profoundly different ways of interpreting
and theorizing about place present geography with multiple new
opportunities.
