Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Earth's surface. Both developments led physical geographers, once
more, to seek methodological and substantive inspiration from
cognate natural environmental sciences.
Earth-surface processes
The justifi cation for focusing on 'process' rather than 'form'
was that to explain spatial patterns on the Earth's surface
and the dynamics of the geo-ecosphere, an understanding of
processes and mechanisms is essential. It is not suffi cient, for
example, to propose models of the cycle of erosion as depicted in
Figure 6 without understanding the processes that are affecting
the slopes. Such ideas were truly revolutionary because they
modifi ed physical geography, root and branch, in fundamental
ways. By investigating processes directly, physical geographers
have demonstrated that many early inferences about the nature
of the landscape were incorrect. Fluvial geomorphologists
waded into the rivers to measure velocity and discharge;
glacial geomorphologists dug tunnels in glaciers to observe the
effects of erosion at the glacier bed; and desert geomorphologists
used wind-tunnels to study the deposition of sand dunes
experimentally. Description and classifi cation of Earth-surface
phenomena became increasingly replaced by the measurement,
monitoring, analysis, and modelling of formative processes.
Despite holding a 'minority stake' within physical geography,
climatology can be credited with having led the way in the process
revolution. The effects of meteorological processes are clearly
apparent in regular diurnal and seasonal weather patterns. Both
the long-term average conditions and the short-lived extreme
events that constitute climate are relatively easily observed.
There was a long tradition of measuring and monitoring the
meteorological elements - temperature, pressure, precipitation,
and wind: indeed, national and international networks of
meteorological stations were up and running over much of the
Earth's surface. Climatologists were, moreover, familiar with the
