I. Introduction to Geography: Localisation and the European Union
Geography : description of lands, features, inhabitant and phenomena of the Earth.
The idea of science of description of phenomena implies that we are interested in the organisation of a landscape on different scale: globally, regionally or locally.
Geography is divided in two parts: physical and human geography.
Physical geo: Natural science which deals with the process and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere. It covers fields such as:
- Geomorphology
- Eclaciology
- Climatology
- Oceanography...
Human geo: Branch of geography that deals with humans and their relationships with communities, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment by studying the relations with and across locations.
- Urban geography
- Development geography
- Population geography
- Economic geography...
II. Localisation on the surface of the planet
A) 📍 Localisation with coordinates
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The easiest way to locate something is to use a grid system. The invention of a geographic coordinates system is credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene (275 BC - 194 BC).
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If it is rather easy to built such a system on a flat surface, it is slightly more challenging on a sphere.
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The localisation North or South, is the easiest as it set by the angle of 0° from the imaginary line that passes through the center of the earth.
N°
+
|
|
S
- This imaginary line is called the equator.
0° N
90°
+---- Hemisphere
0° S
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Equator: Imaginary planetary line that divides the planet into Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere and it's located at 0°.
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Once we have established the position of the equator, it is rather simple to find coordinates that specifies the north or south position on the surface of the Earth.
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All it takes is to establish constant imaginary lines running east-west as a circle parallel to equator.
45°
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+
B) 🌍 Parallels
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Parallels or circle of latitude are east-west circles. Parallels to each others, connecting all locations around the Earth at a given latitude.
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From the equator a large finite number of latitude circles can be established: 90 north and 90 south.
Out of all these lines, five are important:- Arctic circle: 66°33'48.7" N
- Tropic of Cancer: 23°26'11.3" N
- Tropic of Capricorn: 23°26'11.3" S
- Antarctic circle: 66°33'48.7" S
} Climate zones
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For an east-west localisation, it was necessary to establish an arbitrary imaginary line of 0°, a prime meridian.
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Until 1884, many countries had their own prime meridian. It is only then, due to a growing international economy that it was decided to set an international prime meridian.
III. Map projections
The most common representation today was designed in 1569 by a Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator.
It became very popular because it keeps the whole north on the top of the map, most while keeping the whole south at the bottom of the map.
The side effect is to inflate the size of objects away from the equator.
As a result, landmasses such as Greenland or Antarctica appear far larger than they are relative to landmasses near the equator.
Other types of projection have been developed:
- Eonic projection, that flood all the planet by poles
- Lambert projection, that focuses on Europe, Asia and North America
IV. Site and situation
Site is the actual place we talk about.
Situation is the relation of the things around.
The combination of both concepts allows us to better understand the reasons for a place to attract or repel the population.
Push and pull factor.
The site is the local level. It refers to characteristics of the actual point at which settlement is located. It has a major importance in the initial establishment and growth of the village or town.
Building materials
[Settlement]