Geography As A Discipline Class 11 Notes Geography Chapter 1 - CBSE

Chapter : 1

What Are Geography As A Discipline ?

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Our planet earth is an abode of mankind.
Earth provides us a bundle of resources to live on. Primitive humans survived on natural resources.
Gradually, man adapted to the natural habitat or the opportunities provided by nature. Over time with the advancement in technology, humans tried to alter the physical environment. The new branches of knowledge such as GIS, Remote Sensing, and computer-aided cartography opened up the new arenas of opportunities.
The phenomenons on Earth keep on changing. Neither the physical components such as mountains, plains,
plateaus, rivers, and lakes nor the human components such as settlements and transportation are static.
The term Geography was first coined by Greek scholar ‘Eratosthenes’. The word Geography is an amalgamation of two Greek words ‘Geo’ which means earth and ‘Graphos’ which means description of earth. Broadly seeing earth as a planet with human habitat, scholars defined geography as ‘the description of earth as the abode of human beings.
The other branches of earth sciences and social sciences are closely associated with geography, but at the same time it is a distinguished field of study in terms of subject content and approaches.
Geography not only deals with areal differentiations but also answers the causal relationship between phenomenons.
Nature influences the human and human is an integral part of nature. In this situation, humans out of infinite
possibilities provided by the nature choose the best suitable for them and create inventions. This can be termed
a cooperation between humanized nature and naturalized human, since they both go hand in hand.
Geography discipline as a branch of social science finds the relationship between human and physical (natural)
phenomenons that vary over space and their integration and seeks the answer to what, where, and why ?
Geography shares a common connection with natural and social sciences.
The elements over earth are distributed unequally. Geography finds the spatial distribution of elements and also integrates them.
Geography is closely link with history and successfully describes how the geographical phenomenons over time
modified the history of a region. For example, the entry of foreign invaders in India through north-western
India; the role of Himalayas in India as barriers and protection, but also allowing migrants to pass through the routes; the sea routes boosted India’s trade and foreign relationships with other parts of the world and so on.
The physical branch of geography has an alliance with natural sciences, such as geomorphology, climatology, oceanography, biogeography, soil geography, or environmental geography.
Similarly, geography also demands the mathematical knowledge for the study of distance, time, astronomical calculations, and longitude and latitude of a place.
The artistic knowledge helps a geography to master the cartography.

Field of Geography

Economic Geography/ Economics
Statistics Econometrics/ Quantitative Techniques in Geography
Geology/ Geomorphology
Meteorology/ Climatology
Hydrology/ Oceanography
Pedology/ Soil Geography
Botany/ PhytoGeography
Zoology/ ZooGeography
Ecology/ Human Ecology
Environmental Geography/ Environmental Science
Cultural Geography/ Anthropology
Geographical Thoughts/ Philosophy
Social Geography/ Sociology
Historical Geography/ History
Political Geography/ Political Science
Population Geography/Demography

In parallel, geography also shares common philosophy (raison detre) with social sciences. For example, political geography and political science, economics and economic geography, demography and population geography, historical geography and history, geographical thought and philosophy, etc.
The branches of geography can be studied as: Regional Approach and Systematic Approach.
Systematic Approach: This approach was supported by Alexander von Humboldt, a German geographer. This approach studies the earth as a whole.

Branches of Geography (Based on Systematic Approach)

Physical

Geomorphology
Climatology
Hydrology
Soil Geography

Principles/Philosophy

Geographical Thought
Human Ecology (Land and Human Interactions)

Methods/Techniques

Cartography
Quantitative Techniques
Field Survey Methods
Geo Informatics
- GIS
- GPS
- LIS

Human

Social/ Culture
Historica
Population and Settlements
- Rural
- Urban
Economic
- Agriculture
- Industrial
- Tourism
- Trade & Transport
- Infrastructure
- Services
Political

Interface Biogeography

Ecology
Plant Geography
Environmental Geography
Zoo Geography

Physical Geography

Geomorphology deals with the study of landforms, the formation of landforms, and associated courses.
Climatology studies the atmospheric structure, elements of weather and climate, climatic types, and climatic regions.
Hydrology deals with the study of water bodies comprising oceans, rivers, lakes, and other water bodies, and their influence on various life forms on earth.
Soil Geography is the study of soil formation, types of soils, fertility status of soils, soil distribution and utilisation.

Human Geography

Social/Cultural Geography includes study of society, spatial dynamics of society, and the cultural aspects caused by society.
Population Geography covers the phenomea such as population growth, density, distribution, migration, sex ratio, population pyramid, and occupational structure, and also the cause-and-effect relationship.
Settlement Geography deals with the various features of urban and rural settlements.
Economic Geography is related to activities comprising agriculture, industry, services, trade, transport, and infrastructure.
Historical Geography deals with the relationship between geographical features and their role in influencing the history.
Political Geography is the study of the political events over, geo political consequences, political constituencies, electoral process over space, and political behaviors of people over space.

Bio Geography

Plant Geography which deals with the spatial structure, pattern, and distribution of flora.
Zoo Geography which is concerned with the spatial structure, pattern, and distribution of fauna and their habitats.
Ecology deals with the scientific study of the habitat’s characteristic of species.
Environmental Geography includes the concerns over environmental problems, their influence and finds out possible solutions.

Regional Approach

This approach was advocated by Alexander von Humboldt and supported by Karl Ritter.
According to regional approach, the world can be divided into regions based on various themes (political, physical, etc.) then the holistic study of this region is done.
The classification of the branches of geography based on regional approach can be:

Branches of Geography (Based on Regional Approach)

Regional Studies

It covers the region at three levels, i.e., Macro, Meso, and Micro.

Macro Regional Studies
Meso Regional Studies
Micro Regional Studies

Regional Development

It covers the developmental planning of the region chosen.

Regional Analysis

It examines how successfully the planning has been executed in the region.

Physical Geography covers urban, urban, etc. the realms of earth which include Lithosphere (Land), Hydrosphere (Water), Atmosphere (Air), and the interaction of these threeBiosphere (living space).
Thus, physical geography is an integral part of our lives where we make use of it and strike an ecological balance for our sustainable future.