Five Themes of Geography

The five themes of geography include location, place, regions, movement, and human environmental interaction.

Location has two areas; absolute, meaning the exact location using coordinates. And relative, describing its location using landmarks or nearby cities. The landscapes of a region is known as place. Physical landscapes are natural occurrences of nature such as hills, mountains and rivers. Cultural landscapes are areas man made, like cities, nature parks and ponds.

Regions include; formal, which is a place that has an official boundary. Functional; areas preserved specifically for a certain activity; hospitals, scenery and museums. Perceptual regions are areas that people know but are not typed on the map. An example would be the dangerous parts of a city or in Vancouver downtown east Hastings. Movement and globalization go hand in hand with their theme of distribution of people, products information and trade. Human environmental interaction is the relationship we have with the environment we have around us and how we affect it. Here in Poco we take care of our environment by recycling our garbage and using public transportation.

To provide a more visual understanding it can be compared to Port Coquitlam. Absolute location of Port Coquitlam is 49.2625° N, 122.7811° W. Poco is relative to Coquitlam and Pitt meadows. Some of the physical landscapes of Poco is the Coquitlam River that runs alongside the downtown. There are many hills and a vast forest areas such as Colony Farm Regional Park. This regional park and many other parks lakes and areas are considered cultural landscape.

Poco is a formal region, due to its boundaries. The perceptual regions is North side and Southside that is not marked on a map but the community knows. Globalization occurs now through television or social networks along with companies and their marketing/merchandise. Environment is affected in Poco through land use and creating roads and constructing buildings. Also our carbon footprint.