February 3

The 5 Themes of Geography

The Five Themes of Geography, are five categories where different kinds of geography belong.

The first theme is; Location, Absolute and Relative locations: Absolute location is an exact location, marked by coordinates, legal address, civic address or other methods. Example; The coordinates of Port Coquitlam are “49.2625° N, 122.7811° W”, which is an absolute location. Relative location; A location or orientation only used by a certain relevant group.  Example; “West Port Coquitlam”.

Another Theme of Geography is; Place. Place has 2 categories, Physical Landscape and Cultural Landscape. A Physical Landscape applies to the features of a certain location. Example; The forest by Gates Park.                                  A Cultural Landscape, the visible results of human activity. Example; Gates Park, big open fields.

The third theme of Geography is Regions; Formal, Functional and Perceptual regions. Formal regions are based on official boundaries, like cities and provinces. Example; Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada.                                                             A Functional region is based on connections created by an activity such as communication. Example; The area that the Tri City Newspaper is distributed in.                                                                                                                                             And a Perceptual Region is determined by the peoples attitudes and feelings. Example; The boundaries on a open field that has no markings.

The fourth theme is Movement; Globalization: The process of economic, technological, political and cultural combining and creating a single global society. 

Human and Environmental Interaction, is the fifth and final Theme of Geography. In this category exists “Human interaction with the environment”; How people adapt to a certain environment. Example; How our trash containers, cans and dumbsters have bear safe locks on them.

And that concludes The Five Themes of Geography.