The Five Themes of Geography: Understanding the Processes that

lead to Patterns on a Map

Location• Absolute- found using grid

coordinates

• Relative- found with respect to other features, using North, South, East, West; near, far; etc. to orient position.

Places—have characteristics that make a location unique

Physical Characteristics Human Characteristics

Physical Characteristics

– Topography

– Hydrology

– Flora/Fauna

– Climate (temperature variations/precipitation patterns)

Human Characteristics– Culture (food, clothing,

human relations, beliefs)– Governance– Technological Development– Economy– Language– Built Environment

• Residential Housing• Urban Centers• Infrastructure (transportation,

communication, energy, water)

Places—have characteristics that make a location unique

Region- connects places with similar characteristics

• Physical Regions--Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, Gobi

Desert, Tibetan Plateau, Australian Outback, the Sahel, Amazon Rainforest, Sistan Basin

• Human Regions--New England, Cajun country, Navajo

nation, Buckinghamshire, Kurdistan

MovementPeople Move, Ideas Move, Earth Elements Move

Human-Environment Interaction• People impact the environment

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Human-Environment Interaction• The environment impacts people

Visualizing the Themes of GeographyVector information– Points (pairs of x, y coordinates), lines (sequences of coordinates), polygons (closed sets of coordinates)

Visualizing the Themes of Geography

Raster information– Remotely sensed images (from space and air platforms) displayed as pixels; other (jpg, png, tiff, pdf) images

The Five Themes can be mapped in a variety of ways…

The five themes can be used in a GEOnarrative Method for interactive story creation/story telling, to be used by analysts and decision-makers.