Understanding the Human Geography

Human Geography is a sub-branch of geography, studying the impact of physical environment and activities on society, economy, culture of people of specific regions.

Definition of Human Geography

The study of inter-relationships between environment, place, and people and their temporal (related to time) and spatial (related to space) variation across different locations can be defined as Human Geography.

Some other definitions are:

“Human Geography is primarily concerned with the relations between man, ways of life and places in which they live” – defined by George F. Carter in 1974.

“Human Geography is the synthetic study of relationships between human societies and earth’s surface”- defined by F. Ratzel in 1882.

“Human Geography is the study of the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth”-defined by E.C.Semple in 1911.

Nature and Scope of Human Geography

Human Geography’s nature and scope are to study the inter-relationship between the socio-cultural and physical environments where humans live through mutual interaction. The physical environment has gifted human beings with different elements such as landforms, climate, water, soil, natural vegetation, and diverse fauna and flora. These physical elements, human beings, had created other elements such as houses, rails, roads, farms, industries, villages, cities, ports, and many other materials to be used in daily lives. Over time, human beings have modified the physical environment significantly, which has affected human lives greatly.

Branches of Human Geography

The main focus of the Human Geography is on settlements, population, transportation, economics, religion, social and cultural practices, human migration, tourism and recreation, politics, urbanization, and agriculture.

The branches of the concept are:

Cultural Geography: It is the study of the relationship between different places and cultures. We get to know the distribution of culture across different places and the respective traditions and cultural practices.

Development Geography: It studies living standards and quality of life within various communities worldwide. Some of the metrics studied for understanding the living standards are the fertility rate, death rate, and birth rate of the population.

Economic Geography: Economic geography is the study of the manufacturing of various products and their distribution in a niche market. The distribution of wealth and different conditions affecting a region’s economy is studied here.

Health Geography: It is the study of the distribution of healthcare services and the overall health of a population in a region. Historical Geography: It is the study of how a region and the people living in that region have changed over time. The different factors affecting these changes are studied in detail.

Population Geography: It is the study of various aspects of the population of a place or region. The population distribution, migration, death rate, birth rate, and the population growth pattern are studied in this sub-branch of Human Geography.

Medical Geography: This branch studies the patterns of disease spreading. Along with common illnesses, epidemics and pandemics are studied in Medical Geography.

Transportation Geography: It studies the availability of transportation networks of different types. It includes the study of private as well as public transport networks. This study helps optimize transportation use in the movement of products and people.

Settlement Geography is the study of areas over space and time where humans used to reside or are currently residing.

Urban Geography: It studies the trends, reasons, and other aspects of urbanization. It also helps identify various regions that can develop in the future.

Political Geography: It studies various aspects of politics, including sub-divisions, voting, international organizations, etc.

Military Geography: It is the study of different military facilities distributed across a specific region or county. This branch of Human Geographyalso studies the optimized use of facilities available and the techniques needed to handle different problems faced by military units of a particular area.

Conclusion

In Human Geography, we study people and their cultures, social groups, economies, and interactions with the environment. This branch of Geography focuses on the study of changing the relationship between humans and their activities and the Earth’s physical features. The study of human geography helps develop better human beings and well-informed citizens. It also helps us understand different types of challenges that countries and communities face and prepare well to handle these challenges effectively. Hope the write-up has helped you better understand the concept of human geographical branches, nature, and scope.