Final essay!

Hifriends

GEOG1191_Units.pdf

Home >Geography homework help >Final essay!

Faculty of Arts

Units

GEOG 1191 Introduction to Human

Geography 1: People and the Environment

The course materials in GEOG 1191 have been provided to you for your private study and educational use only. TRU grants you a limited and revocable license to access and make personal use (including permission to print one copy) of Units. These materials may not be further distributed.

The content of this course material is the property of Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and is protected by copyright law worldwide. This material may be used by students enrolled at TRU for personal study purposes only. No part of this work may be forwarded or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the Intellectual Property Office, Thompson Rivers University, [email protected].

TRU seeks to ensure that any course content that is owned by others has been appropriately cleared for use in this course. Anyone wishing to make additional use of such third party material must obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

Course Development Team

Course Writer and Reviser (2014): Nancy Elliot, PhD

Course Consultant: Michael Edgell, PhD

Instructional Designer: Michelle Harrison, PhD

Course Editor (2014): Dawn‐Louise McLeod, MEd

Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts: Ron McGivern, MA, CMRP

Program Coordinator, Faculty of Arts: Michael Looney, MSc

Course Revision (2016)

Course Reviser: Nancy Elliot, PhD

Course Editor: Christopher Ward, BA

Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts: Brenda Thompson, BA(Hrs.), MA

Thompson Rivers University

805 TRU Way

Kamloops, BC V2C 0C8

Table of Contents

Unit 1 (Modules 1, 2, and 3): Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic

Thought, and Maps and Mapping

Introduction .................................................................................................................. U1-1

Module 1: Introduction to Human Geography ....................................................... U1-1

Module 2: Historical Evolution of Geographical Thought .................................... U1-9

Module 3: Maps and Mapping ..................................................................................U1- 29

Unit 2 (Modules 4 and 5): The Importance of the Perceived Environment

Introduction .................................................................................................................. U2-1

Module 4: Our Perception Determines Our Behaviour .......................................... U2-1

Module 5: Determining “How We Know” ............................................................. U2-17

Unit 3 (Modules 6 and 7): The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

Introduction .................................................................................................................. U3-1

Module 6: Ecological Approaches in Human Geography ..................................... U3-1

Module 7: Ecosystems—An Introduction .............................................................. U3-12

Unit 4 (Modules 8 and 9): Human-Environment Interactions

Introduction .................................................................................................................. U4-1

Module 8: Early Agriculture and Urbanization ....................................................... U4-1

Module 9: Contemporary Impacts on the Environment ...................................... U4-14

Unit 5 (Modules 10, 11, and 12): Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

Introduction .................................................................................................................. U5-1

Module 10: A Crowded Home ................................................................................... U5-1

Module 11: An Unequal Home ................................................................................ U5-17

Module 12: Resource Geography—Identifying and Understanding Limits ..... U5-28

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... U5-41

Final Project (30%) ........................................................................................................ U5-43

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-1

Unit 1 (Modules 1, 2, and 3): Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought, and Maps and Mapping

Introduction

In this unit, Module 1 introduces you to human geography and identifies the key

themes and concepts that will be discussed throughout the course. This module can

be completed in one week. Modules 2 and 3 complete your introduction to this

course. In Module 2, you will learn about the philosophical foundation and history

of human geography. In Module 3, you will be introduced to maps and mapping.

Unit 1 includes the following modules:

 Module 1: Introduction to Human Geography

 Module 2: Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought

 Module 3: Maps and Mapping

Module 1: Introduction to Human Geography

Overview

Assignment 1 is due at the end of Module 3, at the end of this unit. You are encouraged to start this assignment early, which is why it is mentioned now. You can read the instructions for it under the Assignments Overview tab on your course site.

The Final Project, which you will complete throughout the course, is also

introduced in Module 1. It is due one week after your last module for this course

has been completed.

Module 1 discusses “What is human geography?”. Many of the activities in this

module use short quizzes to reinforce your knowledge of what you have just

learned. Other activities ask you to apply the concepts you are learning about to the

world around you.

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module include human geography, physical geography, space,

place, location, landscape, environmental, and genre de vie.

TRU Open Learning

U1-2 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Hint: Each module begins with a list of key concepts discussed in that

module. You may want to refer to these when you undertake your Final

Project.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 1, you will be able to:

 Define human geography.

 Describe the relationship between human geography and physical

geography.

 Identify three key themes and eleven key concepts for human geography.

 Define the following concepts: space, place, location, landscape,

environmental, and genre de vie.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-3

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

1.1: Introduction to Three

Themes

Textbook reading, notes, and

questions

1.2: Human Geographic

Concepts

Textbook reading on the

human geographer at work

and key-concept definitions

1.3: Space, Place, and

Location

Textbook reading and

exercise using photos

Due at the end of Unit 1 Assignment 1 (10%)

Due one week after course

completion

Final Project (30%)

Course Introduction

Before you proceed to the readings and activities, do the following:

• Review your Open Learning Faculty Member’s welcome letter, the Course Guide, the Suggested Study Schedule, and the Assignments.

• Introduce yourself in the “Student Café” in the Course Guide. In your introduction, articulate why you are interested in the course and what you hope to learn.

As noted in the Course Guide, you are strongly encouraged to write your responses

to the questions and activities in a journal as a way to track your thoughts about key

concepts, synthesize your learning experience, and help you to formulate your ideas

for the written assignments. Go ahead and set up your journal now—use an

electronic file or a notebook.

Accessing Articles from TRU Library

Throughout the course, you will be directed to find articles online through TRU

Library at http://www.tru.ca/library.html.

Search TRU Library’s catalogue using the exact title of the article. See TRU Library’s

“Following a Citation Trail” guide at http://libguides.tru.ca/c.php?g=193939 for step-

U1-4 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

by-step instructions about using citations to locate articles published in journals,

magazines, or newspapers. After you find the title of the article, use your student

number and your TRU Library PIN and log in to licensed databases.

Generally, full-text electronic versions of articles are available from TRU Library as

HTML files or PDF documents that you can either download to your computer or

read on-screen in your browser.

To open, download, or save a PDF, use Acrobat Reader (Version 5.0 or higher), free

from Adobe.

If you encounter any problems with online access to these articles, please advise

your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Introduction to Human Geography

As you begin this course, you may be wondering, “What exactly is human

geography?”

Human geography is a subset of the academic discipline geography, which is itself a

broad discipline (organized body of knowledge and inquiry) that defies easy

definition. One definition is that geography is what geographers do—they study the

ways in which people have humanized the face of the earth. In short, geography is the

study of both humans and their environment; thus, geography can be defined as the

study of the relationship and interactions between people and their environments.

In Module 1, you are introduced briefly to what human geographers do and the

eleven key concepts such geographers use to formulate their views. These concepts

are fundamental to comprehending the ways in which human activity affects the

earth—think of these concepts as tools to support your development into a human

geographer.

Human geography has close connections to other disciplines, including: history,

economics, political science, and gender and cultural studies. Norton and Mercier

state that human geography “considers the human world in multivariate terms,

incorporating physical and human factors as necessary” (2010, p. 3). Human

geography frequently, but not always, considers elements of the physical world.

Thus, this course will introduce you to elements of the physical world as they are

necessary to comprehend the ways in which humans interact with the earth.

Let’s pause for a moment to consider the relation of human geography to physical

geography. Physical geography examines the effects of processes on the earth and

may involve the study of hydrology, weather and climate, glaciers and ice, the

earth’s surface, and ecological spatial variation and patterns across the landscape.

Human geographers may also look at these subjects.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-5

TRU Open Learning

Confused? Although human and physical geography are distinct disciplines, the real

world does not partition itself into human and physical components, and thus there

can be great overlap between the two fields of study. For example, a physical

geographer may look at the way water moves across the landscape, while a human

geographer will look more closely at the impacts of changing water quality and

quantity upon a population.

Simply put, human geography focuses more on the processes and patterns of human

behaviour, while physical geography focuses more on the earth’s processes and

systems.

Introduction to Three Themes

The textbook identifies three central themes in the study of human geography. We’ll

revisit these themes throughout the course:

 Humans and land

 Regional studies

 Spatial analysis

These themes reflect different elements of the philosophy behind the evolution of

human geography. The following Activity gives you a brief introduction to these

themes.

Activity 1:1: Introduction to Three Themes

In the textbook, please read “Introduction.” When you are finished, use your journal

for the following:

Make a few quick notes on each of the three themes so that you can understand

them and differentiate between them. Specifically, consider these questions and

write your responses in your learning journal:

1. Why does the author consider “landscape” a human term?

2. Which theme is the term “location” linked to? Could it also be linked to the

other two terms? Why or why not?

Norton and Mercier, the textbook authors, quote the geographer Charles Gritzner

for a useful definition of human geography (p. xxvii). Write out the definition. How

are its parts interrelated?

U1-6 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Now that we have a sound understanding of what human geography is, let’s turn to

examine what human geographers do. In which ways are the themes humans and

land, regional studies, and spatial analysis captured in the two vignettes in your

textbook (pp.xxiv ff.)? To format your answer, you may want to use a table such as

this:

Theme Examples of Presence in Work Vignette

Humans and land 1.

Regional studies 1.

Spatial analysis 1.

Introduction to Eleven Key Concepts

One main focus of this course is considering how geographical knowledge is

acquired (a second is how it is analyzed—but to analyze you first need to collect!).

To be a successful geographer, one must have knowledge of some key concepts that

are germane to the geographer’s “toolbox”. As human geographers, we use

concepts, or tools, to assist us in understanding what we observe.

Your textbook (pp. 33-46) introduces eleven key concepts that Norton and Mercier

identify as being central to interpreting facts through the lens of a human

geography; they are:

1. Space

2. Location

3. Place

4. Region

5. Distance (Physical, Temporal, Economic)

6. Scale

7. Diffusion

8. Perception

9. Development

10. Discourse

11. Globalization

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-7

TRU Open Learning

We will examine these concepts in further detail throughout this course. The first

key concepts we will take a closer look at are space, location, and place. Location

will also be discussed.

Activity 1.2: Human Geographic Concepts

In Chapter 2 of the textbook, read “Human Geographic Concepts” (pp. 33-46). Don’t

worry if you don’t understand all the concepts just yet. Simply use this opportunity

to familiarize yourself with the content and to become aware that your textbook is a

resource that you can use as reference.

Make sure that you understand the differences between the abstract concepts of

space and location, and the emotive concept of place and landscape. Norton and

Mercier define the relation of space/location/place in the textbook reading for this

activity.

Norton and Mercier define two closely related aspects of the concept of landscape.

First, landscape results from human modification of space. Second, landscape has

symbolic content and meaning for different peoples. At the centre of understanding

is the idea that symbolic value is culture, which may be defined as a people’s

cumulative way of life—or genre de vie—comprising morals, art, custom, language,

religion, law, and other societal institutions. In very real ways, culture makes place

out of space: culture selects which places will be sacred, bestows names on places

(and all that those names imply), imbues ownership with social distinction, and

decides upon the aesthetics and worth of land.

In your journal, write your own definitions for space, location, place, and landscape.

These concepts are at the heart of human geography, so they are worth taking the

time to fully understand. Make sure that you add in some examples from your life!

Examples will support your understanding of key concepts.

We will be looking in more detail at place and values of place later in the course, but

we might make some preliminary observations by completing the following

Activity.

Activity 1.3: Space, Place, and Location

In this activity, you will apply what you have learned to real-world examples.

Compare and contrast figures 1.1a and 1.1b. Both represent human activity on the

British Columbia coast, but they do so in very different ways, expressing varying

cultural and environmental relationships.

In your journal, record how you think they express cultural and environmental

relationships.

U1-8 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

1. In Figure 1.1a, who is appreciating the totem poles? What other peoples

might view the totem poles, and would they share the same values about this

place? Is it important that Figure 1.1a represents the opportunity to visit a

cultural area, while Figure 1.1b exists only in historical photos? How do the

scale and level of environmental impact differ between the two?

2. Identify and briefly describe a space near where you live (e.g., a park,

waterway, etc.). Now, identify and describe a different place. How do they

differ? Which description is more objective and which one is more subjective?

Why?

3. In the introduction to your textbook, Norton and Mercier note that a common

thread exists between the themes humans and land, regional studies, and

spatial analysis. What is that thread, and how might it relate to the concepts

of space, place, and location?

Figure 1.1a: Totem poles at Skun Gwaii village (Ninstints) on Anthony Island,

Haida Gwaii

(Image transcript available online)

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-9

Figure 1.1b: A coastal BC fish-processing plant

(Image transcript available online)

McTavish Cannery at Rivers Inlet Call No: G-00767 [Photograph]. (1919). British

Columbia Archives. Retrieved from http://search-

bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mctavish-cannery-at-rivers-inlet-2.

Introduction to Final Project

Now is a good time to introduce the Final Project. Click the Assignments Overview tab for details about how to complete and submit the Final Project.

Module 2: Historical Evolution of Geographical Thought

Overview

Module 2 takes a look at the philosophical underpinnings behind some of the views

that shape the study of geography. In subsequent units, we will examine human-

environment relations from a range of contemporary geographical perspectives.

These contemporary perspectives did not just suddenly appear—they evolved over

the past centuries as geographers gradually changed their ideas and developed an

increasingly more holistic appreciation of human-environment relations. Many

earlier ideas were discarded while some have been incorporated, although much

modified, into contemporary geography. Even those ideas that were discarded

played a role in shaping modern geography by the simple fact that they influenced

the development of the very ideas that replaced them.

The goals of this module are to explore how geographers view human-environment

relationships; how views held by earlier geographers have changed and evolved in

response to changing knowledge and ideas; and how past ideas have influenced

modern geographical viewpoints.

TRU Open Learning

U1-10 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module are perception, possibilism, environmental

determinism, cultural landscape, historical evolution of geography and central

figures, behavioural geography, and cognitive behavourialism.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 2, you will be able to:

 Define the concept of perception.

 Differentiate between the determinist and possibilist paradigms.

 Define behavioural geography, cognitive behaviouralism, and cultural

landscapes.

 Identify the influences of humanism, empiricism, positivism, humanism, and

Marxism on the evolution of human geography.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-11

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check

off each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

2.1: Geographic

Preconceptions Quiz

Short quiz

2.2: Evolution of

Geography

Textbook reading and

questions

Optional Web Activity Comparing maps of

population distribution

and density

2.3: Determinism or

Possibilism?

Short quiz

2.4: Revisiting Your

Preconceptions

Review of Activity 2.1

2.5: Philosophical Options Textbook reading and

questions

Due at the end of Unit 1 Assignment 1

(10%)

Introduction—Taking a Closer Look at Your Beliefs

Norton and Mercier identify perception as one of the key concepts to understanding

the world as a human geographer. Through the evolution of the philosophical

thought behind human geography, they write, we acknowledge that:

... all humans relate not to some real physical or social environment but

rather to their perception of that environment—a perception that varies with

knowledge and is closely related to cultural and social considerations.

(Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 42)

To take a closer look at your own perceptions, complete Activity 2.1, next, before

reading further in this module.

U1-12 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Activity 2.1: Geographic Preconceptions Quiz

This activity is designed to record your thoughts about each statement as a way to

gauge your beliefs prior to completing this module.

Read through the following statements and record your reaction to them by

checking the appropriate column. Only spend about a minute doing this—there will

be an opportunity to reassess your reactions at the end of this module.

Statements Agree Disagree

1. The relationship between people and their surroundings

depends not so much on the real environment but on what

people imagine the environment to be.

2. Mexicans are a friendly, emotional people because they

live in a country that enjoys a warm climate throughout the

year.

3. In spite of the climatic hardships of the Canadian Arctic,

we can develop it in any way we choose.

4. Land, sea, soils, and climate work to mould people by

shaping their bodies, characters, occupations, and social

organization.

5. People live in a physical environment, and their

interactions with it are conditioned by their cultural heritage.

Historical Development of Geography and the Origins of Modern Geography

Modern geography has its foundations with several scholars, three of whom were

Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter, and Charles Darwin. Two of these, von

Humboldt (Figure 2.1) and Ritter, were nineteenth-century German scholars,

generally regarded as the fathers of modern geography.

Von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a cosmologist and explorer, a scientist who

travelled widely in Europe, the Americas, and Russia. His writings on his travels in

South America established him as the founder of physical geography. His major

publication, Cosmos, published in five volumes between 1845 and 1862, sought to

demonstrate basic principles underlying the unity of the natural world of landforms,

vegetation, and climate.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-13

TRU Open Learning

He also emphasized the interdependence of natural phenomena and humankind,

and sought universal laws to explain those relationships. You can read, or get a

sense of, Cosmos at Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14565).

Figure 2.1: Alexander von Humboldt

(Image transcript available online)

Schrader, J. (1859). Baron Alexander von Humboldt [Painting]. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baron_Alexander_von_Humboldt_by_Julius_Schrader_1859.jpg

Ritter (1779–1859) was an armchair geographer whose formative education was in

philosophy and the humanities. Although he was influenced by von Humboldt’s

scientific approach, his major concern focused on the earth as the home of

humankind. Ritter is generally regarded as the founder of human geography, which

to him was a study that progressed from observation to observation in the search for

general laws.

Ritter’s thinking was conditioned by a teleological interpretation of humanity’s

place in the natural world; he believed that mechanisms alone cannot explain the

facts of nature and that all things in nature are made to fulfill a plan or design.

U1-14 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

He argued that the earth had been created to suit the needs of humanity but also

believed that the environment was capable of determining the course of human

development.

Both von Humboldt and Ritter, in their different ways, were seeking natural or

general laws that could explain the natural world and its relationships to humanity.

Both had a profound effect on later geographical thought.

Ritter was not alone in his teleological view of humanity and nature. Teleological

and theological thinking had been a major guiding force (paradigm) in scientific

inquiry since the Middle Ages.

In the year that Ritter died, however, Charles Darwin (1809–1882) (Figure 2.2)

published a work that would begin to destroy that paradigm. Darwin’s

publication—long in preparation—was On the Origin of Species. The furor created by

its publication and the subsequent debate freed scientific inquiry from the a priori

theological doctrine. Geographical thinking was also profoundly affected by

Darwin’s ideas.

Figure 2.2: Charles Darwin

(Image transcript available online)

Charles Darwin [Photograph]. (1909). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V74_D318_Charles_Darwin.png.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-15

TRU Open Learning

Three of Darwin’s themes had particular significance to geographical thinking:

 The idea of change occurring over millions of years, emphasizing the

progressive evolution of plants, animals, and landforms. This emphasis

conflicted with the previously dominant belief in a supernatural creation a

mere 4,000 years ago, after which species remained unchanged, since God

had created them according to an immutable design.

 The idea of organization, or close interrelationships between living things as

a community, rather than as a collection of isolated individuals. In

conjunction with the first theme, this idea gave impetus in human geography

to the concept that humankind had progressively evolved in adaptation to

the physical environment.

 The ideas of competition, struggle for survival, and selection. Darwin’s ideas

were influenced by social thinkers of the nineteenth century, notably Herbert

Spencer (who was the originator of the term survival of the fittest) and Thomas

Malthus. Later interpretation of these ideas would produce the theory of

social Darwinism. But the major impact of Darwin, of course, lay in his

application of these ideas to the natural world to explain how and why

certain life forms came to dominate.

The effects of Darwinian concepts on geography were to increase the emphasis on

explanations of direct links between humanity and the environment. This increased

emphasis was expressed in the doctrine of environmental or physical determinism.

Activity 2.2: Evolution of Geography

Understanding the history and evolution of human geography and how geography

has changed through time is central to our understanding of contemporary

geography.

Read Chapter 1, “What Is Human Geography?”, which outlines the history of

geography from early maps of Mesopotamia (modern-day southern Iraq) from

descriptions of von Humboldt, Ritter, Darwin and others, through to contemporary

geography. This chapter also introduces and discusses the important concepts of

environmental determinism and possibilism, and provides context for the

philosophy that came after, human-environment relations. After reading, complete

the following exercise in the notebook or journal you keep for this course:

U1-16 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

1. Describe the major contributions to geography from Greek, Chinese, Islamic,

and European civilizations. To organize your answer, you can use a table

such as this:

Civilization Major Contributions

Greek

Chinese

Islamic

European

2. Next, create a table and divide it into the major time periods that the author

of your textbook uses as subheadings. What are the key elements of each

time period? What is the major difference between each period, and what

event or occurrence caused each shift in geographic thought? Your table

might look like this:

Period Characteristics Cause for Shift into Next

Period

Preclassical

Classical

5th to 15th

Centuries

Etc.

Philosophical Underpinnings of Human Geography

Norton and Mercier stress the importance of understanding the philosophical

underpinnings of human geography:

... facts, concepts, and techniques are logically interrelated. But it is not

enough simply to accept that these are related: we need to know why. That

means we must understand the philosophical viewpoints that serve as the

“glue.” (Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 26)

Think of philosophical viewpoints as a guide that helps you ask certain questions,

use certain techniques, and interpret the relationships between what you observe

and measure.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-17

TRU Open Learning

Two philosophical viewpoints that were used to explain the human relationship

with the environment are environmental determinism and possibilism.

Environmental determinism postulates that the physical environment determines

human activities and explains physical differences in humans as well as cultural

differences. Some of the scholars that you have already read about are associated

with environmental determinism: Ratzel, Semple, Huntington, and Taylor.

Possibilism, on the other hand, holds the view that the environment is only one

factor determining how people interact with their environment and that other

factors play a role in determining how culture evolves and interacts with the

landscape. Some of the scholars associated with possibilism include Vidal and Sauer.

Next is a brief description of each philosophical viewpoint.

Environmental Determinism

In the fifty or so years after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of

Species (1859), there was a concentrated search, in both the natural and social

sciences, to find rational or scientific explanations that could then be used to

formulate universal laws. In this sense, therefore, the earlier work of von Humboldt

and Ritter was continued. Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–1862), writing on the history

of civilization in England, considered that physical laws operating through the

agents of climate, soil, food, and general physical environment governed the

character of individuals and the organization of society. He believed, for instance,

that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions “…are always preceded by atmospheric

changes that strike immediately at the nervous system, and thus have a direct

physical tendency to impair the intellectual powers” (Buckle, 1872, p. 123).

Part of Buckle’s so-called “evidence” for such a belief was his observation that Peru,

Italy (Figure 2.3), Spain, and Portugal were prone to these environmental hazards

and also had strongly religious and superstitious populations. Buckle regarded

climate as a prime determinant of human behaviour and believed that temperate

climates generate industrious people, whereas climates of northern latitudes or hot

and dry climates render people fickle and capricious. Obviously, Buckle was an

extreme environmental determinist.

U1-18 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Figure 2.3: Roman resort town of Pompeii

(Image transcript available online)

Physical determinism was an important component in the thinking of Friedrich

Ratzel (1844–1904). His ideas on human-environment relations, many of which were

profound and well thought-out, were expressed in his major work,

Anthropogeographie.

Ratzel’s position was subsequently expanded and exaggerated by the American

geographer Ellen Churchill Semple (1863–1932). Semple’s work had a great impact,

although it was a throwback to extreme, fanciful, and contained unsubstantiated

statements. She regarded human beings essentially as passive objects, subservient to

the controls of the physical environment:

Man is a product of the earth…. [He] can no more be scientifically studied

apart from the ground which he tills, or the lands over which he travels, or

the seas over which he trades, than the polar bear or desert cactus can be

understood apart from its habitat. (Semple, 1911, pp. 1–2)

As part of her determinist conviction, Semple sought causal relationships between

human beings and their environment. But, because of lack of data and her reliance

on secondary sources, her suggested causes were undeveloped and mechanistic in

the extreme. She also failed to account for the role of human free will and choice. She

asserted, for instance, that, because of poor agricultural resources, people who live in

mountain passes could only subsist by robbing passing travellers. She then gave

examples to support this premise, choosing to ignore the fact that many robbers do

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-19

TRU Open Learning

not live in mountain passes and that many people who do so have not resorted to

robbery as a means of support.

Reaction to this overly simplistic way of looking at human-environment relations

developed quickly.

Both Ellsworth Huntington (1876–1947) and Griffith Taylor (1880–1963) sought to

quantify the ways in which specific components of the physical environment

affected human activity. Although they were deterministic in their philosophies,

they set out to test earlier deterministic ideas in the light of more recent knowledge.

Huntington thought that climate was a major determinant of human activity and a

great influence on the development of cultures and civilizations. He did

acknowledge that climate was only one determinant, the other two equally

important ones being biological inheritance and cultural inheritance. In his book

Civilization and Climate, he wrote: “Other conditions such as the influence of men of

genius, good government, an enabling religion and strong institutions are also

necessary just as good water, good food, and proper shelter as well as good air are

necessary to health” (Huntington, 1915, p. 257).

Huntington attempted to quantify the relationship between work efficiency and

climatic factors in North America. He examined the work habits of students and

industrial workers in the eastern United States and correlated them with weather.

He concluded that people were physically most active when temperatures averaged

16–18°C, the optimum temperature for mental activity averaged 3°C, and people

worked most efficiently in temperate regions where there were daily changes in

temperature due to the passage of weather systems.

Although Huntington’s evaluations were based only on white Americans from a

limited area, he used them to produce global maps correlating climatic energy with

degree of civilization. Huntington considered that he had the scientific evidence to

back up such viewpoints.

Taylor very firmly distanced himself from the early deterministic views of Buckle,

Ratzel, and Semple. He considered their interpretations to be erroneous because they

had no accurate data on the environment. To Taylor, geography was the study of

humanity as influenced by the physical environment. Unlike Huntington, he thought

that cultural factors were of little relevance in discussions of environmental control

and belonged more properly to sociology than geography. In describing his

philosophy, Taylor himself used the analogy of the traffic controller:

Man is able to accelerate, slow or stop the progress of a country’s

development. But he should not, if he is wise, depart from the directions as

indicated by the natural environment. He is like the traffic controller in a

U1-20 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

large city who alters the rate but not the direction of progress; and perhaps

the phrase “stop-and-go determinism” expresses succinctly the writer’s

geographical philosophy. (Taylor, 1940, p. 479)

Like Huntington, Taylor was interested in the relationship of the physical

environment to human activity and also attempted to express this relationship in

global schemes. He was particularly interested in the future distribution of white

populations throughout the world and divided the world into a number of regions

(see “Region” in Norton & Mercier, 2016, pp. 36–37) according to an index of

habitability. This index was based on considerations of climate, elevation above sea

level, and available coal resources and was meant to indicate the settlement potential

of areas available to white colonization.

In 1947, Taylor applied this kind of reasoning to create a map estimating the

settlement potential of Canada (Figure 2.4, below). It was based on a number of

environmental factors (including temperature, the reliability and amounts of

precipitation, and existing vegetative cover) that suggested a potential population of

100 million—or fifty million, if Canada wished to maintain high living standards, by

2045. If Taylor’s figures have any validity, then the present population (estimated at

34,482,000 in 2011) is obviously far from the saturation point.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-21

TRU Open Learning

Figure 2.4: Griffith Taylor’s map of habitability

(Image transcript available online)

Taylor, G. (1947). Habitability [Map]. In, Canada: A study of cool continental environments

and their effect on British and French settlement. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.

The image is of the excavated ruins of the Roman resort town of Pompeii, destroyed

in AD 79, along with nearby Herculaneum, by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, seen in

the background.

It is important to note that one of the problems with environmental determinism in

general is that it was too often closely associated with colonialism. Taylor’s interest

in white settlement and Huntington’s assumption of the superiority of temperate

climates and cultures is a reflection of these views.

Determinism was frequently used to justify the dominance of the white and the

temperate over the dark and the tropical. For example, the latter were naturally

destined (teleology again) to be plantation workers.

U1-22 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

In Canada, First Nations advocates emphasize that Taylor’s map ignores First

Nation and Inuit use of the land. About the Eastern Arctic regions, Taylor wrote,

“Though these are interesting, they can hardly be called important, since today there

are barely 100 white people living therein” (Taylor, 1947, p. vii). These views on

environment and race carried different ideas than we now hold, although this view

of settling the northern frontier was pervasive in the way geography was taught and

practiced.

Optional Web Activity

It is interesting to compare Taylor’s estimations in the light of present population

distribution and density, and to ponder on the accuracy and validity of Taylor’s

predictions.

Visit The Atlas of Canada website:

 Natural Resources Canada. (2016, August 31) The atlas of Canada. Retrieved

from http://atlas.gc.ca.

Under “Selected Thematic Maps” choose the theme “Population” to find maps of

population distribution and density that you can compare with Taylor’s map.

In your learning journal, make some notes on what facts and figures you discover

that are comparable to Griffith’s map of habitability. For example, the agricultural

and resource-based economies of the Prairies and North support only a medium- or

low-density population. By comparing today’s settlement patterns with Taylor’s

predictions, how accurate do you think Taylor’s map is? What are some of the

reasons that there are differences between Taylor’s predictions and what actually

has come to be?

Hint: This is a good introduction to the concept possibilism, discussed next.

Possibilism

The first concerted philosophical opposition to deterministic viewpoints originated

in France, notably from the historian Lucien Febvre (1878–1956) and the geographer

Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918).

Febvre attacked the determinists’ mechanistic interpretations of human-environment

relations. He pointed out that many of the generalizations and laws postulated by

determinists were based on observations of less-developed or primitive societies and

concluded that such studies had no relevance to an understanding of human-

environment relations in industrial societies. He reacted particularly against the idea

that human beings could be only passive in the face of environmental dictates.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-23

TRU Open Learning

Instead, he considered human beings as active geographical agents, rather than

ineffectual players dominated by the physical environment.

French geographers recognized that the physical environment may set absolute

limits in extreme environments like the arctic or deserts, but argued that there are

numerous possibilities available for humanity within most environments

(Figure 1.5). Which of these possibilities is followed depends to some extent on a

society’s way of life—its genre de vie or cultural perspective (the complex attitudes,

traditions, institutions, and technology that characterize any society). Even within

essentially the same kind of environment, different societies develop contrasting

genres de vie, and these differences give rise to distinctive landscapes and regions on

the earth’s surface.

Figure 2.5: Pont du Gard

(Image transcript available online)

Depending on the area in which you live, you may be able to think of examples of

this. Parts of the Canadian prairies settled by different ethnic groups have developed

their own distinctive cultural landscapes within the general physical uniformity of

the prairies. In the St. Lawrence lowlands, there is a marked difference between

English and French Canadian rural landscapes. The landscapes carved out of the

coastal forests of British Columbia by European settlers were very different from

those developed by the various First Nations peoples. (Remember the contrasts in

figures 1.1a and 1.1b.)

U1-24 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Possible Key Concept for the Final Project

This philosophical viewpoint was termed possibilism. Although it was widely

accepted in Europe, there was an unwillingness to completely abandon the idea that

the study of human societies should be carried out in terms of their adjustment to

the physical environment.

Activity 2.3: Determinism or Possibilism?

Review the Determinism and Possibilism sections in your textbook (pp. 15–17).

After you have done this, identify the following statements using either ED for

environmental determinism or P for possibilism. Use the above notes and your

textbook as resources.

1. Hot tropical climates naturally result in people not working in the middle of

the day.

2. Irrigation to otherwise dry grasslands permits farming along the banks of the

Fraser River.

3. Building a bridge between the mainland and Vancouver Island will be a good

investment because it will create new markets for island produce.

4. Passage is only possible through the mountain passes because of rough

ground and elevation change. ____

5. One day, we will have a colony on Mars.

Responses to Both Determinism and Possibilism: Cultural Landscapes

Both determinism and possibilism assume a dichotomy between the environment on

one hand and humanity on the other. In their attempts to understand relationships,

both concentrate on the direct links between humanity and the environment.

Although determinism assumed that the environment was dominant and

possibilism that human choice was pre-eminent, both were searching for cause and

effect relationships. It became increasingly obvious to many, however, that clear-cut,

simple explanations of human-environment relations were the exception rather than

the rule. Reactions developed against the simplistic assumptions and explanations

that were used in both determinism and possibilism.

Partly as a reaction against the duality inherent in geography as a study of people

and environment and partly as a result of an increasing appreciation of the role that

culture plays in mediating human-environment relations, some geographers sought

to redefine the core of geography as the study of landscape. To these geographers,

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-25

TRU Open Learning

landscape had no less reality than the plants and animals studied by biologists or

rocks and earth structures studied by geologists.

Landscape gave geographers a concrete subject matter to study instead of uncertain

relationships over which to argue. Underlying the concentration on landscape was

the conviction that geography is a chorographic (literally, “place describing”)

science as well as an environmental science.

The leading proponent of the landscape school in North America was Carl Sauer

(1889–1975), who pointed out that landscape can be divided into two components.

The first is the natural landscape—the biophysical components such as landforms,

soils, and vegetation that are of significance to humans. The second is the cultural

landscape, which develops because of humanity’s progressive modification of the

natural landscape (Figure 2.6). We’ll revisit the concept of cultural landscapes later

in the course.

Figure 2.6: Contrasting cultural landscapes

(Image transcript available online)

Another Response to Determinism and Possibilism: Behavioural Geography

Underlying the whole possibilist-determinist debate is the supposition (many would

call it a fallacy) that people and environment are separate entities. This essentially

nineteenth-century idea has been gradually replaced with different concepts of

environment that are used in modern human geography. The development of the

cultural landscape as an integrative concept is one example. But, since the early

1960s, a significant trend in geographical interpretations of human-environment

relations has centred on the environment as perceived by people, and peoples’

subsequent behaviour within that perceived environment. The focus here is on

peoples’ cognitive interactions with their surroundings and on the evaluation of

attitudes, values, preferences, and mental images in environmental perception.

A basic theme is that a person’s values and psychological dispositions will direct

attention selectively to certain features of his or her surroundings. Those features

U1-26 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

will then be interpreted according to conscious memories and subconsciously stored

images and experiences. A person—or even larger social groups with shared values

and experiences—will therefore perceive the surroundings in a particular way and

behave in accordance with that perception. That part of human geography that

examines human-environment relations from this perspective is termed behavioural

geography, and its specific point of view is called cognitive behaviouralism.

What cognitive behaviouralism boils down to is this:

[T]he human reaction to external stimulus…, because it must pass through

the mind, is determined not only by the nature of the external stimulus but

also by the nature of the mind through which it passes.… [I]n some respects,

each man’s appraisal of an identical object is peculiarly his own. (Clark, 1950,

p. 20)

Cognition and imaging of the environment are influenced not only by individual

experience, but also by the experiences of the social group to which the individual

belongs. In many ways, therefore, the cognitive behavioural approach is a

development of the early possibilist ideas of Vidal de la Blache and other French

geographers with their concept of genre de vie.

Cultural background will influence the way in which the environment is perceived

and the way in which people will behave in it. Although human geographers had,

for some time, been aware of the influence of culture and the distinction between the

real and perceived world, the idea of cultural behaviouralism did not really take

hold until geographers began to borrow some ideas from psychology.

Activity 2.4: Revisiting Your Preconceptions

Now that you have completed the unit, you can reassess your reactions to the

statements that appeared in Activity 2.1. Consider if you would you now make any

changes to your initial responses.

If we take a closer look at each statement, we can decipher the philosophical

underpinnings related to each view.

It should be clear that the first and last statements (1 and 5) summarize more recent

views of many geographers concerning people and environment.

The first is basically one way of stating a cognitive behaviouralist viewpoint:

1. The relationship between people and their surroundings depends not so

much on the real environment but on what people imagine the environment

to be.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-27

TRU Open Learning

Now let’s take a look at the second statement:

2. Mexicans are a friendly, emotional people because they live in a country that

enjoys a warm climate throughout the year.

If we examine the second statement, we see one of the key reasons that

Environmental Determinism “fell out of favour”. In suggesting that

the physical environment moulds people, this statement really

expresses a crude deterministic philosophy—one which your textbook

captures on page 16, “environmental determinism … assumes a

certain cause and effect to be true, when in actuality there is no basis

for any such assumption” (Norton & Mercier, 2016). Many scholars

came to conclude that some used the concept to support racist views,

and environmental determinism was also seen to justify imperialism.

The ideas in the third statement, while shared by many Canadians, represent an

overly optimistic possibilist position. It is true that human ingenuity can overcome

many environmental difficulties, such as in the development of pipelines and mines

in the Arctic. However, until economic, social, or strategic needs intensify

significantly, it is unlikely that we will attempt to develop such areas “in any way

we choose.”

3. In spite of the climatic hardships of the Canadian Arctic, we can develop it in

any way we choose.

Again, the fourth statement is a very simple cause-and-effect assumption that is

underlying environmental determinism.

4. Land, sea, soils, and climate work to mould people by shaping their bodies,

characters, occupations, and social organization.

The last (statement five) emphasizes that the cultural milieu largely conditions

environmental relations. You could, of course, disagree with the last statement if you

feel that it presents a view no less extreme than that of environmental determinism.

5. People live in a physical environment, and their interactions with it are

conditioned by their cultural heritage.

Activity 2.5: Philosophical Options

Human geography incorporates other philosophies that explain the concepts and

methods geographers use. The textbook examines these philosophies: empiricism,

positivism, humanism, Marxism, feminist thought, and postmodernism. Read the

section “Philosophical Options” in the textbook (pp. 26-33) and match the correct

statement with the appropriate philosophy, using E for empiricism, P for positivism,

H for humanism, M for Marxism, F for feminist thought, and PM for postmoderism:

U1-28 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

1. Employs phenomenology, pragmatism, and existentialism.

2. The personal beliefs of the geographer should not influence data collection,

analysis, or formulation of results.

3. Knowledge stems from experience; therefore factual observations are

paramount.

4. Supports the scientific method.

5. Examines the inequalities of development.

6. Defines geographic concept of place as: sense of place, placelessness, and

sacred space.

7. Concerned with the economic exploitation of workers.

8. Closely linked to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism.

9. Looks at the impact of “male privilege” on society.

Conclusion

This module and its activities have provided a very brief overview of the evolution

of geographic thought. We will be revisiting some of the central concepts introduced

here in later modules.

Assignment 1 (10%)

Assignment 1 covers modules 1, 2 and 3. You may want to complete the portion of

the assignment that covers modules 1 and 2 at this time, but wait until you have

completed the entire assignment before sending it to your Open Learning Faculty

Member. In the meantime, if you have any questions about modules 1 or 2, consult

your Open Learning Faculty Member.

References

Buckle, T. E. (1872). The history of civilization in England (Vols. 1–3). London, UK:

Longmans.

Charles Darwin [Photograph]. (1909). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V74_D318_Charles_Darwin.pn

Clark, K. G. T. (1950). Certain underpinnings of our arguments in human

geography. Transactions, 16, 13–22.

Febvre, L. (1924). A geographical introduction to history. (E. G. Mountford & J. H.

Paxton, Trans.). London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-29

TRU Open Learning

Huntington, E. (1915). Civilization and climate. New Haven, CT: Yale University

Press.

Natural Resources Canada. (2016, August 31) The atlas of Canada. Retrieved from

http://atlas.gc.ca.

Semple, E. C. (1911). The influences of geographic environment on the basis of Ratzel’s

system of anthropogeographie. London, UK: Constable.

Schrader, J. (1859). Baron Alexander von Humboldt [Painting]. Wikipedia.org.

Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baron_Alexander_von_Humboldt_by_Julius

_Schrader_1859.jpg.

Taylor, G. (1940). Australia: A study of warm environments and their effect on British

settlement. London, UK: Methuen.

Taylor, G. (1947). Canada: A study of cool continental environments and their effect on

British and French settlements. London, UK: Methuen.

von Humboldt, A. (2005, January 3). Cosmos: A sketch of the physical description of the

universe (E.C. Otte, Trans., Vol. 1). Retrieved from

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14565. (Original work published 1858).

Module 3: Maps and Mapping

Overview

You’ll likely already have plenty experience using maps, as maps are established

components of most social media applications and are ubiquitous in our tech-savvy

world. For example, most Facebook pages include basic maps with points showing

where people are from and where they have been, and Google or Bing Maps appear

in almost every search engine query with the concept of “where”, whether overt or

not—for example, typing coffee shop or café into a search engine will bring up a

map of nearby establishments. Even if you have never contributed to creating

content on Google Maps, you’ve undoubtedly used their maps and information to

locate a destination or to identify directions, distance, and driving time.

Most photos you take carry embedded information about the location they were

taken, and this is transferred to applications, supporting displaying of photos

relative to where they were taken (the exception is, of course, if you consciously turn

off “location” functions that capture this information).

Maps have long been a primary tool for the geographer, as most of the questions we

ask have a spatial component. If you recall, back in Module 1, human geography

was defined as “the study of the relationship between people and the environment”.

U1-30 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Your textbook used three related questions from Gritzner “What is where, why

there, and why care?” to develop a more thorough definition (p. xxvii). Most of the

eleven key concepts presented in your textbook have spatial elements. Clearly,

spatial relations are at the heart of human geography.

Human geographers examine data for associations and connections in order to

better understand the human-environment connection. As such, maps and spatial

data are central components to posing and solving questions. As a beginning human

geography student, you will learn how to think critically about the messages maps

communicate and the ways that they can help you solve problems.

This module provides an introduction to mapping, and an overview of key terms

and concepts.

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module are scale, spatial analysis, absolute location, relative

location, space, tone, shape, size, pattern, texture, shadow, and association.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 3, you will be able to:

 Define a map.

 Differentiate between absolute and relative location.

 Identify three ways of expressing map scale.

 Understand why we have different projections.

 Describe elements used to interpret digital images.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-31

TRU Open Learning

 Define the different kinds of questions maps can answer.

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

3.1: Techniques of

Analysis—Mapping

Textbook reading

Optional Web Activity Interactive map

3.2: Ten Places You Are

Not Allowed to See on

Google Maps

Reading with online photo

gallery

3.3: Kamloops—Two

Views

Interactive map with

questions

Assignment 1 (10%) Due at end of Unit 1 Assignment 1

(10%)

What Are Maps?

Your textbook describes mapping as one way that geographers collect, display, and

analyze their data. In that sense, maps are a very important part of the human

geographer’s toolkit. Maps not only provide information about where things are,

they also enable us to answer complex questions, including:

 What neighbourhoods border the neighbourhood I am studying, and how are

their characteristics different or the same from my neighbourhood?

 Where schools are located in my city, and does that impact the behaviour of

humans when they are searching for homes to buy?

 Where are potential locations for wind energy farms in Canada?

There are different kinds of maps in human geography.

First, there is the standard idea of a map—a paper or digital representation of the

earth. Harley and Woodward (1987) define maps as “graphic representations that

facilitate a spatial understanding of things, concepts, conditions, processes, or events

in the human world” (p. xvi). There are also maps that we conceptualize in our

minds (known as mental maps), defined as “the individual psychological

representation of space” (Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 525). We will be discussing

mental maps later in this course. This module will introduce you to the first kind of

U1-32 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

maps, the ones you may be more familiar with: paper and digital representations of

the earth.

Maps are fascinating tools because they use methods and are supported by elements

that make them appear to be objective, or free of bias. After all, when we make

maps, we discuss things like representative scales, precision and accuracy, and

spatial location—all elements that require a foundation in technical know-how and

understanding. When using maps for everyday life, such as finding driving

directions or discovering new places to have coffee, we generally are secure with the

information that maps communicate to us—after all, maps just show where we are

and where we want to go, right?

But, when we work with maps we must also recognize that they can contain biases,

misinformation, and even outright lies. How can something that is so concerned

with measurements be biased? While we are frequently taught about maps with an

immense emphasis on the components of maps and the steps to make a map, we are

taught little about the narrative, or the story, of the map itself (Morantz, 2002).

Harley writes:

The usual perception of the nature of maps is that they are a mirror, a

graphical representation, of some aspect of the real-world. The definitions set

out in various dictionaries and glossaries of cartography confirm this view….

Although cartographers write about the art as well as the science of

mapmaking, science has overshadowed the competition between the two.

(Harley, 1990, pp. 3–4)

It is important to realize that the process of map-making can, and frequently does,

construct a reality for the map-reader. Selection of scale, projection, and symbology

are just a few of the decisions made by map-makers that influence the message the

map gives. What the map-maker leaves out is just as important as what s/he chooses

to put in. In his book How to Lie with Maps, Monmonier notes that the process of

creating distortions is a key part of using maps:

Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it’s essential. To portray meaningful

relationships for a complex, three-dimensional world on a flat sheet of paper

or a video screen, a map must distort reality…. There’s no escape from the

cartographic paradox: to present a useful and truthful picture, an accurate

map must tell white lies…. Because most map users willingly tolerate white

lies on maps it’s not difficult for maps to tell more serious lies…. Map users

seldom, if ever, question [those who make maps], and they often fail to

appreciate the map’s power as a tool of deliberate falsification or subtle

propaganda. (Monmonier, 1996, p. 1)

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-33

TRU Open Learning

The purpose of this module is to introduce you to some basic components of maps—

namely, scale and projection—so that you will be able to use maps at later stages in

this course and in your studies. At the same time, you will see that maps are

fundamentally communication mechanisms, whereby the map-maker creates and

communicates a certain reality, at the expense of other messages, to the map-reader.

Activity 3.1: Techniques of Analysis—Mapping

Your textbook presents a good summary of the roles of cartography, computer-

assisted cartography, and geographic information systems (GIS). Additionally,

remote sensing is discussed as a technique that can be used to create spatial data

useful for analysis. As you go through the unit pages here, you can refer to the

textbook for references and further explanation on concepts including scale,

projection, and thematic maps.

Read pages 46–51 now to get an introduction into these topics.

In your journal, write out your own definition of maps and mapping.

What do you think the role of mapping is in communicating ideas?

Hint: Read Box 2.4 on the Power of Maps.

Some Questions Maps Do Answer

When you are finished the above activity, let’s go back and revisit the concepts of

space and location. Your textbook notes that space is an areal extent described in

absolute or relative terms, while location is a particular position within space. Maps

function to answer the most basic of questions: where?, and do so through absolute

and relative location. These two concepts are differentiated next.

Absolute location provides map-readers with an exact description, or address, of

where they are in space. For example, global positioning systems (GPS) record your

absolute location when you mark a point or record a track. Even your cellphone uses

its GPS to record and communicate your absolute location. For example, every time

an app asks you if you want to make your location available, it is using the GPS to

link your location to its services. That way, you can communicate to your friends

where you are, as well as provide information in the form of photos, text, or online

posts.

Relative location provides users with the ability to conceptualize where they are in

relation to other known places. For example, if you travel to Merritt, British

Columbia, from Kamloops, you begin the journey knowing that Merritt is

approximately 87 km south of Kamloops.

U1-34 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Basic Map Elements

In order to use maps, and to understand what you are looking at, there are some

basic map elements that you need to master. Two of the most important are scale

and projection.

Scale

Maps are drawn as scaled representations of the real-world. Drawing to scale means

that the distances (lengths and/or heights) in the real-world are reduced by the same

amount so that when they appear on a piece of paper or computer screen, they are

all proportional and true to their real-world version.

The reduction between the real-world and its representation on the map is recorded

on the map. In fact, a map must have a scale. Without a scale, or way to judge real-

world distances, a picture of the earth is just a picture and not a map at all.

Scale is represented as:

Scale = Map Distance/Ground Distance

There are three different ways of expressing scale on a map:

1. Scale as a Representative Fraction

For example, scale written as 1:1,000,000 is a representative fraction.

It is crucial to recognize that until the map-user assigns units, the above scale is unit-

less. The same units must be assigned to both sides of the fraction in order for the

real-world to map-world representation to be true.

So, 1:1,000,000 can mean:

 1 cm on the map is equal to 1,000,000 cm in the real world, OR

 1 inch on the map is equal to 1,000,000 inches in the real world, OR

 1 kilometre on the map is equal to 1,000,000 kilometres in the real world.

Okay, that last one isn’t very practical since most maps are nowhere close to one-

kilometre wide … but you get the idea!

Once you realize that both sides of the representative fraction can be equal to any

unit you assign, then the next step is to translate the number on the right to

something meaningful. After all, if I were to tell you about the distance between two

cities, I wouldn’t say, “The distance is 1,000,000 centimetres,” I would say, “The

distance is ten kilometres.”

Remember: Scale = Map Distance

Ground Distance

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-35

TRU Open Learning

Hint:

Two places on a map are 1,000 metres (1 kilometre) apart.

We know that there are 1,000 metres, or 100,000 centimetres, in a kilometre.

To calculate scale: 1 cm = 1,000 m

1,000 m = 100,000 cm

Therefore, one centimetre on the map equals 100,000

centimetres on the ground.

Scale is thus: 1 cm

100,000 cm =

100,000

Likewise, if we used inches as the unit, one inch on the map equals 1,000,000 inches

in the real-world, or 15.78 miles.

Hint:

We know that there are 63,360 inches in a mile. So, to do the conversion,

divide 1,000,000 by 63,360.

2. Scale as a Verbal Statement

Scale is expressed as a verbal statement when I say, “One inch equals 15.78 miles.”

3. Scale as a Graphic Scale

Scale represented graphically is what we mean when we talk about the scale bar on a

map. A drawing is used to show the relationship between map distance and real-

world distance (Figure 3.1):

Figure 3.1: A simple graphic scale bar (bottom). Verbal scale example is on the top.

In some ways, this is the most useful way to express scale, since it doesn’t require

the user to do any work other than transfer knowledge about distance from the scale

bar to the map itself using a ruler. (You can even use string or a shoelace, marking

distances on the string/shoelace with a pen, and then using on the map.)

Scale Is More than What You See

Scale is a powerful concept because the selection of scale for a map will obscure

some details while emphasizing others. For example, in Figures 3.2a and 3.2b, we

U1-36 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

can see that when we are zoomed out, or looking at place when it makes up only a

small part of the landscape, then maps (and images) obscure important details.

When we zoom in, or take a closer look, details become clearer.

Although this example uses Google images, the same principle is true for paper

maps, or maps that don’t use imagery as a background.

Figure 3.2a: The figure above shows general geography and place names of

northern Alberta.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-37

TRU Open Learning

Figure 3.2b: When zoomed in on Fort McMurray and the area to the north of the

town, we begin to see some of the details of the extraction activity associated with

the oil sands development.

Projection

Map projection is a central consideration when making or reading a map. In reality,

the earth is oblate spheroid—the process of transferring information from that shape

to two-dimensional maps is done by stretching and compressing the earth’s shapes

and features. Distortion is created when we transfer real-world information found

on a two-dimensional surface (or even on the three-dimensional surface of some

map viewers); map projections are mathematical formulas that enable these transfer

to occur.

All projections introduce some sort of distortion. Some key elements that can be

distorted are: area, shape, distance, and direction.

There are many different projections with each preserving the most accurate

representations of one or two aspects. The cost of doing so means that other aspects

of representation are greatly distorted, creating an inaccurate picture.

U1-38 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Figure 3.3 shows an outline of BC, using two different map projections (Geographic

on the left; BC Albers on the right). Distortions are easily seen when comparing the

two. Which one would you prefer if you were creating a map of BC?

(Image transcript available online)

Optional Web Activity

Not all features on a map are represented equally in shape, area (or relative size),

and distance from each other because of the distortions that occur when

transforming real-world data.

See information on projections on Penn State University’s Interactive Album of Map

Projections 2.0 page:

 Baxter, R. (n.d.). Interactive album of map projections 2.0 [Web application].

Retrieved from Penn State University, Online Geospatial Education Program

website: http://projections.mgis.psu.edu/.

You can redraw the world map using different projections. This application makes it

easy to see how each distorts certain elements while preserving others.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-39

TRU Open Learning

In your journal, respond to the following:

1. Summarize the use of map projections and the importance of understanding

them.

2. What are the distortions introduced by the Mercator projection?

3. Choose one of the projections outlined, and discuss which you would prefer

if you were working with a map of the world. Defend your answer.

Digital Image Interpretation Using Imagery

Many of the maps that we use today place their information on top of images from

satellites or aircraft, literally showing us a picture of what we are looking for, or at.

Humans are very visual creatures and we naturally search out things that are

familiar to us. At the same time, we note things that we aren’t familiar with, or can’t

readily identify.

Recognizing and interpreting digital imagery uses skills that require us to

differentiate features from one another. Even though we do this quite naturally,

understanding the way we do this helps us appreciate that the way in which we are

seeing information may be impacting the way we interpret its meaning.

Knowledge of photographic interpretation is an important mapping skill, for it

enables us to accurately identify objects and judge their significance.

Natural Resources Canada summarizes the main categories for digital imagery

interpretation as: tone, shape, size, pattern, texture, shadow and association:

 Natural Resources Canada. (2015, November 19). Elements of visual

interpretation. (Available in your online content) Retrieved from

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geomatics/satellite-imagery-air-

photos/satellite-imagery-products/educational-resources/9291.

Each category is discussed in the following slideshow. (Available in your online

course material)

more complex questions.

The process of looking for patterns and understanding the way things interact is at

the very heart of one of Norton and Mercier’s main themes: spatial analysis.

U1-40 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Your textbook notes that throughout history, all humans have used some type of

maps: “Roughly sketched with a stick in sand or soil, or carefully scratched into rock

or wood, maps could be used to show the location of water, game or a hostile

group” (Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 4). That description of maps points out a very

important function of maps and mapping: Maps are more than just technology that

points us from one place to another; maps are communication devices expressing

information, perceptions and values from one person to another.

Although it may be easy to understand how maps communicate information, but

how exactly do maps communicate values or perceptions?

Maps are value-laden in almost every aspect—from the very basics of how lines and

shapes are drawn, to the over-all themes that they represent. The following figures

illustrate this. The first one shows a fairly basic map of the Toronto Transit

Commission (TTC) subway and light rapid transit lines. This map is designed to

illustrate the transportation routes and stops at the expense of all other information.

Scale and position are distorted so that the map’s main message, where the stations

are and how the routes are interconnected, is communicated.

Figure 3.4: TTC Rider Guide, 2005

Toronto Transit Commission. (2005). Subway/RT route map: Ride the rocket [Map]. .

Retrieved from http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/maps/subway_rt_2005.pdf.

Now, contrast the above figure with the next one, the official TTC (Toronto Transit

Commission) Ride Guide, January 2012 (click the link to open the PDF). It shows the

information contained in the previous figure and, well, a whole lot more. There is

information not only about the subways, but also about bus and streetcar lines as

well as the commuter trains that link with the TTC. We also see some basic road and

schedule information. No doubt that Figure 3.5 provides a lot more information, but

if all you wanted to know was how many subway stops until your destination,

Figure 3.4 would be your choice. However, if you wanted some comprehensive

information about getting around the city, you would likely choose the complete

Rider Guide.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-41

TRU Open Learning

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/maps/rg2012.pdf

Figure 3.5: TTC Ride guide (2012) (Available in your online course material)

Toronto Transit Commission. (2012). Ride guide [Map]. Retrieved from

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/maps/rg2012.pdf.

Now, let’s take this a step further and examine Figure 3.6. This map was created by

Jason Bragg, a man who created a website to display maps he makes of Toronto.

Bragg’s maps answer questions about Toronto and its neighbourhoods that so-called

“official” maps don’t. Bragg wondered, “What is the usage level of different TTC

stations?” After looking up that information (in table form, published by the TTC) he

created the map displayed in Figure 3.6. As you can see, this map uses symbology

and colours similar to Figure 3.4. Bragg purposefully chose an image familiar to

people so that users of his map don’t have to do a lot of mental processing to

understand the message he is trying to communicate. What he does do is distort the

shape and size of each of the stations to show which stations are the busiest

(expressed as number of riders/station/day).

Figure 3.6: Bragg’s Ridership Map, using similar format as TCC Rider Guide, 2005

Bragg, J. (2011, September 9). Transit talks: TTC subway/RT ridership Map [Blog post].

Retrieved from https://neighbourhoodwalks.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/ttc-subwayrt-

ridership-map/ .

Thus, the above series of maps serve as a perfect example of how people can use

maps to not only convey basic information (about where and what things are), but to

also convey certain messages. To recap, in the TTC’s Subway/RT Route Map: Ride the

U1-42 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Rocket readers’ guide, relative locations and names of stations are communicated,

regardless of distance from each other. In the second example (the detailed TTC Ride

Guide), much more information is communicated about the city and its features.

Maps and Perception

If you recall our earlier discussion about perception, you’ll remember that Norton

and Mercier defined perception (it bears repeating):

... all humans relate not to some real physical or social environment but

rather to their perception of that environment – a perception that varies with

knowledge and is closely related to cultural and social considerations.

(Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 42)

Individual or group perception of the environment can be altered by the messages

communicated by others. Cartographers (or, because these days most maps are

made on computers with specialized software, geographic information technicians

or analysts) are masters at using different colours, symbols, projections (!), and other

tools to provide us with the information they want us to see (or sometimes, they

don’t even realize they are subverting some information and promoting other

information). After all, they cannot provide us with all the information in the world;

we simply wouldn’t be able to process it let alone see it on a single map. The

determination of who collects data and information, the manner in which it is

represented, and how a map is used underlies the power relationships between

map-makers and map users.

How the Maps We Use Everyday Are Communicating Messages and Views

You might think that satellite and airphoto maps such as those used by online

mapping tools like Google Maps, Bing Maps, and OpenStreetMap are value free.

They are just showing us pictures of the world, right? Well, consider that Google

Maps, for example, routinely blurs out images of sensitive military bases and

facilities, power dams, airports, and national parks. In the next activity, use the

Internet to view some of the sites that have been purposefully obscured by Google

Maps.

Activity 3.2: Ten Places that You Are Not Allowed to See on Google Maps

Consider: 10 Places That You Are Not Allowed to See on Google Maps

(http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/google-maps-censored/).

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-43

TRU Open Learning

 Murphy, S. (2012, March 20). 10 places you’re not allowed to see on Google

Maps. Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/google-

maps-censored/.

Activity 3.3: Kamloops—Two Views

The way in which imagery is collected as well as when (year, and time of year)

determines what we actually see. Compare and contrast these representations of

Kamloops by Google Maps and Bing Maps.

(Available in your online course content)

Figure 3.7: Representations of Kamloops by Google Maps and Bing Maps

By sliding the slider one way or the other you can see all (or part) of the Bing Map

and conversely all of part of the Google Map. Ask yourself the following questions

and record your answers in your learning journal:

1. Which map would you prefer if you were giving someone directions to

Thompson Rivers University? Why?

2. Which map would you prefer if you were describing how to take Highway 1

through the city? Why?

3. Which map would you prefer if you were going hunting north of the city?

Why? What is your overall impression of the way the natural landscape is

shown in Google Maps? In the Bing Maps image?

4. Now compare and contrast the two images by answering the following

questions, and this time, use the terms applied to explain interpretation of

digital maps: tone, texture, size, shape, pattern, aspect, and association:

A. Where is river located?

B. What is the dominate natural landscape type (e.g., grassland, forest,

rock, ice, etc.)?

C. What is the second most common landscape type?

5. What additional information would you learn from each of the two

images? What impression would have you of Kamloops from each?

6. Finally, which image do you prefer, and why?

U1-44 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Manipulating Maps to Tell the Story We Want to Tell

Denis Wood notes in his book The Power of Maps (1992) that maps are important and

crucial in the moment of decision-making, and can sway not only single users but

also entire populations to adopt one decision over another.

We can see an example of this is how people communicate ideas about proposed

future developments. Consider, for example, the story of two three-dimensional

maps constructed for the people of Kamloops in 2012. Both maps portray the area

where a new mine is proposed. The company proposing the mine created one map;

citizens (who felt that the company’s map did not provide accurate and useful

information) created the other in response to the company’s map (see below).

(Available in your online content)

Figure 3.8: Mapping the Proposed AJAX Mine

Similar to the Google and Bing Maps comparison, you can use the slider to see more

or less of one map or the other.

A comparison of people’s reactions to the two maps has been recorded in the local

media. Note how each person prefers varying elements on one map compared with

representations of identical features on another map:

Citizen 1 observation:

“Having viewed both models, one gets a much clearer picture of what the mine will

look like relative to its surroundings. The citizens’ model is, in my opinion, much

better in that it provides more detail and gives a more realistic picture.

The [company’s] model may suffice from the engineering perspective—it is an

accurate, sanitized version of what the area would look like minus any human

landmarks.”

Source: McGuiness, S. (2012, August 28). RE: Models provide reasons to speak up on

Ajax [Comment]. Kamloops Daily News. Retrieved from

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/models-provide-reasons-to-speak-up-on-ajax-

1.1234822.

Citizen 2 observation:

“Interesting how the citizens’ model includes a body of water called Inks Lake, but

the corporate model (KGHM Ajax) designates it merely as “Process Water Pond.” I

wonder how many hundreds of people have skated, hiked, and partied at Inks Lake

over the years.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U1-45

TRU Open Learning

But then, there is no human component at all in the (the company’s) model—it’s as if

the City of Kamloops and the people that live there do not exist.”

Source: Grube, A. (2012, August 23). RE: Mine models tell two different stories

[Comment]. Kamloops Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/mine-

models-tell-two-different-stories-1.1226797.

The way in which maps are used to tell one viewpoint over another in local decision-

making processes is an important element to understand when considering human-

environment interactions.

Conclusion

It is clear that the manner in which information is collected and displayed on a map

underlies power relationships between the map-maker and the map-reader. When

we study humans and their interaction with their environment, we need to consider

the impact of how information is represented and communicated. As the map is one

of the geographer’s primary tools in doing this, we must critically evaluate maps we

see and use.

Assignment 1 (10%)

Now that you have completed the readings and activities for modules 1 through 3,

you are ready to complete Assignment 1 and send it to your Open Learning Faculty

Member. Instructions for completing assignments and details of Assignment 1 are found under the Assignments Overview tab on your course site.

Consult your Open Learning Faculty Member if you have any questions. Keep a

copy of your assignment as a backup so that you can refer to it when you are

discussing your work with your Open Learning Faculty Member.

References

Baxter, R. (n.d.). Interactive album of map projections 2.0 [Web application]. Retrieved

from Penn State University, Online Geospatial Education Program website:

http://projections.mgis.psu.edu/.

Bragg, J. (2011, September 9). Transit talks: TTC subway/RT ridership Map [Blog post].

Retrieved from https://neighbourhoodwalks.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/ttc-

subwayrt-ridership-map/.

Google. (n.d.). [Google Maps view of Kamloops, BC]. Retrieved from

https://www.google.ca/maps.

Grube, A. (2012, August 23). RE: Mine models tell two different stories [Comment].

Kamloops Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/mine-

models-tell-two-different-stories-1.1226797.

U1-46 Unit 1: Introduction, Historical Evolution of Geographic Thought…

TRU Open Learning

Harley, J. B. (1990). Text and contexts in the interpretation of early maps. In D.

Buisseret (Ed.), From sea charts to satellite images: Interpreting North American

history through maps. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Harley, J. B., & Woodward, D. (1987). The history of cartography (Vol. 1). Chicago, IL:

The University of Chicago Press.

McGuiness, S. (2012, August 28). RE: Models provide reasons to speak up on Ajax

[Comment]. Kamloops Daily News. Retrieved from

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/models-provide-reasons-to-speak-up-on-ajax-

1.1234822.

Microsoft. (2012). [Bing Maps view of Kamloops, BC]. Retrieved from

www.bing.com/maps/.

Monmonier, M. (1996). How to lie with maps. Chicago and London: University of

Chicago Press. Morantz, A. (2002). Where is here? Canada’s maps and the stories

they tell. Toronto, ON: Penguin Press.

Murphy, S. (2012, March 20). 10 places you’re not allowed to see on Google Maps.

Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/google-maps-

censored/.

Natural Resources Canada. (2015, November 19). Elements of visual interpretation.

Retrieved from http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geomatics/satellite-

imagery-air-photos/satellite-imagery-products/educational-resources/9291.

Toronto Transit Commission. (2005). Subway/RT route map: Ride the rocket [Map].

Retrieved from

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/maps/subway_rt_2005.pdf.

Toronto Transit Commission. (2012). Ride guide [Map]. Retrieved from

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/maps/rg2012.pdf.

Turnbull, D. (1989). Maps are territories: Science in an atlas. Chicago, IL: University of

Chicago Press.

Wood, D. (1992). The power of Maps. New York, NY: Guildford Press.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-1

TRU Open Learning

Unit 2 (Modules 4 and 5): The Importance of the Perceived Environment

Introduction

The general objective of this unit is to further examine what behavioural geography

and environmental perception studies can tell us about people and environment.

Studies of environmental perception and the ecosystem concept (the topic of

modules 6 and 7) have become important integrative concepts for geography. Once

you finish units 2 and 3, you’ll have a strong foundation in human geography

thought and process.

Unit 2 includes the following two modules:

 Module 4: Our Perception Determines Our Behaviour

 Module 5: Determining “How We Know”

Module 4: Our Perception Determines Our Behaviour

Overview

“A principle goal of Human Geography is identification of the variables that lead

human behaviour to shape landscapes in various ways” (Norton, 1997, p. 439).

To understand how, where, and why humans interact with their environment, we

need to look at how people perceive the world as much as the real world itself. In

Module 2, geographical ideas on the environment included a brief introduction to

two concepts that guide the study of how people perceive the world: behavioural

geography and cognitive behaviouralism. You were introduced to the important

idea that human behaviour is related to the perceived environment rather than to the

actual environment.

It is the environment as perceived that forms the basis of human-environment

relationships and behaviour. And because individuals, cultures, and social groups

vary in their environmental perceptions, images, and preferences, they also vary in

how they choose to interact with the environment.

In this module, you’ll be reading a little more about theory and historical

development of human geography philosophies as well as taking a comprehensive

look at how environmental perception is applied in real-world examples.

This module has the following three aims:

 To discuss peoples’ perception and cognition of the environment and the

kinds of mental images that are constructed on the basis of that cognition.

U2-2 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

 To understand the factors that influence peoples’ cognition and images.

 To examine the ways in which those images are reflected in actions and

behaviour within the environment.

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module are environmental perception, humans-behaviour-

environment, environment, cognition, mental image, cognitive behavourialism, and

behaviour.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 4, you will be able to:

 Explore what behavioural geography and environmental perception studies

can tell us about people and environment.

 Define and correctly use these terms: environment, behaviour, perception,

cognition, and mental image.

 Describe the main features of cognitive behaviouralism and explain what is

meant by behavioural geography.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-3

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessments

4.1: Reading and

Questions—Key Themes

Geographical perspectives

Optional Web Activity “The Geographic

Perspective” cartoon

4.2: Reading and

Questions—Contrasting

Interests

Environment and values

Optional Web Activity Video

4.3: Behavioural

Geography—An

Introduction

Reading and answering

questions

4.4: Contrasting

Environment-Behaviour

Systems

Reading and answering

questions

Due at the end of Unit 2 Assignment 2 (10%)

Introduction to essay Essay (20%)

Introduction

Studies of environmental perception and a focus on the ecosystem concept (the

latter will be discussed in modules 6 and 7) have become important integrative

frameworks within geography. Perception studies allow us to better understand,

perhaps predict, and possibly guide human activities in the environment. These

studies are one expression of geographers’ concerns with developing socially and

environmentally realistic guidelines for planning policies and management

options—or concerns with “best use” (for review of the key concept, see

Perception in your textbook on page 42).

Recognition of the importance of environmental perception and the environment

as perceived is not only the prerogative of geographers but also of other social

U2-4 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

scientists and many environmental management and planning agencies, as well.

For example, measuring perception of visual quality is undertaken by

professional foresters when planning future locations of forest harvest cutblocks.

Figure 4.1 shows a map where forestry activities are planned to best preserve

visual quality in areas where people are most likely to view the landscape.

Figure 4.1: Visual quality objective map for the South Island Forest District, BC

(Image transcript available online)

permission of the Province of British Columbia. Province of British Columbia. (2011, December 14). South Island Natural Resource District visual

quality objectives established under Section 7(2) GAR Order Amendment Map, dated December 14,

2011 [Map]. Retrieved from

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/DSI/external/!publish/Stewardship/SIFD_Objectives_Matrix/10_Vis

ual_Quality/DSI_VQO_VSC_GAR_Order_Amd2011_Dec_14_2011_Final_Map.pdf.

Figure 4.2 is a photo taken from a scenic point at the Sun Peaks ski resort; forest

harvesting has occurred on areas at low angles to the recreation viewpoints.

This preserves the viewscape for those using the mountain for recreation and

maximizing their perception that they are in the “wilderness”.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-5

TRU Open Learning

Figure 4.2: Viewpoint from Sun Peaks Ski Resort, British Columbia

(Image transcript available online)

Activity 4.1: Reading and Questions—Key Themes

The textbook identifies three over-arching themes for human geography, each of

which contains the idea that one of the important ideas of human geography: how

humans perceive their environment influences how they interact with it.

 Humans and the land emphasizes that the idea of the landscape emerges

from both human modification of the environment and the cultural

importance of those modifications—this occurs because humans carry

certain perceptions about how the land should be used.

 Regions exist as related or unified areas on the landscape. Human

perception of what is related and what is not determines what areas make

up individual regions.

 Spatial analysis examines why things are located where they are.

Perception is an important element because maps communicate

information to people who use them, and the perception of the

cartographer is an important ingredient in determining what messages

are communicated.

U2-6 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Together, these terms provide the framework for what is termed the geographical

perspective.

Review these key themes (in the section starting on p. xxiv) and keep them in

mind when reading the next two modules. If you haven’t already done so, also

review the key term Perception on page 42.

Along with all the information and knowledge you have obtained from this

course to date, answer the following questions using your own words in your

course journal:

 Why does the geographical perspective matter? Is the study of spatial

relationships important to the geographical perspective?

Optional Web Activity

Go to National Geographic’s “The Geographic Perspective” cartoon at:

 Crooks, M. (2012, January 25). The geographic perspective. Retrieved from

http://nationalgeographic.org/media/geographic-perspective/.

This web page offers an overview of the geographical perspective, and some

useful follow-up questions. Many of the terms used are in the course textbook.

Final Project (30%)

You may want to review the National Geographic glossary for some

additional ideas for your Final Project.

Understanding Human-Behaviour-Environment Relationships: Key Terms

Within geography, the cognitive behavioural approach fosters an area of inquiry

variously called environmental perception, perception geography, or behavioural

geography. This area of inquiry supplements the earlier focus on direct human-

environment relationships with a focus on human-behaviour-environment

relationships. This focus attempts to explain human-environment systems in the

context of how people and social groups perceive and build images of their

environment as a basis of environmental behaviour.

Your course glossary defines behavioural geography as:

The explanation of spatial patterns of behaviour in terms of the cognitive

processes by which individuals and groups codify, respond to, and react

upon their environments.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-7

TRU Open Learning

The cognitive processes include environmental perception (or merely, perception),

which is defined in the course glossary as:

The manner in which an individual or group of people, through both their

senses and the filters of experience, culture, and belief, regard and build

images of their phenomenal environment.

Before examining these ideas further, we need to first discuss some of the concepts

introduced in earlier modules. The discussion will attempt to keep the language as

straightforward as possible. But you must by now be aware that any discussion of

behavioural geography, environmental perception, and cognitive behaviouralism

entails venturing into at least the fringes of a semantic jungle! Apparently well

established and understood words take on special meaning in behavioural

geography. Also, many terms have been borrowed from other disciplines, especially

psychology. So, it is important to define some key concepts and terms before we

proceed any further.

These key concepts are:

 Environment

 Cognitive behaviouralism

 Perception

 Cognition

 Mental image

 Behaviour

You may have seen some of these key concepts in your textbook reading and/or in

earlier parts of this course. As you continue, this unit will build on these

foundations.

Final Project (30%)

You may want to use one or more of these glossary terms for your Final

Project.

Environment

Environment is an often-used word that is usually taken at face value. Yet, as we

have already seen in earlier modules, it can be interpreted in a number of ways. But

what exactly does environment mean in behavioural geography?

A simple definition of environment is that it is the aggregate of all external

conditions and influences affecting the life and development of an individual.

U2-8 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

However, any comprehensive definition of environment must include all cultural,

natural, and human-made components. People are active participants in their

environment, not just passive observers. Even the mere fact of entering an

environment can change it.

For instance, a landscape over which there is a planning conflict is not just an

assemblage of objects—it is imbued with symbols, meaning, values, and

motivational messages—that drive people to act in the way they do (see Figure 4.3).

Not only do these symbols and values become part of the environment, they can also

give rise to planning conflict because different people hold contrasting values.

So, in behavioural geography and perception studies, environment can be defined

as the whole phenomenal- behavioural surface on which people base their decisions,

composed of natural and non-natural, visible and invisible, economic and social

components.

Figure 4.3: Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC

(Image transcript available online)

Activity 4.2: Reading and Questions—Contrasting Interests

Next, read the newspaper article “Vancouver Island Red Cedar: 800-Year-Old Tree

Hacked Down, Says Environmental Group” in The Huffington Post:

 Vancouver Island red cedar: 800-year-old tree hacked down, says

environmental group [Photographs]. (2012, May 17). The Canadian Press.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-9

TRU Open Learning

Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/17/vancouver-island-red-

cedar_n_1525958.html?view=screen.

Once you have finished reading, answer the following in your journal:

1. Identify the different and contrasting interests over the red cedar. What

values or symbols are represented by each group?

 Individual or

Group/Interest

 Value that each individual or group

sees in the red cedar tree—perhaps

best answered by asking:

 “What does the red cedar mean to

each individual, group, or interest?”

 

2. If the tree had been left to rot on the forest floor, how do you think each of the

above individuals and groups would view it?

3. Do you think any of these individuals and groups have a different opinion or

value about the tree and its environment if the 800-year-old tree were still

standing?

Optional Web Activity

Watch the following YouTube video. Consider how the environment around the

condos is viewed differently by those who cut the tree down and those who are

upset that the tree was cut down.

CTV News [ctvvi’s channel]. (2012, March 23). Bylaw officers say think twice before

cutting down a tree for the view [Video]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/qRXW1q704ro.

Cognitive Behaviouralism

Behaviouralism emphasizes the significance of individual behaviour and focuses on

internal factors such as personality, attitudes, and processes of cognition and

perception whereby individuals and groups relate to and behave in their

U2-10 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

surroundings. In geography, cognitive behaviouralism is utilized as a basis for

behavioural and perceptual studies of human-environment relations.

Perception

This term and its synonym environmental perception are used in two contexts.

First, in the restricted context of sensory reception and processing of information

from the environment, perception is a physiological function—the detection of stimuli

from the environment via the sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin. These

stimuli are then encoded into neural messages that are transferred to the appropriate

brain centres, resulting in an organized and coherent experience.

In a broader, social context, perception is a mental process of interpreting what is

happening in an individual’s surroundings. Social perception, as mentioned above,

draws on sensory perception. But the mental structuring of an individual’s physical

and social environment is also affected by social and cultural factors that vary

according to such influences as past history, attitudes, values, expectations, and

memories. This broad concept of social perception is the one generally adopted in

geographical perception studies.

Cognition

Although it depends partly on physiological perception, cognition is a mental or

psychological process in which the individual interprets and understands

environmental data by ordering, evaluating, storing, and acting on that data. In

addition to drawing on sensing and perceiving, cognition is highly dependent on

experience, expectations, needs, and behaviours of an individual.

Cognition involves practically all types of mental processes such as remembering,

imagining, valuing, and deciding. Cognition is, therefore, essentially the same as

social perception as defined above. The term cognition may be generally more

acceptable to psychologists, but it is sometimes awkward to use. We will be using

the terms cognition and perception interchangeably.

Mental Image

The mental image of the environment results from an individual’s perception or

cognition of the environment and is simply the mental construct or representation of

that environment (see Figure 4.4). Because people have a limited ability to absorb,

interpret, and store information, the image is a selective mental reconstruction and

interpretation of the real world.

These mental constructs have been variously called mental maps, cognitive maps,

or environmental images. The simple term image (or mental image) refers to the

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-11

TRU Open Learning

various mental constructs of their environment that people carry around in their

heads.

Figure 4.4: Student interpretations of Canada

(Image transcript available online)

Robinson, J. L. (1981). The varied mental maps our students have. Canadian Geographic

Magazine, April/May 1981.

Activity 4.3: Behavioural Geography—An Introduction

Your textbook presents two examples where behavioural geography is used to

analyze why people act in certain ways. On page 165, a behavioural explanation is

used to examine why people migrate (or move) from one location to another. Read

this section and answer the following questions in your journal:

U2-12 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

1. What is the definition of “place utility”? Answer the question in your own

words.

2. What is the role of mental maps in a behavourial explanation for migration?

On page 472, the textbook emphasizes a key point: “behavioural approaches centre

on individuals’ subjective views” (Norton & Mercier). The text goes on to present

some historical and contemporary ideas around why industries are located in certain

places and not others. Read pages 472–473 and consider the following in your

journal:

1. Identify the main reason that the Morris company located its base where it

did.

2. Consider a business located in your neighbourhood, town, or city. What are

the some of the reasons do you think decision-makers located this business in

its location? Can you classify any of these reasons as “subjective”? This may

give insight into the decision-making process!

Behavioural Geography

With a greater understanding of the above terms, we are now in a position to take a

closer look at the emergence of behavioural geography as a part of human

geography.

In an oft-cited paper, Lowenthal described how the world of the mental image is a

central area of focus for geographers who wish to understand relationships between

people and their environments:

Every image and idea about the world is compounded…of personal

experience, learning, imagination and memory. The places that we live in,

those we visit and travel through, the worlds we read about and see in works

of art, and the realms of imagination and fantasy each contribute to our

images of nature and man. All types of experience, from those most closely

linked with our everyday world to those that seem furthest removed, come

together to make up our individual picture of reality. The surface of the earth

is shaped for each person by refraction through cultural and personal lenses

of custom and fancy. We are all artists and landscape architects, creating

order and organizing space, time, and causality in accordance with our

apperceptions and predilections. (Lowenthal, 1961, p. 260)

While they may be fascinated by images of fantasy and imagination, geographers

are (generally) more practical and mundane in their immediate interests. They are

concerned mainly with images that are closely linked with the everyday world and

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-13

TRU Open Learning

directed to behaviours concerned with living in the environment (see figures 4.5a

and 4.5b).

Figure 4.5a: Different aspects of urban and land-use planning

(Image transcript available online)

U2-14 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Figure 4.5b: Different aspects of urban and land-use planning

(Image transcript available online)

Physical or spatial geography affects human behaviour because many early

civilizations began along waterways and other corridors that permitted easy access.

We tend to still live in these areas, so, as urban areas develop, increased levels of

development can put pressure on the natural environment.

Human activity, shown through preference in land use, can impact the environment.

For example, building residences in the countryside can remove land from the

agricultural landbase, making it necessary to import food from more distant sources.

Activity 4.4: Contrasting Environment-Behaviour Systems

Two very different kinds of environment-behaviour systems are represented by

figures 4.6a and 4.6b.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-15

TRU Open Learning

Figure 4.6a: Bus Figure 4.6b: Fish on the dock

(Image transcript available online) © Mike Edgell. Used with permission.

Your textbook, on pages 289–297, discusses ideas around tourism as an activity that

is bound up with how we perceive our own world and the world around us. In that

sense, “tourism is explicitly bound up with matters of identity and difference”

(Norton & Mercier, p. 289).

Read pages 289–297 and answer the following questions in your journal:

1. Review pages 290–291 and Table 8.4 and compare the characteristics of mass

tourism with alternative tourism. Using these descriptors, identify one

location near where you live that would classify as a mass tourism

destination. Is there a location that would classify as alternative tourism?

Would the same people be likely to visit both locations?

2. Why have alternative forms of tourism become more popular in recent

years?

3. Next, based on figures 4.6a (Bus) and 4.6b (Fish on the Dock), answer the

following questions in your journal:

a. Do you think that the people who would select a bus tour would

differ much from those who would choose to go on a backcountry,

guided fishing trip? Describe how you think their values,

expectations, and background might differ.

b. How might spatial impacts of the two activities on the environment

be different? In which ways would they be the same?

U2-16 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Conclusion

Assignment 2 (10%)

Assignment 2 covers both modules 4 and 5. You may want to complete the portion

of the assignment that covers Module 4 at this time, but wait until you have

completed Unit 2 before turning in the assignment. In the meantime, if you have any

questions about Module 4 or about the assignment, consult your Open Learning

Faculty Member.

Essay (20%)

Your essay is due at the end of Module 7. Start thinking about a topic, as you must get it approved by your Open Learning Faculty Member before you start on the next unit. Go to the Assignments Overview tab on your course site for details about how to complete and submit this assignment.

References

Crooks, M. (2012, January 25). The geographic perspective. Retrieved from

http://nationalgeographic.org/media/geographic-perspective/.

CTV News [ctvvi’s channel]. (2012, March 23). Bylaw officers say think twice before

cutting down a tree for the view [Video]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/qRXW1q704ro.

Johnston, R. J., Gregory, D., & Smith, D. M. (1994). The dictionary of human geography

(3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Lowenthal, D. (1961). Geography, experience, and imagination: Towards a

geographical epistemology. Annals of the Association of American Geographers,

51, 241–260.

Norton, W. (1997). Human geography and behavioural analysis: An application of

behavioural analysis to the explanation of the evolution of human landscapes.

The Psychological Record, 47, 439–460.

Norton, W., & Mercier, M. (2016). Human geography (9th ed.). Don Mills, ON: Oxford

University Press.

Province of British Columbia. (2011, December 14). South Island Natural Resource

District visual quality objectives established under Section 7(2) GAR Order

Amendment Map, dated December 14, 2011 [Map]. Retrieved from

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/DSI/external/!publish/Stewardship/SIFD_Objecti

ves_Matrix/10_Visual_Quality/DSI_VQO_VSC_GAR_Order_Amd2011_Dec_1

4_2011_Final_Map.pdf.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-17

TRU Open Learning

Robinson, J. L. (1981). The varied mental maps our students have. Canadian

Geographic Magazine, April/May 1981.

Vancouver Island red cedar: 800-year-old tree hacked down, says environmental

group [Photographs]. (2012, May 17). The Canadian Press. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/17/vancouver-island-red-

cedar_n_1525958.html?view=screen.

Module 5: Determining “How We Know”

Overview

In this module, we will continue our examination of the relationship between

perception and behaviour by taking a closer look at “how we know” what we

perceive. This act of perceiving the environment around us is at the root of decision

making and makes group decision making very difficult to predict. We will look in

detail at three approaches geographers use when trying to understand how

environmental perception impacts people’s behaviour, as reflected through their

decisions.

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module are environmental perception, behaviour, decision

making, environment, cognition, mental map, structural approach, environmental

preferences approach, evaluative approach, and natural hazards.

U2-18 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Learning Outcomes

After completing Module 6, you will:

 Recognize that people relate to the real world actively, not passively, and that

we are constantly filtering information, a process that impacts decision

making.

 Describe what is meant by the structural approach to environmental

perception as it is exemplified in studies of the urban environment.

 Describe what is meant by environmental preference.

 Describe what is meant by the evaluative approach.

 Appreciate that attachment to place is such a powerful component of

perception that people will live in hazardous zones.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-19

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

5.1: “Knowing” about the Environment

Reading, images, and

questions

5.2: Mental Mapping Mental mapping comparison

5.3: Geographic Profiling Reading and questions

5.4: Varying User Perceptions and Use of

Space

Reading and questions

about park-user

experiences

Optional Web Activity Video

Optional Web Activity Explore websites

Due at the end of Unit 2 Assignment 2 (10%)

Identify a topic; due at the end of Unit 3

Essay (20%)

Introduction

Remember that the (mental) image lies at the heart of cognitive behaviouralism and

perception studies. Of particular interest to geographers are two kinds of images:

 Locational images concerned with the individual’s structuring of

geographical space and organization of phenomena within it—in other

words, images concerned with the “whereness” of places and things.

 Attributive images concerned with assessing the attributes of places and

things, placing values on them, and comparing one with the other—in other

words, images concerned with the “whatness” of places and things.

Collectively, these images of “whereness” and “whatness” link the individual and

the real world.

U2-20 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Activity 5.1: “Knowing” about the Environment

Humans relate to the environment through our perception or cognition. The process

of relating is not passive; that is, we generally don’t sit back and ingest data and

information. A more realistic interpretation of how people interact with the

environment is to consider that we adopt an active process, where we seek out what

we need to know for our projects, goals, and to satisfy our view of the world.

The real world is the source of many stimuli (pieces of information) that

simultaneously impinge on the individual. Much of this information may be

redundant, ambiguous, confusing, or peripheral. For the individual to make sense of

this information, it must be filtered.

Filtering is accomplished in two stages. The first of these consists of physiological

sensory perceptual processes; for instance, the environment supplies thousands of bits

of information to the eyes each second, but at the same time the brain can only

absorb a fraction of these. The second filter is supplied by various psychological

processes such as individual personality variables (for example, motivation,

emotions, and experience) and group or cultural factors that jointly influence the

cognition of the information. Together, these two stages of filtering interpret the

incoming information and convert it to the image—an organized, selective, and

subjective representation of the real world.

This image forms the basis of decisions. Decisions can be of three main types, each

resulting in different behaviours. An individual may decide that information is

insufficient and will return to the real world to search for more; when information is

sufficient, the decision may be to take no action, or the decision may be to initiate

some form of behaviour, which will, in turn, affect the real world.

As the real world is changed by that behaviour, the information it contains changes

also. Thus a new feedback loop is created, and the process continues. Different

individuals and groups, because of their contrasting sets of filters (worldviews), will

perceive the real world differently and construct divergent images of it.

In this way, environmental perception is a knowing process “that frames what is

apprehended externally within an environmental context or setting relevant for

activity and experience” (Gaile & Willmot, 2004, p. 135).

Stephen and Rachel Kaplan are both professors at the University of Michigan, and

both have made significant contributions to the study of environmental psychology,

the psychology of natural environments and the role of the environment in mental

well-being.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-21

TRU Open Learning

Read their article, “‘Knowing’ and ‘On Knowing the Environment’”, (Available in

your online course content) one of the selected readings for this course. When you

are finished, consider Figure 5.1 and the questions that follow:

Figure 5.1: Fraser River through remote grasslands

(Image transcript available online)

1. The authors emphasize that knowing is a difficult thing to define, and that

perception of place varies from person- to-person. A person’s model of their

environment is selective and subjective.

When you look at the above picture, what do you see? Do you see a barren,

dry area of no value? Do you see a remote wilderness that should remain

untouched, and perhaps turned into a protected area or park? Do you see a

transportation corridor, capable of moving goods and people between the

Coast and the Interior? Do you see a place where salmon, a main food staple

for your family, can lay and fertilize eggs to provide for future generations?

Do you look along the shoreline and think this would be a great and

profitable place for a lodge or resort? Do you see the traditional lands of

Aboriginal peoples?

Think for a moment about your answer. What does your answer reflect about

the psychological processes underpinning what you know (for example,

motivation, emotions, and experience)?

2. Consider for a moment how your own personal model of the landscape in the

above photo does not capture other views or perspectives. Can you identify

U2-22 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

three perspectives missing from your original model of knowing? What are

some of the reasons these perspectives are absent?

3. How we see and perceive the environment varies from person to person. In

your journal, write your interpretation of how you know the environment

pictured above, making reference to the arguments presented by Stephen and

Rachel Kaplan.

Three Approaches to Environmental Perception

Decision-makers operating in an environment base their decisions on the

environment as they perceive it, not as it is. The action resulting from

decision, on the other hand, is played out in a real environment. (Brookfield,

1969, p. 53)

As human impacts on the environment escalate and human-created environments

become more pervasive, it is increasingly important to examine the bases of

decisions and behaviour. So in the next topics, we will look more closely at the ways

in which geographers and others have studied environmental perception, cognition,

and behaviour in order to better understand human-environment relations.

We will examine three major approaches to environmental perception:

The structural approach is concerned with the structure of geographical space

perceptions or locational images. We will confine our attention mainly to the urban

environment and how images of the city are constructed.

The environmental preferences approach is concerned with attributive images and

how individuals assess and allocate preferences for the environment relative to a

specific behaviour objective. Our focus here will be on the concept of wilderness and

recreational activities.

The evaluative approach is also concerned with attributive images, but explores

how individuals evaluate their environment and the decisions and behaviours based

on that evaluation. Our major focus will be on studies of environmental hazards.

Structural Approach

A basic consideration for both residents of and visitors to a city is how to orient

themselves: how do people find their way about the complex city environment? This

basic consideration has led to a number of examinations of peoples’ sense of urban

whereness—their mental organizations of the spatial and geometrical structure of the

built environment. Trowbridge, who identified erroneous imaginary maps as the

reason why people tend to get lost in urban areas, undertook some of the early work

in 1913. The seminal work, however, is The Image of the City (1960) by Kevin Lynch

(1918–1984).

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-23

TRU Open Learning

Lynch was concerned with problems of urban design, and his research was aimed

ultimately at how the visual form of the city could be manipulated by planners to

form a more satisfactory environment. His attention was focused on the visual

component of the city and its structural and spatial relationships as perceived by

residents. He was not concerned with the symbolic or attributive characteristics of

these visual components. Therefore, he attempted to find out what kinds of spatial

images people had of their urban environments and the ways in which these images

were structured.

He did this by focusing on the places that people recognized within the complex city

area, asking them to describe journeys, draw sketch maps, and provide directions

for certain locations in the cities of Boston, Los Angeles, and Jersey City. The maps

provided an indication of the way in which residents organized various selected

physical elements into coherent mental images.

Lynch found that images of the city were constructed around five elements—paths,

nodes, edges, districts, and landmarks. Each map is a partial representation of the

real spatial schemata and is constructed of clusters of points joined by well-defined

paths. The paths tend to form the basic skeleton within which other elements are

arranged.

Lynch’s finding that pathways are the most important element in peoples’ mental

maps of cities led to a further examination of the role of pathways. For instance, in

The View from the Road (1964), Donald Appleyard (1928–1982) and co-workers

examined how motorists travelling into cities along freeways visually perceive the

unfolding urban environment (figures 5.2a and 5.2b). One of the ideas behind this

research was to inquire if the sequence of views from the freeway could help to

integrate and give coherence to urban spatial images.

Yet, freeways are also machine space in which automobiles take priority over

people; they can fragment rather than integrate mental images of the city. In Los

Angeles, 76 per cent of the downtown area is devoted to the automobile, so machine

space sets the tone for the whole cityscape, as Appleyard so eloquently

demonstrated in his classic book Livable Streets (1981).

Figure 5.2a Figure 5.2b © Mike Edgell. Used with permission.

U2-24 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Districts, or large areas recognizable because of a particular set of characteristics,

are fundamental units of urban mental maps. Lynch found that they were the

second most important reference points in residents’ mental maps.

Neighbourhoods are particularly important areas within cities—but what does the

word “neighbourhood” mean? In a spatial context, a neighbourhood can be defined

as a physical space, often also a planning unit, for the provision of housing and

services.

Yet, neighbourhoods also can be defined as social units identified on the sociability

and “neighbourliness” of their residents. These two definitions may be of entirely

different entities. But it is often assumed by city planners that they can create the

necessary prerequisite for the development of social neighbourhoods by providing

appropriate physical designs for neighbourhood units. Research in English cities has

shown that this assumption is not always justified. In suburbs of different social

classes, there are remarkable differences in residents’ perceptions of what their

neighbourhood is when it is defined in terms of activities, social relationships, and

use of services.

Figures 5.3a–d: Four residential neighbourhoods © Ole Heggen. Used with permission.

View Transcript

Activity 5.2: Mental Mapping

For this activity, find one other person to work with. You’ll want to be familiar with

the location of this person’s house, yet select someone who lives in a different house

than you. It is particularly interesting to do this activity with a young child or

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-25

TRU Open Learning

elderly person, as perceptions of the environment across generations can be

enlightening.

Each person (yourself and your partner) will take separate sheets of paper and

draw their own mental maps of how to get from one person’s house to the other

person’s house. Do this activity without looking at each other’s drawings. Include

all necessary roads, important landmarks, etcetera, but realize that there are no

right or wrong images.

When you are finished, compare your drawings and answer the following questions:

1. Circle any paths, edges, or nodes in each diagram. Which paths are similar to

both maps? Did you find that paths dominated the drawings, as Lynch

suggested? What about edges (boundaries that dominate, such as rivers)?

Nodes (centres of focus, such as stores or intersections)?

2. Do your maps share important or significant landmarks? If not, why do you

think they differ?

3. To what extent does “machine space” dominate your neighbourhood?

4. What is the most surprising thing you have learned from looking at your

partner’s map?

To support your analysis of the mental maps that you and the other person

produced, read the section on Housing and Neighbourhoods in your textbook from

pages 430–437. Understanding how people have experienced change in their

neighbourhood can be key to understanding why people emphasize certain features

over others in their mental map.

To further explore this concept about differences in mental mapping, take a look at

page 269 in your textbook. On this page, Figure 8.2 displays two maps, each

showing the preferences of geographical areas. In the first map, a 16-year-old

English language speaking student from Ontario shows the greatest preference for

larger urban centres (as indicated by the darker green shading). In the second map,

annotated by an English-speaking student from the Montreal area, greatest

preference is shown for a number of different areas.

In your journal, answer the following question:

1. How might subjectivity or personal background impact one’s preference of

one area over another?

Activity 5.3: Geographic Profiling

Decades of research on the spatiality of criminal behaviour suggest that criminals

commit crimes in areas and along paths that are familiar and known. Geographic

U2-26 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

profiling is a method used to investigate criminal activity using the locations of a

connected or related series of crime to predict the most probable area that an

offender lives in. As Kim Rossmo, a former detective with the Vancouver Police

Department, has noted:

The probable spatial behavior of the offender can be derived from

information contained in the known crime site locations (e.g.,

encounter/apprehension sites, murder scenes, body/property dump sites),

their geographic connections, and the characteristics and demography of the

surrounding neighborhoods. (Rossmo, 1995, p. 218)

This is a fascinating application of geography that has identified key characteristics

of criminals, supporting their capture and apprehension.

Read Rossmo’s article and answer the following questions in your journal:

 Rossmo, D. K. (1995). Place, space, and police investigations: Hunting serial

violent criminals. In J. E. Eck & D. A. Weisburd (Eds.), Crime and place: Crime

prevention studies (Vol. 4, pp. 217–235). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.

1. What does Rossmo mean by a person’s activity space?

2. Why does he suggest that crimes are not spatially random?

3. In what ways can the findings of geographic profiling be applied to influence

investigative procedures?

The Preferential Approach

The concept of environmental preference includes both perception (knowing,

awareness, and cognition) and evaluation in terms of a specific purpose. Therefore,

preference approaches ask the general question: Given an environment or set of

differentiated objects, how do people assess them on a scale of preference with

relation to some specific behaviour objective? We will examine this question.

One development in preference studies has concentrated on the assessment and

preference rating of landscapes for particular purposes. The attempt here is to

construct a picture of the values and significance of landscapes for people who are

actual or potential users of them. The techniques usually involve either on-site

interviews and observation or the collection of people’s responses to photographic

surrogates of the real thing.

In Canada and the United States, a particular focus of landscape assessment has

been on the values of wilderness areas and their uses for recreational purposes. In

both countries, there is great concern for wilderness areas—their preservation, use,

and management. However, a key problem—and one of tremendous importance for

planning—is finding out what the word “wilderness” means to different users and,

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-27

TRU Open Learning

therefore, what values are embodied in it and need to be preserved (see figures 5.4a

and 5.4b “Two Images of the Canadian Wilderness”).

Figure 5.4a: Canadian wilderness

Figure 5.4b: Canadian wilderness

(Image transcripts available online)

Canadians have a well-developed cult of wilderness, in which wilderness is seen as

near-sacrosanct, a place entirely distinct from the everyday world, an oasis where

the laws of nature still apply and where spiritual rebirth can be found. Yet, there is

also another contrasting North American dream—the frontier or wilderness as a

storehouse of land to be “improved,” privatized, and developed for the greater

U2-28 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

good of the country. The first North American dream rests on balance with nature

and its protection from the excesses of privatization, the second on dominion over

nature and taming it by private appropriation and possession. From a practical

standpoint, people favour the idea of the untouched wilderness—but many, when

it comes to visiting the wilderness, want to do it in comfort or find that they are too

time-pressed to explore the backcountry by foot or other means. Thus, tension

exists in our parks and protected areas between the natural environment and

developed amenities.

Activity 5.4: Varying User Perceptions and Use of Space

Visit an urban park in your area and observe how different visitors use the space.

Are there dog walkers, cyclists, walkers, runners, and others? In your journal, list

all the different types of activities you see.

Next, observe if there are any conflicts in use of space. What are any conflicts that

you notice, and how do the users accommodate for others also using the park?

Are there different areas of the park designated for particular activities? Do these

designated areas act to separate uses that might otherwise conflict? Which park

users get the most space, and which ones get the least space? Do you think that

park planners have planned the use of space to minimize conflict?

Finally, considering all the above, list some values that you think the park is able to

maintain (e.g., wilderness, wildlife, recreation, etc.).

Optional Web Activity

Watch the following Parks Canada video, which shows how development has

changed natural processes in the park.

Parks Canada. (2012, March 19). Banff National Park – town elk [Video]. Retrieved

from https://youtu.be/dr3UVni2c2w.

The Evaluative Approach

Evaluative approaches explore human adjustments to and behaviour in the natural

environment.

In its relationship with and utilization of the natural environment, any society has

two major objectives: first, to evaluate the environment and attempt to seek from it

those aspects that are useful and beneficial; second, to provide protection from

those fluctuations of the natural environment that are harmful or threatening to life

and property.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-29

TRU Open Learning

These fluctuations include such phenomena as floods, storms, earthquakes,

volcanic eruptions, and a host of other extreme events and processes. Societies and

individuals erect various protective barriers, or buffers, between themselves and

these fluctuations. The buffers include engineering features such as earthquake-

proof buildings or flood protection dams and levees; preventative or warning

systems such as tsunami or hurricane alerts; planning and zoning strategies

separating human activity from environmental extremes; or even psychological

buffers such as a reliance on divine authority or assumptions of predictable trends

in environmental events to stabilize extreme fluctuations.

Buffers are intended to reduce or remove potentially uncomfortable or threatening

situations but sometimes are inadequate to cope with environmental extremes:

human life and property then can be threatened or destroyed. When this happens,

an essentially neutral event (a normally occurring fluctuation in the natural

environment) has been transformed into an environmental hazard (Figure 5.5).

Something to think about… Before progressing any further, let’s insert a caveat

about what are considered hazards and extreme events. Many phenomena that

humans consider hazardous are natural processes that maintain the integrity of

ecosystems and the biosphere. In describing them as extreme, unprecedented,

unexpected, or unscheduled events, we run the danger of forgetting that they are

integral to the continuum of human-environment interactions. Hazardous events,

although frequently rare and cataclysmic, are part of everyday life. As we shall see,

they can also be the result of deeply ingrained patterns of cultural adaptation (or

maladaptation) to the natural environment. This in itself is a product of differing

perceptions.

U2-30 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Figure 5.5: Lower Fraser Valley, BC, June 1948

(Image transcript available online) Matthews, J. S. (1948). Aerial view of Fraser River flood and surrounding areas [Photograph].

Retrieved from City of Vancouver Archives: http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/aerial-

view-of-fraser-river-flood-and-surrounding-areas;rad.

Humans are not merely pawns at the mercy of an extreme environment. Individuals

and societies often deliberately place themselves at risk by occupying flood plains,

earthquake- and drought-prone zones, or hurricane paths in which it is, if not

certain, at least highly probable that a hazard will strike. It is this universal apparent

perversity on the part of individuals and societies in placing themselves at risk that

is one of the intriguing aspects of hazard situations (Figure 5.6).

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-31

TRU Open Learning

Figure 5.6: San Andreas Fault

(Image transcript available online)

Wallace, R. E. (1965). San Andreas Fault [Photograph]. U.S. Geological Survey.

Optional Web Activity

Explore the following websites:

 Public Safety Canada. (n.d.). Natural Hazards of Canada. Retrieved from

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/mrgnc-mngmnt/ntrl-hzrds/index-en.aspx.

 NASA Earth Observatory. (n.d.). Natural hazards. Retrieved from

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/.

This website shows satellite images of recent natural hazards.

 University of Colorado. (n.d.). Natural hazards center. Retrieved from

https://hazards.colorado.edu/.

How People React to Natural Hazards

People and societies react to fluctuations in the natural events system in a variety of

ways. Different people’s perceptions of the same hazard may be in conflict; then, of

course, their reactions to that hazard will be in conflict. Ecologists, for instance, may

U2-32 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

see forest fires as a natural part of the environment in wilderness areas that should

therefore be left to run free. To park planners or foresters managing adjacent forests,

those same fires may be perceived as an extreme hazard threatening life, timber

stands, wildlife, or aesthetic values and should be extinguished immediately.

Total ignorance of a hazard is rare, but a phenomenon called cognitive dissonance is

common. This is a term borrowed from psychology; it refers to situations in which

thinking (cognition) doesn’t match (is dissonant with) reality. Many people facing a

hazard, for example, prefer an image that is less threatening than reality. They will

often underestimate the frequency of a hazard or suppose that it will not occur again

(the mistaken belief that lightning never strikes twice is applied with undue

optimism to many situations). Others, in an attempt to remove the element of

uncertainty, impose a non-existent periodicity on the hazard (people might say,

“floods only come every ten years”) or transfer responsibility to a higher authority

(the appropriate government agency or a supreme godlike being).

This cognitive dissonance may not only be a rationalization for continuing to live in

a hazard area but also a survival mechanism in the sense that reality is so unpleasant

that there is some psychological value in not recognizing the true situation. Another

trait common to people living in many hazard zones is their apparent inability to

imagine disaster striking in familiar surroundings; they think that hazards always

strike someplace else and affect someone else.

Something to think about... How many people in coastal BC pay attention to the fact

that they are in a seismically active zone that at any time may be devastated by the

predicted 300-year, 9.0-scale earthquake and associated tsunami? If you live in

coastal BC, have you put together your family survival kit?

Figure 5.7a Figure 5.7b

(Image transcript available online) © Mike Edgell. Used with permission.

Some people may also take the fatalistic assumption that they have no control over

environmental events and must bear the hazard impact as a matter of course. In

many situations, there may be a reluctance to adjust to a hazard because it would

entail unaccustomed planning or a major upheaval to lifestyle.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-33

TRU Open Learning

A number of factors seem to influence individual and group responses to hazards:

 Previous experience with a hazard will influence perceptions of recurrence,

future impacts, and necessary precautions. One might expect (if people were

rational and optimizing!) that increased experience would lead to

heightened and more accurate perceptions. But if the hazard recurs

relatively infrequently, the impact of even an extreme event will fade with

time. Additionally, if the clues provided by the environment as to the

location, intensity, timing, and possibility of the next occurrence are

ambiguous, then awareness of the impending hazard may not be clear, no

matter what the previous experience.

 Personality factors and differing propensities to accept risk are a critical

influence on how people react to hazards. Thus, we might equate occupants

of a hazard zone with gamblers in a game of dice. The dice may be loaded in

favour of the hazard, but the gamblers attempt to trade off the odds of losing

to the hazard against the possible profits and benefits of occupying the

hazard zone. This picture is obviously very simplified, and we have very

little genuine knowledge of the specific role personality plays in a hazard

situation and even less ability to actually measure how it operates.

 Values and attitudes towards nature are strongly influenced by culture, and

adjustments to hazards are sometimes explained in the context of a three-

fold typology of human worldviews or environmental paradigms. We

briefly mentioned two of these earlier in the unit when discussing North

American attitudes toward wilderness.

 Attachment to place is obviously of some significance in hazard zone

occupancy. Why are people apparently foolish enough to continually suffer

hardship by electing to remain in hazard zones? Perhaps it is because hazard

zones are considered environments of persistent appeal, meaning that the

benefits of living in them are worth the risk. Think of the historic centres of

civilization in the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Yellow, and Indus valleys. All of

these valleys are characterized by formidable flood hazards that have caused

some of the greatest natural events impacting humans in history. But these

hazards have been insignificant compared with the economic, agricultural,

and cultural advantages of living in these areas. To some degree, this

attraction applies to all hazard zones.

Witness the return of residents to the most remote inhabited archipelago

worldwide—Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic Ocean—two years after they

abandoned it after a violent volcanic eruption in 1961.

U2-34 Unit 2: The Importance of the Perceived Environment

TRU Open Learning

Conclusion

Assignment 2 (10%)

Now that you have completed modules 4 and 5, you are ready to complete

Assignment 2 and send it to your Open Learning Faculty Member. Instructions for completing assignments and details of Assignment 2 are found under the Assignments Overview tab. Consult your Open Learning Faculty Member if you have any questions. Keep a copy of your assignment as a backup so that you can

refer to it when you are discussing your work with your Open Learning Faculty

Member.

Essay (20%)

As your essay will be due at the end of Module 7, you should be identifying a topic

now. Send your topic to your Open Learning Faculty Member for approval before

you start on the next unit.

Unit Conclusion

This unit has covered a lot of ground, yet it has only dealt with a small selection

from an enormous range of perception studies in geography. We hope that it has

not been too complex and that the organization of the material into structural,

evaluative, and preference approaches has provided a workable framework for you.

Perhaps the most critical implications of the concepts that we have been discussing

in this unit are contained in two simple summary statements.

• It is the environment as perceived that forms the basis of human-environment relationships and behaviour.

• Individuals, cultures, and social groups vary in their environmental perceptions, images, and preferences.

You will have cause to recall these statements in the following units of the course.

References

Appleyard, D., Lynch, K., & Myer, J. R. (1964). The view from the road. Cambridge,

MA: MIT Press.

Appleyard, D. (1981). Livable streets. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Brookfield, H. C. (1969). The environment as perceived. Progress in Geography, 1, 53–

80.

Gaile, G. L., & Willmot, C. J. (Eds.). (2004). Geography in America at the dawn of the

21st century. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U2-35

TRU Open Learning

Matthews, J. S. (1948). Aerial view of Fraser River flood and surrounding areas

[Photograph]. City of Vancouver Archives. Retrieved from

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/aerial-view-of-fraser-river-flood-and-

surrounding-areas;rad.

NASA Earth Observatory. (n.d.). Natural hazards. Retrieved from

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/.

Parks Canada. (2012, March 19). Banff National Park – town elk [Video]. Retrieved

from https://youtu.be/dr3UVni2c2w.

Public Safety Canada. (n.d.). Natural hazards of Canada. Retrieved from

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/mrgnc-mngmnt/ntrl-hzrds/index-en.aspx.

Rossmo, D. K. (1995). Place, space, and police investigations: Hunting serial violent

criminals. In J. E. Eck & D. A. Weisburd (Eds.), Crime and place: Crime

prevention studies (Vol. 4, pp. 217–235). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.

University of Colorado. (n.d.). Natural hazards center. Retrieved from

https://hazards.colorado.edu/.

Wallace, R. E. (1965). San Andreas Fault [Photograph]. U.S. Geological Survey.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-1

TRU Open Learning

Unit 3 (Modules 6 and 7): The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

Introduction

Our focus in the next two modules will be on the ecological approach or paradigm,

and specifically within that approach, the ecosystem model. We will also examine

the concept of Traditional Knowledge—also known as Indigenous, Aboriginal, or

First Nation knowledge—and relate it to the ecological approach. These subjects are

not only essential to understanding human-environment interactions in general, but

will also form the foundation for the upcoming discussions in this course about

human impacts.

Unit 3 includes the following two modules:

 Module 6: Ecological Approaches in Human Geography

 Module 7: Ecosystems—An Introduction

Module 6: Ecological Approaches in Human Geography

Overview

In Module 1, we discussed how human geography and physical geography differ—

human geography focuses on the processes and patterns of human behaviour, while

physical geography focuses on the earth’s processes and systems. Yet, at the same

time, these two overlap, for the real world does not partition itself into human and

physical components.

One example we gave of an area of interest for the human geographer is studying

the impacts of changing water quality and quantity upon a human population. From

your own life experiences, you have ideas about how water quality and quantity can

impact humans. For example, to save money, the federal government recently shut

down monitoring of Arctic water through water-quality sampling; this has

repercussions affecting the human health of First Nations communities. Fully

understanding this requires a cursory knowledge and the adaptability to research

and learn more, of politics, the water cycle, and human behaviour.

How we (both individually and as a society) react to these changes can be explained

in part by our perceptions and in turn, by our resulting behaviour. You’ve had a

thorough introduction to perception and behaviour. In this module, you will

complete your inventory of the basic tools with which to examine people-

environment relations in human geography.

U3-2 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Key Concepts

Key concepts in this module are ecology, ecosystems, biological ecology, historical

ecology, systems ecology, cultural ecology, and cultural landscape.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 6, you will be able to:

 Place into a historical context ecological approaches to human geography.

 Describe the essential characteristics of early biological ecology and historical

ecology.

 Compare and contrast the influences of early biological ecology and historical

ecology on the cultural landscapes concept.

 Identify the major contributors to the development of ecology and ecological

approaches to human geography.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-3

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

6.1: Ecosystem Review of textbook’s definitions of ecology

6.2: Reflection— Historical Ecology

How historical information

is relevant to current land

use

Optional Web Activity Reading

6.3: Summary and Review

Synthesis of ecology

definitions

Portion of assignment that covers Module 6

Assignment 3

(10%)

Due at the end of Module 7 Essay (20%)

Introduction

Modules 1 through 5 had a common underlying theme—the relations between

people and environment are very complex and can be examined from a broad range

of viewpoints and what and how people perceive their environment is essential to

understanding how and why they make the decisions they do. In those modules,

you were immersed in discussions of the concepts, paradigms, and approaches that

geographers use to understand and make generalized statements about those

complex interactions.

Up to this point in the course, we have postponed a deeper examination of the

infusion of ecological concepts from the biological sciences into geography. Now, we

can pick up these threads and complete our inventory of the basic tools with which

to examine people-environment relations in human geography. Our focus in the

next two modules will be on another suite of important synthesizing tools for the

geographer: the ecological approach or paradigm, and specifically within that

approach, the ecosystem model.

Ecology and ecosystems are now commonplace and much overworked words,

bandied about with a sometimes superficial (mis-) understanding, assumed by many

to be the products of recent advances in knowledge and understanding of the

natural world. They are, however, long-standing ideas and concepts, as well as

essential components of and tools for human geography. The recorded roots of

U3-4 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

ecological thinking go back as far as the 4th century BCE, in the natural histories of

Theophrastus’s (c. 371–c. 287 BCE) Historia Plantarum; Aristotle’s (384–322 BCE)

Historia Animalium, which outlined sound ecological principles in discussing locust

plagues; and the Greek view of harmony of nature, which closely approximated the

modern view of the balance of nature.

The term ecology, however, was not used until 1866, by the German zoologist Ernst

Haeckel (1834–1919). As a biological science, ecology had developed significantly by

the beginning of the 20th century and was beginning to influence ideas in other

disciplines, particularly the emerging social sciences of anthropology, sociology, and

geography. But it was not until 1935 that the now familiar concept of the ecosystem

was specifically defined and named, although a similar concept—that of the

biocenose—had appeared in Europe in the late 19th century.

This early scientific ecology and subsequent developments encompass at least three

ecological approaches that are important in human geography:

1. Historical ecology—within human geography, this approach is largely

associated with the landscape school of Sauer.

2. Systems ecology—developed from the application of general systems theory

to early biological ecology and the incorporation into geography of the

biological, but holistic and integrative, model of the ecosystem.

3. Cultural ecology—focusing on how cultures, particularly indigenous cultures

in the developing world, dynamically adapt to and modify their

environments.

We will selectively delve into this broad range of ecological approaches to human

geography in this unit. Some of the material covered relates back to concepts

covered in the previous modules, but places them more directly in an ecological

context.

Early Biological Ecology

The textbook provides a definition on page 97. This definition reflects the linguistic

origins and early biological views on the role of ecology.

The term ecology is derived from the Greek oikos for home or place to live. The term

shares its linguistic root with the word “economics,” and 19th century founders of

ecology suggested that living organisms were united in an inclusive economy of

nature that shared many essential modes of organization with the human economy.

Thus, the textbook defines ecology as “the study of organisms in their homes”.

These ideas are evident in the philosophies of early ecologists. It is thought that the

first person to use the word “ecology” was the American naturalist Henry David

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-5

TRU Open Learning

Thoreau (1817–1862), in an 1858 letter. However, it was not until 1866 that Haeckel—

who, in addition to being a zoologist, was a popularist philosopher and a

correspondent of Charles Darwin—coined the word to denote “management of

nature’s household.” In 1876, in his History of Creation, Haeckel redefined ecology in

a broader context as “the correlations between all organisms living together in one

and the same locality and their adaptation to their surroundings.”

Early ecologists embraced one of the major themes of Darwin and the Darwinists

that followed him—the concept of association and organization in nature (with some

also including humans as part of nature). In doing so, they began to explore the

functional and co-operative relationships that they thought connected different

organisms.

By the end of the 19th century, concepts developed and expounded by early

biological ecology had gained a sound footing in the natural sciences. Yet, although

there were significant advances in biological ecology in the early 20th century

(particularly in animal population ecology), it was not until the 1930s and 1940s that

biological ecology really came to the fore.

However, the ideas and concepts of biological ecology had attracted the attention of

the rapidly growing social sciences—anthropology, sociology, psychology—and,

particularly, human geography. And it was in these social sciences that some of the

broader implications of and approaches to ecology developed in the first half of the

20th century.

Activity 6.1: Ecosystem

The textbook’s glossary includes a longer, more detailed definition of ecosystem.

Look up that definition and write it in your journal.

What are the pertinent similarities and differences between this definition and what

is discussed above?

Historical Ecology and Influences on the Cultural Landscape Concept

In 1864, an American diplomat George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) published Man

and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. Drawing on evidence

from Turkey and Italy (where he lived and worked for 21 years) from his home state

of Vermont, and from voluminous correspondence with scientists, Marsh

highlighted the historical and ongoing disruption of nature’s balance by human

activities, especially around the Mediterranean (Figure 6.1).

Marsh used human modification of vegetation to examine the historical changes in

and degradation of landscapes. Although it had little impact when first published,

U3-6 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Man and Nature was rediscovered in the 1930s, at which time it revolutionized

environmental thought. In many ways, it became the fountainhead of the modern

conservation movement.

Figure 6.1: Arena at Arles and Canal du Rhône et Sète

(Image transcript available online) © Mike Edgell. Used with permission.

But the idea of “Man and Nature” also had an earlier and profound influence on the

thinking of Sauer and his approach to cultural landscapes, which we briefly

discussed in Module 1.

Hint: Review the textbook for vignettes on Marsh and Sauer.

Similar to Marsh’s approach to studying landscape change, the cultural landscape

approach developed by Sauer seeks to explain the features of present landscapes by

deciphering the legacies and impacts of past human activities on those landscapes. It

owes much to ecological concepts, although Sauer himself disavowed any allegiance

to ecology and ecological concepts: He considered that they were ill suited to

explaining landscape change and that culture and history were more important. Yet,

it was largely through ecological detective work that Sauer was able to assess how

the economies, settlement patterns, and technologies of human inhabitants had

transformed natural landscapes into cultural ones.

As a result, the cultural landscape approach is best described as historical-cultural

ecology—or, simply, historical ecology. Today, historical ecology is looked upon as

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-7

TRU Open Learning

an integrative approach for the study of human impacts on ecosystems and

landscapes over time. As such, many geographers view historical ecology as a

prerequisite to understand current day ecosystems and landscapes.

Activity 6.2: Reflection—Historical Ecology

Given the definition and an understanding of historical ecology, consider the

following questions and write your answers in your journal as a reflection piece:

1. Based on your current knowledge of environmental change, why do you

think historical information is relevant?

2. If historical information is used to understand our contemporary landscape,

do you think our future land management will be dramatically different?

Why or why not?

Cultural Landscapes

Sauer and his followers explored cultural landscapes largely by studying changes in

the vegetation cover and examining the interplay of physical factors and human

activities, then selectively borrowing ecological concepts to assess the direction and

magnitude of change. Much attention was placed on landscapes that had been

subject to burning, grazing, and deforestation and on the landscape changes

wrought by indigenous peoples in pre-European Americas. These early lines of

research provided abundant evidence, for example, of the anthropogenic (human-

caused) origin and extension of both temperate and tropical grasslands, savannas,

and Central American pine forests.

It has subsequently become clear from research in many environments that past

human activities can be cumulative and superimposed on one another, resulting in

lasting impacts on landscape evolution. Landscapes and ecosystems as varied as the

mixed forests of eastern North America, the garrigue scrublands of the

Mediterranean, the open heaths and moors of the Scottish highlands (Figure 6.2),

and large areas of lowland tropical rainforest can all be usefully examined and

explained from the viewpoint of historical ecology.

U3-8 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Figure 6.2: Three images showing deforestation, scrub, and soil erosion

(Image transcript available online)

The historical ecology approach was criticized for two perceived shortcomings. One,

although the historical ecology approach dealt with the results of intimate

relationships between culture and environment, it did not pay sufficient attention to

the complex social organizations of culture that conditioned those relationships.

Two, much historical ecology lacked substantive evidence from detailed field studies

with indigenous and local communities. These criticisms promoted the development

of cultural ecology (different from historical-cultural ecology) and political ecology.

As well, geographers when studying land use have, in more recent years,

incorporated Traditional Knowledge.

However, before we discuss those approaches to human geography, we must return

to biological ecology, the development of systems ecology, and the pivotal concept

of the ecosystem.

Hint: Any of these terms would be excellent terms to use in your Final

Project.

An Introduction: Systems Ecology and the Ecosystem

As we have seen, the latter half of the 19th century and the first three decades or so of

the 20th century were fertile ground for the growth of ecological ideas and

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-9

TRU Open Learning

approaches, some of which permeated human geography. But the model of the

ecosystem that we now automatically associate with ecology had yet to appear.

Then, in 1935, Sir Arthur Tansley (1871-1955), a British botanist and plant ecologist,

introduced “ecosystem” as a concept synthesizing the interactions of plants and

animals with their surrounding biophysical environment. He further developed the

concept in 1939:

A unit of vegetation… (including) not only the plants…, but also the animals

habitually associated with them, and also all the physical and chemical

components of the immediate environment or habitat, which together form a

recognizable self-contained entity. Such a system may be called an

ecosystem…, because it is determined by the particular portion… of the

physical world that forms a home for the organisms, which inhabit it.

(Tansley, 1939, p. 228)

With its integrative and holistic value, the ecosystem concept quickly entered

mainstream ecological and biological thinking. Nevertheless, Tansley’s ecosystem, as

initially articulated, was basically a descriptive and synthetic concept rather than an

analytical instrument. The metamorphosis of the concept into an analytical tool, and

the real beginnings of systems ecology, began in 1942 with R. L Lindeman’s (1915–

1942) “The Trophic-Dynamic Aspect of Ecology,” titled based on Lindeman’s

research into lake systems (Figure 6.3).

Lindeman established the field of ecosystem energetics, demonstrating that the

linkages between the different components of Tansley’s ecosystem were effected by

energy transfer. The ecosystem could therefore be studied as a thermodynamic

system. In addition, nutrient cycling was demonstrated as the other major link

between ecosystem components.

Lindeman’s paper, therefore, transformed Tansley’s descriptive, synthetic concept

that mainly focused on vegetation, into a physical and biochemical system providing

a whole new framework for research and study.

U3-10 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Figure 6.3: Shield Lake

(Image transcript available online) © Geological Survey of Canada. Used with permission.

Optional Web Activity

You can download Lindeman’s paper or read it online at TRU Library. If you

haven’t already had an opportunity to familiarize yourself with accessing online

journals, this is a great chance to do so.

The reference for the paper is:

 Lindeman, R. L. (1942). The trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology. Ecology, 23(4),

399–418. doi: 10.2307/1930126.

Lindeman’s paper had a tremendous influence on leading ecologists. With the roles

of energy flow and nutrient cycling now established, and aided by developments in

general systems theory, computing capabilities, and data quantification, the

ecosystem quickly became regarded as the basic unit of ecology—as important to

that field of biology as is the species to taxonomy and systematics.

The integrative and holistic aspects of the ecosystem model attracted some social

scientists who—as we have seen in modules 1 and 2—had already embraced

ecological concepts and developed a number of ecological approaches. They

recognized in the ecosystem concept the wider potential for conceptualizing

relationships between the biophysical environment on one hand and human

activities on the other. Physical geographers in the fields of biogeography and

pedology (the study of soils) naturally adopted the ecosystem model as an

organizing principle.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-11

TRU Open Learning

A human geographer, Harold Brookfield, argues that geography should become the

study of human ecosystems and that the ecosystem approach has enabled

geography to become more syncretic than other social sciences. But it was the work

of an anthropologist, Clifford Geertz (1926–2006), that played one of the more

significant early roles in furthering the broader application of systems ecology.

Geertz was interested in swidden (slash and burn) and sawah (rice paddy)

agricultural systems in Southeast Asia. He focused on the relationships and

dynamics of these agricultural systems in an attempt to reconstruct the way in which

they had evolved and were maintained. In doing so, he used an ecosystem

framework:

The ecological approach attempts to achieve a more exact specification of the

relations between selected human activities, biological transactions, and

physical processes by including them within a single analytical system, an

ecosystem. (Geertz, 1963, p. 3)

To Geertz, the ecosystem provided a precise specification of the intimate set of

dynamic relationships that characterized swidden and sawah agricultural systems.

His work had a great impact not only on anthropologists, but also on geographers.

Activity 6.3: Summary and Review

In one paragraph each, outline in your journal the essential characteristics of, and the

scientists or geographers associated with, the following terms:

1. Early biological ecology

2. Historical ecology

3. Cultural ecology

4. Systems ecology

Conclusion

Before we progress further, we must understand the building blocks of systems

ecology and the ecosystem. We’ll be doing that in Module 7. It is a fairly lengthy

module, so you may want to get a head start.

Assignment 3 (10%)

Assignment 3 covers both modules 6 and 7. You may want to complete the portion

of the assignment that covers Module 6 at this time, but wait until you have

completed the entire assignment before turning it in. Meanwhile, if you have any

questions about Module 6, consult your Open Learning Faculty Member.

U3-12 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Essay (20%)

Your essay is due at the end of Module 7 (Unit 3). Contact your Open Learning

Faculty Member if you have any questions.

References

Geertz, C. (1963). Agricultural involution: The process of ecological change in Indonesia.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Haeckel, E. (1876). The history of creation. (E. R. Lankester, Trans.). London, UK: H.S.

King.

Lindeman, R. L. (1942). The trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology. Ecology, 23(4), 399–

418. doi: 10.2307/1930126.

Marsh, G. P. (1965). Man and nature. (D. Lowenthal, Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press. (Original work published 1864)

Tansley, A. G. (1939). The British Islands and their vegetation. Cambridge, MA:

Cambridge University Press.

Module 7: Ecosystems—An Introduction

Overview

Our aim in Module 7 is to outline the basic structure and energetics of ecosystems,

thereby adding yet another building block to the foundation necessary to

understand the subsequent modules. To discern how ecosystems work, we shall

attempt to answer three key questions:

 What are the different kinds of organisms in ecosystems, and what role do

they play in ecosystem function?

 What are the pathways of movement of matter and energy through

ecosystems?

 What are the principles governing ecosystem function?

Key Concepts

In this module, key concepts are ecosystem, energy flow, mineral cycle, water cycle,

nutrient cycle, plant and animal succession, net and gross productivity, abiotic and

biotic.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-13

TRU Open Learning

Learning Outcomes

At the end of Module 7, you will be able to:

 Define and understand the ecosystem concept.

 Discuss the differences amongst isolated, open, and closed systems.

 Describe and explain energy flows, nutrient cycles, food chains, trophic

levels, the water cycle, and plant and animal succession.

 Explain and discuss ecological productivity and biomass.

 Discuss what Traditional Knowledge is, and how it relates to the ecosystem

model.

U3-14 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

7.1: Isolated, Open, and Closed Systems

Reading and exercise

Optional Web Activity Textbook publisher’s online resource

7.2: Energy Flow in Action Trophic systems

7.3: Productivity and Biomass

Reading and exercise

7.4: Succession in Action Reading and reflection

7.5: Review Definitions Match definition with term

Optional Web Activity Video

Due at the end of Module 7

Assignment 3

(10%)

Due at the end of Module 7

Essay 2 (20%)

The Ecosystem Concept

We will begin our examination of the above questions by looking at a simple

example of an ecosystem. You may not understand all the terms and concepts used;

but by the end of the module, you should have a sound understanding of their

definitions. As we progress through this module, we will take a closer look at each

of the concepts introduced below.

Let’s take a brief look at a simplified representation of a small woodland ecosystem

(Figure 7.1). As we progress through the components of an ecosystem, we’ll make

reference to this simplified diagram.

Hint: Figure 7.1 is the type of drawing—an ecosystem that shows processes—

that you will want to do for one of the questions in your assignment

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-15

TRU Open Learning

Plants composing the woodland include trees, shrubs, forbs, and grasses. Their

varying heights create structure and provide cover for insects and animals. Many

animals eat the plants for their nutrients, while some animals are predators that prey

on other animals. Some plants are parasites that sustain themselves from other

plants.

The plants live and grow because of nutrients and energy derived from the sun, soil,

and atmosphere. Processes exist to cycle waste products from plants and animals

back into the system. The sun provides energy to power the system.

Figure 7.1: Simplified representation of relationships and processes in a woodland

(Image transcript available online)

In reality, defining the boundaries of an ecosystem is not an exact science.

Ecosystems are complex. They contain a large number and variety of organisms,

their internal and external linkages are intricate, and they are connected to other

U3-16 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

ecosystems. They may be conceptualized at any scale—from a drop of tap water

containing micro-organisms (which satisfies all the definitional requirements of an

ecosystem), to the whole biosphere itself. Usually, however, ecosystems are

perceived as relatively discrete and recognizable units—a coral reef, for example, or

a salt marsh, or a tropical rainforest. In addition to being biological systems,

ecosystems are eminently geographic realities. They occupy definite pieces of earth’s

real estate and are functioning, spatially organized, and differentiated parts of the

earth’s surface.

As a concept, the ecosystem concept provides principles for the explanation of

complex interrelationships in the biosphere, including human interactions with the

environment. As a reality, an ecosystem is the quintessential expression of the sum

total of biotic and abiotic interactions at particular locations in the biosphere.

Ecosystems can also be regarded as resource systems that are of special interest to

both human and physical geographers.

Activity 7.1: Isolated, Open, and Closed Systems

Basic subdivisions of systems are: isolated, open or closed. View the following note,

which discusses the differences between isolated, open, and closed systems.

(Available in your online course material) When you are finished, complete the

following exercise:

Isolated, Open, or Closed System?

For each item in the following table, assign an I if it is an example of an isolated

system, an O for open, or a C for closed:

Ocean The universe A watch

A terrarium A human being An ant farm

Space colonization Grassland A glass of water in an open

area

Optional Web Activity (Subject to Availability from the Publisher)

The publishers of your textbook have made two appendices available online for you

to download and use at

https://www.oupcanada.com/higher_education/companion/geography/97801990195

57.html.

In particular, Appendix 2, “Global Physical Geography” provides an introduction to

ten global environments. This may support your thoughts when you complete

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-17

TRU Open Learning

Assignment 3 and possibly provide some information for an essay topic. Feel free to

explore these resources.

Thompson Rivers University is not responsible for the content or privacy

policies of third-party websites. Please read the terms of use of third-party

websites carefully. If you need help accessing the site, please contact the

publisher directly.

A Basic Framework

Ecosystems are not just random groupings of organisms and environmental factors;

they are functioning, highly integrated, and self-sustaining systems. Yet, the

bewildering complexity of them makes this fact difficult to comprehend; therefore,

we break ecosystems down into components and study things that can be measured

(Figure 7.2).

Figure 7.2: Two sub-alpine systems in BC. The left image is from an area west of

Alexis Creek, while the right is from an area north of Kamloops.

(Image transcript available online)

It is beyond the scope of this course to introduce all the concepts that compose

ecosystems. We will focus on four processes that are an essential part of all terrestrial

ecosystems:

1. Energy flows

2. The mineral cycle

3. The water cycle

4. Plant and animal succession

U3-18 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

1. Energy Flows

Connections between living organisms and their environments are affected by two

measurable entities: energy and matter. Plants fix energy from the sun and animals

eat plants to obtain energy and nutrients in order to grow and reproduce. Humans

are no different from other animals in this respect, although we do have access to

other forms of energy, such as fossil fuels.

So, the complexes of the natural and humanized worlds—indeed, the biosphere as a

whole—are characterized by flows, transformations, and storage of energy and

matter (Figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3: Simplified diagram of energy flows in an ecosystem (Image transcript available online)

Energy flows into an ecosystem as radiant solar energy. It is then fixed or converted

in the process of photosynthesis and stored as chemical energy in the tissues of the

producing organisms. This stored energy is then available for use by other

organisms, including decomposers.

In the example ecosystem of the small woodland introduced at the beginning of this

module, we see this process occurring in the fall when phosphate and other

chemicals and nutrients move from the leaves into the stem. Leaves that fall to the

ground continue to break down (unless they are raked up and not composted) and

add to the O horizon (organic) soil layer. Decomposers, such as fungi, feed on this

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-19

TRU Open Learning

litter and help breakdown this material. Earthworms, millipedes, slugs, and other

detritivores, along with bacteria, assist in the process of turning leaf litter into

carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and organic ions, such as nitrogen (N) and

phosphorus (P) that surrounding plants can reabsorb and use.

The flow of energy through the ecosystem is in accordance with the laws of

thermodynamics, which govern both the quantity and quality of energy. In an

ecological context, these laws may be stated as follows:

1. Energy is not created or destroyed, although it can be transformed or

changed from state to state (in ecosystems the changes are from light energy

to chemical energy to heat energy). The first law therefore governs the

quantity of energy.

2. When work is done, concentrated energy is degraded to a less concentrated

form such as heat or thermal waste. The transformation of energy through

food chains involves work. Therefore, each stage in the food chain is

accompanied by a release of degraded energy (heat) and a corresponding

decrease in the remaining higher quality energy (stored chemical energy in

organisms). Because the degraded heat energy cannot be utilized by the

ecosystem, it is lost. The second law of thermodynamics, therefore, governs

the quality of energy, but, in the context of ecosystems, also governs the

amount of usable energy at succeeding levels up the food chain.

The laws of thermodynamics dictate that energy flows into, through, and out of an

ecosystem in one direction. Ultimately, all energy entering an ecosystem must leave

it. Ecosystem maintenance is, therefore, dependent on a constant throughput of

energy, and, over time, energy received by an ecosystem will be balanced by energy

lost.

Optional Web Activity

View the following video for a brief overview of energy flows and nutrient cycles.

Biology Videos. (2010, January 2). How ecosystems work [Video]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/o_RBHfjZsUQ.

Activity 7.2: Energy Flow in Action

Read “Energy Flow in Action”. (Available in your online course material) When you

are finished, complete the following food web, using arrows to connect producers

and consumers to show which way energy is flowing. At each connection, indicate

the trophic level of energy transfer (trophic level 1 = T1, etc.). You should have more

than one arrow pointing away and pointing toward any individual organism.

U3-20 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Figure 7.4: Food web for Activity 7.2: Energy Flow in Action

2. The Mineral Cycle

The movement of chemical elements through ecosystems is generally called mineral

cycling. The mineral cycle can also be understood as the process whereby nutrients

are cycled through an ecosystem. Those elements and minerals essential to the

growth and maintenance of organisms are called nutrients. Because individual

ecosystems are only part of, and interconnected with, the broader biospheric system,

cycling within them is also only part of the broader biospheric cycle, called the

biogeochemical cycle, which includes all minerals.

Minerals and nutrients are stored in what are called “pools.” Such pools may be in

the ecosystem substrate—calcium, phosphorus, and sulphur, for instance, are stored

in (and then drawn from) rock, soil, or water. Other pools may be in the atmosphere

where hydrogen is cycled, combined with oxygen in the form of water. Organisms

are themselves pools, although usually short-lived ones. The term biogeochemical

emphasizes that organisms (bio), rocks and soil (geo), and chemical processes are all

interconnected in the exchange of essential chemical elements between the abiotic

and biotic components of the biosphere and ecosystems. The biogeochemical cycle is

normally examined in terms of the specific cycles within it, such as the nitrogen,

phosphorus, or carbon cycles.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-21

TRU Open Learning

While energy comes from one source—the sun—and flows through and dissipates

from ecosystems rather quickly, the situation with chemical elements is very

different. Chemicals are stored for varying lengths of time (ranging from millions of

years to only a few weeks) in many different pools or reservoirs in the earth’s

atmosphere, oceans, rocks, soils, and organisms.

The exchanges of chemicals between these pools and ecosystems and the length of

time that it takes particular chemicals to cycle are extraordinarily varied and

complex. Like energy, chemicals are changed in their passage through ecosystems.

But there is a critical difference—unlike energy, this change does not result in

degradation, dissipation, and ultimate loss, but rather in transformation and

recombination into many different forms that can ultimately be returned to the

ecosystem.

Figure 7.5: See the mineral cycle embedded within the larger ecosystem processes

(Image transcript available online)

U3-22 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Organisms are critical in this cycling process. Not only are plants supported by the

various biogeochemical cycles, but also the plants themselves are essential for the

maintenance of those cycles. The life processes of plants provide many of the

mechanisms for the transfer and transformation of chemical elements. Plants take up

chemicals from the environment, process them into stored organic compounds, and

then release them through respiration, litter fall, death, and decay. In our initial

simplified diagram of a woodland, we can see this process through leaf growth,

litter fall, death, decay, and recycling by fungi.

The role of micro-organisms such as decomposers and bacteria involved in nitrogen

fixation is also of paramount importance. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria transform or fix

nitrogen, one of the essential building blocks of life, from its chemically inert form in

the atmosphere into forms that can enter mineral cycles and be used by organisms.

An atom of calcium may weather from soil or rock, be taken up by plant roots, and

synthesized into complex organic molecules in the leaves of a tree. When the leaves

fall to the ground, microscopic soil flora (especially bacteria) and fauna act to

decompose the leaves and reduce the complex molecules to simple inorganic

compounds that may be taken up again by the plant roots.

So, although energy flows through the ecosystem and cannot be recycled, nutrients

are reused and recycled. The global biogeochemical cycle is, therefore, a massive and

extraordinarily complex system that results in the recycling and reuse of a finite

store of chemical elements. The ultimate driving force of the cycle is, of course, the

continuous input of external solar energy. Without this recycling, the biosphere

would eventually “run down,” and organisms would run out of the very stuff

necessary for their survival (Figure 7.6).

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-23

TRU Open Learning

Figure 7.6: A nutrient cycle

(Image transcript available online)

The Mineral Cycle in Action

Human activities have caused changes in the storage and circulation of some

elements (such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) and these changes may be

causing large-scale and long-term modifications of the biosphere.

At the local or regional ecosystem level, there is abundant evidence of human

activities impacting nutrient cycling. Soil erosion resulting from poor farm

management in the Canadian prairies may accelerate the downslope movement of

soils, sediments, and nutrients into streams and ultimately to offshore areas in the

Gulf of Texas or Hudson Bay where they are, to all intents and purposes, removed

from active cycling.

There is also clear evidence that nitrogen fixation in the biosphere now exceeds

denitrification (the breakdown of nitrogenous compounds into simpler forms so that

U3-24 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

they can be recycled). Nitrogenous compounds are accumulating at a disturbing

rate, from the combined effects of nitrogenous fertilizers, nitrogen oxides from the

burning of fuels, and the increasing use of nitrogen-fixing legumes in agriculture.

These excessive accumulations tend to move downhill and accumulate in

environmental sinks such as lakes, causing serious pollution. Although nitrogen is

an essential element, in overabundance it can stimulate growth in aquatic

ecosystems to an extent where oxygen becomes seriously depleted by the

decomposition of the large amounts of organic matter. This process of accelerated

eutrophication will be discussed later in this course.

Activity 7.3: Productivity and Biomass

Read “Putting it All Together: Productivity and Biomass” (Available in your online

course material)

When you are finished, rank the following ecosystems in terms of net primary

productivity (NPP), using 1 for the ecosystem with the highest NPP, 2 for the second

highest, and so on.

Ecosystem Type Ranking

Desert

Agricultural land

Tropical forests

Boreal forests

Temperate forests

3. The Water Cycle

The water cycle is the continuous cycling of water above, below, and on the earth’s

surface through processes including: precipitation, transpiration, evaporation,

infiltration, and runoff. Water changes form as it cycles, and so it can be present as a

solid (ice), liquid (water), or gas (atmospheric vapour). A simplified diagram of the

water cycle is presented in Figure 7.6. Ocean water is recharged primarily from

precipitation and surface runoff. During the process of evaporation, ocean water

turns to water vapour and re-enters the atmosphere. Precipitation over land

recharges freshwater rivers and lakes, as well as ice and snow. Runoff moves across

the surface until it is deposited into water bodies or infiltrates into the ground

(percolation) and enters the ground water system.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-25

TRU Open Learning

The water taken up by plants also can re-enter the atmosphere through

evapotranspiration. Water is stored in reservoirs, including lakes and oceans, as well

as in snow and ice, the atmosphere, and the ground.

Figure 7.7: The water cycle

(Image transcript available online)

Optional Web Activity

Here are some online resources for learning about the water cycle:

 Environment Canada. (2013, September 9). The hydrologic cycle. Retrieved

from http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=23CEC266-1.

This web page has a section describing different components of the

hydrologic cycle.

 U.S. Geological Survey. (2016, May 2). Summary of the water cycle. Retrieved

from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html.

Information about the major components and processes of the earth’s water is

on a U.S. Geological Survey web page..

U3-26 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

 Pidwirny, M., & Jones, S. (2010, June 4). Chapter 8: Introduction to the

hydrosphere. In, Fundamentals of physical geography (2nd ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/chapter8.html.

You also may want to look at Chapter 8 in the online edition of Michael

Pidwirny’s and Scott Jones’s Fundamentals of Physical Geography (2nd ed.).

 NASA. (2004, May 13). Water, water, everywhere! Retrieved from

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_water.html.

NASA’s Water, Water Everywhere web page describes the water cycle.

The Water Cycle in Action

Similar to other ecosystem processes, the water cycle is influenced by human

interaction with the land. Natural processes can also affect human life and property.

In Module 5, we looked at some of the potential impacts of the force of water. When

moving, water can act as a force of destruction—its energy can move earth,

buildings, jetties, and other man-made structures. For example, in 2012, Hurricane

Sandy flooded the New York City subway tunnels, destroyed numerous homes and

businesses, and resulted in an estimated $18 billion in economic loss.

The water cycle is also a central element in the earth’s climate. For example, water,

snow, and ice are important for the earth’s reflectance of solar energy (or its albedo).

Whereas snow and ice reflect solar radiation back into the atmosphere, water tends

to absorb solar radiation. When albedo decreases—for example, when snow and ice

melt—the planet is warmed because less radiation is reflected back into space. This

decrease leads to more warming and thus more melting. Conversely, when albedo

increases, more radiation is reflected and the planet is cooled, promoting the

formation of additional ice and snow. An additional influence on global warming is

the effects of evaporation and condensation. Evaporation heats the atmosphere and

condensation cools it. Both are important principles in the influence of water on our

overall climate.

4. Plant and Animal Succession

Ecosystems are not static—in fact, the only constant in ecosystems is the process of

change. Ecosystems change through time in a process known as succession. A very

simple example of succession, the gradual change from one community to the next,

is called succession:

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-27

TRU Open Learning

Figure 7.8: A simplified example of succession (Image transcript available online)

Mountain areas recently vacated by glaciers, sandbars newly deposited by rivers,

new sand dunes, or lava flows solidified from recent volcanic eruptions all represent

essentially abiotic environments. At varying rates, abiotic environments will be

colonized by simple organisms such as lichens, mosses, mites, and springtails that

eventually, by modifying the abiotic environment, create conditions suitable for the

establishment of a wider range of higher organisms. This process of primary

succession (so called because it starts from a fresh abiotic substrate) results in

progressively more complex plant and animal assemblages of increasing stability,

possibly until a stable end-point, or climax, ecosystem is reached (figures 7.9 and

7.10).

Figure 7.9: Retreating glaciers © Mike Edgell. Used with permission.

U3-28 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Figure 7.10: Two stages of primary succession (Image transcript available online)

Secondary Successions

Secondary successions (Figure 7.11) are initiated when pre-existing ecosystems

are destroyed or modified, as when a forest is removed by natural fire or human

logging. Because they start in a substrate that has already been prepared by the

previous ecosystem, secondary successions usually take less time to complete

than primary successions.

Figure 7.11: Early stages of secondary succession

(Image transcript available online)

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-29

TRU Open Learning

Activity 7.4: Succession in Action

Read the following “Succession in Action”. (Available in your online course

material) When you are finished, consider the following question and write your

answer in your journal.

1. Do you agree or disagree with the definition of productive used in the above

reading? What are other ways (beyond a measure of biomass) that old-

growth might be considered to be productive.

Hint: Think back to our discussion about human perception and values. Are

these other ways incompatible with the ecological concept of productive?

Why or why not?

Activity 7.5: Review Definitions

Match the items on the left with the best definitions on the right.

Note: The terms used here may not be exactly the same as those used in the

units or the textbook, so this question is a test of your understanding of the

concepts that you have learned.

a. Decomposers 1 Energy available to higher trophic levels

b. Biomass 2 Total energy assimilated by an organism

c. Gross primary productivity 3 Path of energy transfer most likely to occur in

young, simple ecosystems

d. Secondary consumer 4 Dry weight of organic matter in a corn field at

harvest

e. Net primary productivity 5 Replacement of swamp by forest around a

shallow pond

f. Grazing food chain 6 Affects the temperature of the earth

g. Biotic 7 Bark

h. Albedo 8 Soil

i. Abiotic 9 Hawk feeds on seed-eating bird

j. Succession 10 Organisms that can obtain energy from any

trophic level

U3-30 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

(Answer available in your online course material)

More Recent Ecological Approaches

The ecosystem concept now permeates the field of geography in two ways. First,

many physical and quantitative geographers (and some social scientists) have

embraced the ecosystem model itself, based on Lindeman’s energetics, as an

organizing principle. The model is used to order and examine current

understanding of biotic and biotic/abiotic processes and interactions. Second, other

geographers have used the ecological approach (or paradigm) to develop broader

analogies between sociological/cultural concepts on the one hand and ecological

concepts on the other.

This second suffusion has not only contributed to the ongoing evolution of earlier

human and historical ecological approaches; the ecosystem concept has also paved

the way for yet more and newer approaches, particularly those with an applied

focus on problem solving. Given impetus by the application of the systems and

ecosystem paradigm since the 1960s, a complex of ecological approaches in human

geography has developed.

In contrast to the earlier, relatively simple pre-systems ecology era, it is more

difficult to categorize or classify this recent proliferation of ecological approaches in

geography. Many of them, however, have developed from concerns surrounding

indigenous cultures and the environment in the developing world—often in the

context of contrasting indigenous and Western approaches to the use of

environmental resources.

A major focus of these approaches has been on how indigenous cultures, especially

in Latin America and Southeast Asia, use methods of decision making, problem

solving, and technical innovation to modify and adapt the environment for crop and

animal production. In some ways similar to human ecology and historical ecology,

this cultural ecology approach zeros in much more specifically on the dynamic

interplay between and the use of labour, Traditional Knowledge, technical

innovation, and environmental variables in agriculture and land use. Much of the

research has demonstrated the sound environmental logic and ecological adaptation

of peasant and indigenous agriculture.

One of the recurring themes in the human geography of the developing world

centres on the conflicts between misplaced and ill-conceived government schemes

and policies on the one hand and indigenous peoples’ use of resources on the other.

The causes of these conflicts lie partly with the activities of global corporations,

epitomized in the so-called “hamburger connection.”

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-31

TRU Open Learning

Another perspective of this conflict dates back to the colonial era. Indigenous

agricultural or forestry practices were often criticized by colonialists who considered

the practices ecologically unsound. These critiques then justified state/colonial

intervention through agricultural improvement and soil conservation programs—

part of what was then called the “white man’s burden”—to help indigenous peoples

to help themselves. But, often, the indigenous ecological knowledge was sound and

the “improvement” illusory or negated by critical social/economic/subsistence

ramifications.

A complex of political, ecological, economic, and cultural factors clearly contribute

to these themes, and consideration of that complexity leads to the final ecological

approach that we wish to mention—political ecology. In the words of Blaikie and

Brookfield, political ecology:

... combines the concerns of ecology and a broadly defined political

economy… (encompassing) the constantly shifting dialectic between society

and land-based resources, and also within classes and groups within society

itself. (Blaikie & Brookfield, 1987, p. 17)

The scale of political ecology enquiry is global. We are witnessing an accelerating

trend of globalization and growing political/economic interdependence. The social

and economic impacts of both national and international economic forces on, for

instance, forests in the developing world, are increasingly global in scale. Forests are

integral to many third-world rural economies, cultures, and subsistence; yet, third-

world deforestation has become ubiquitous since the imposition of Western-

orientated agricultural systems and plantations and the rise of the global timber

trade. But political ecology is also essentially a grassroots approach, focused on the

small-scale examination of specific aspects of ecological change and local conflicts

over access to and use of environmental resources.

For instance, in northeast Thailand, there have been frequently violent conflicts

between indigenous peoples’ use of forests and the policies put forth by the

Thailand Royal Forest Department, which argue that the remaining monsoon forests

are not sufficient to conserve water resources or protect against erosion. The

Department has established large-scale plantations of Eucalyptus species and plans

more, regarding the plantations as useful for rehabilitating and conserving the

degraded monsoon forest as well as having a commercial value.

The indigenous peoples, however, while holding the same concerns about

environmental degradation and the need for conservation, propose different

solutions based on their traditional ecological knowledge. The indigenous peoples

reject the planting of eucalypts, arguing that eucalypts reduce native regeneration by

competing with indigenous species for water and nutrients, and that reforestation

U3-32 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

should be based on natural regeneration of the tropical monsoon forest. Local people

also view eucalypts as a metaphor for other environmental concerns (as for instance

the spotted owl has been used in the Pacific Northwest as a metaphor for old-growth

forest protection) and regard the conservationist policy of the Thailand Royal Forest

Department as destructive exploitation and an exertion of coercive power.

The forest in Thailand (and many forests in other third-world countries) has,

therefore, become a contested resource. Politically marginalized and poor peasants,

allied with a number of popular movements, espouse ecological integrity and

various cultural and political rights. The peasants and their supporters resist a

political and economic elite, often allied to large-scale corporate development and

commercial interests, that have had devastating impacts on the environment and the

subsistence economies of rural populations.

Traditional Knowledge

Perhaps the discussion above strikes a chord of familiarity in surroundings closer to

home. British Columbia has a resource-based economy, and much of the social and

cultural fabric of the province is intertwined with oil and gas, forestry, fisheries,

mining, and tourism. Issues of environmental quality and management are

constantly at the forefront of public attention, as a wide spectrum of environmental

and other special interests question or oppose government and corporate policies.

And, BC is, after all, a post-colonial region with resource issues involving First

Nations.

Governments are obligated under the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, to consult with

all First Nations on Aboriginal rights, Treaty rights, and Aboriginal title. Further,

there is a desire to manage from a more collaborative position:

... to enhance the robustness of ecological management decisions by gaining

access to systems of knowledge and management practices that are better

attuned to local specifics; to increase the efficiency of decision

implementation by involving people that are directly affected by the

decisions in activities such as monitoring; and to increase equity in the

decision-making process by moving away from management models that are

controlled by a central state that is remote from the needs of local people and

from regional and cultural specificities. (Houde, 2007, p. 1)

One approach that Aboriginal (First Nations and Inuit) peoples use to integrate their

values and views in land-use planning is to collect, synthesize, and incorporate their

community and individual Traditional Knowledge, also known as Traditional

Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK is defined by Usher as “all types of knowledge

about the environment derived from experience and traditions of a particular group

of people” (p. 185). The labelling of TEK as “traditional” is a misnomer when it

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-33

TRU Open Learning

implies that TEK belongs to static, primitive, or dying cultures instead of as

cumulative and evolving as new generations add to it from their experience.

TEK is frequently contrasted with Western-based scientific (WBS) knowledge, or

that which is the base for most of the scientific knowledge we have today (called

“Western-based” because of its historical and geographic roots in Europe, it is also

called the science-based view). TEK is described as dynamic, cumulative, long-term,

primarily qualitative, inclusive, spiritual, and subjective, whereas WBS emphasizes

selective attributes of the system or items of interest.

TEK may perceive that every element of the environment has a spirit, or anima.

Further, some First Nation cultures may not even subscribe to the notion that natural

resources can or should be managed.

TEK is community-based and, although not everyone is a holder of knowledge,

every member of the community can potentially be one. Knowledge may also be

held collectively. TEK may be acquired through teaching involving oral storytelling

and other ceremonies, and taught through experiential learning. People are typically

directly involved in the events that contribute to TEK collection and comprehension.

In contrast, WBS resides in a written culture where one type of specialist, those who

collect information and data, are frequently spatially and temporally distant from

another group of specialists, those who analyze and make decisions. Hawley et al.

(2004) presented the idea that WBS resource managers may consider seemingly

sound information to be science-based, and by corollary, seemingly unsound

information exists from other sources. With characteristics differing from WBS, TEK

may be considered to be a source of “unsound” information.

Despite the extensive literature illuminating differences between WBS and TEK,

there are also some similarities, and it is simplistic to examine only their

discriminating characteristics. Both attempt to predict what will happen in their

surroundings and gather data or information through empirical observation, which

are then put into context and turned into knowledge. In addition, TEK holders may

perform controlled experiments to increase their knowledge of environmental

variables and interactions. TEK holders may be distrustful of the scientific method

and the management system that it supports, just as some WBS specialists are

skeptical of TEK.

TEK, therefore, places a different emphasis on human-environment interaction than

does WBS. Combining TEK with the ecosystem model requires those with

knowledge and experience in TEK and ecosystem dynamics to work together, and

acknowledge that each brings a unique set of insights to human-environmental

interactions. Working outside our own paradigms can be challenging, but increasing

our knowledge and understanding is a welcome trade-off.

U3-34 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Traditional Knowledge Applied

Traditional Knowledge contributes much to our understanding of how humans interact with the landscape. Collecting and disseminating TEK can assist planners in identifying patterns; this information in turn can be used to support or contradict what science‐based knowledge has found. TEK has been used in many contexts, including: wildlife studies (caribou and beluga migrations), ice floe patterns, and medicinal and edible plant information.

To take just one example, TEK has been used to provide insight into the behaviour and diet of killer whales in the Canadian Arctic (Ferguson, Higdon, & Westdal, 2012). Hunters and elders were interviewed from eleven communities in Nunavut and information was gathered on their observations, past and present, about killer whale movement. The study concludes that melting sea ice is creating conditions where more killer whales can access the waters around Nunavut. This has resulted in the whales preying on seals, belugas, narwhals, and the bowhead whale. The study has provided researchers with greater understanding of the impact of melting sea ice on mammals residing in the Arctic sea.

Optional Web Activity

See examples of TEK collection protocol, summaries of studies, and examples of its application:

 Mackenzie Valley Review Board. (2005, July). Guidelines for incorporating Traditional Knowledge in environmental impact assessments [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://www.reviewboard.ca/upload/ref_library/MVReviewBoard_Traditional

_Knowledge_Guidelines_1247177561.pdf.

 Canadian International Development Agency. (2000). Integrating Indigenous knowledge in project planning and implementation [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/archive/website00297C/WEB/IMAGES/PRELIMS2.PDF.

Conclusion

Assignment 3 (10%)

Now that you have completed the readings and activities for modules 6 and 7, you are ready to complete Assignment 3 and send it to your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Instructions for completing Assignment 3 are under the Assignments Overview tab. Consult your Open Learning Faculty Member if you have any questions.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U3-35

TRU Open Learning

Keep a copy of your assignment as a backup so that you can refer to it when you are discussing your work with your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Essay (20%)

Your essay is now due. Consult your Open Learning Faculty Member if you have any questions.

Keep a copy of your assignment as a backup so that you can refer to it when you are discussing your work with your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Unit Conclusion

In the context of the conceptual frameworks that we established earlier in the course, perhaps the kernel of the story is this: Within the overall ecosystem or ecological “envelope” that sets limits to human endeavours, all adaptations and adjustments are made through the medium of human culture in all its diversity.

Having this background, you are now in a position to progress from learning how to conceptualize human‐environment relations to examining what those relations are. We will next examine the application of the ecosystem model in the study of human‐ land interactions.

References

Biology Videos. (2010, January 2). How ecosystems work [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/o_RBHfjZsUQ.

Blaikie, P. M., & Brookfield, H. C. (1987). Defining and debating the problem. In P. M. Blaikie & H. C. Brookfield (Eds.), Land degradation and society. London, UK: Methuen.

Briggs, D., Smithson, P., & Ball, T. (1989). Fundamentals of physical geography. Toronto, ON: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd.

British Columbia, Ministry of Forests, Forest Practices Branch. (2002). Understanding ecosystem processes. Rangeland Health Brochure 3. Victoria, BC: Province of British Columbia.

Busby, F. E. (1994). Rangeland health: New methods to classify, inventory, and monitor rangelands. Washington, DC: NRC.

Canadian International Development Agency. (2000). Integrating Indigenous knowledge in project planning and implementation [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/archive/website00297C/WEB/IMAGES/PRELIMS2.PDF.

U3-36 Unit 3: The Role of Ecology in Human Geography

TRU Open Learning

Elliot, N. J. (2008). Including Aboriginal values in resource management through enhanced

geospatial communication. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of

Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.

Environment Canada. (2013, September 9). The hydrologic cycle. Retrieved from

http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=23CEC266-1.

Ferguson, S. H., Higdon, J. W., & Westdale, K. H. (2012). Prey items and predation

behavior of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Nunavut, Canada, based on Inuit

hunter interviews. Aquatic Biosystems, 8(3), 1–16.

Hawley, A. W. L., Sherry, E. E., & Johnson, C. J. (2004). A biologists’ perspective on

amalgamating traditional environmental knowledge and resource

management. BC Journal of Ecosystems and Management, 5(1), 36–50.

Houde, N. (2007). The six faces of traditional ecological knowledge: Challenges and

opportunities for Canadian co- management opportunities. Ecology and

Society, 12(2), 34. Retrieved from

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss2/art34/

Lindeman, R. L. (1942). The trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology. Ecology, 23(4), 399–

418.

Mackenzie Valley Review Board. (2005, July). Guidelines for incorporating Traditional

Knowledge in environmental impact assessments [PDF document]. Retrieved from

http://www.reviewboard.ca/upload/ref_library/MVReviewBoard_Traditiona

l_Knowledge_Guidelines_1247177561.pdf.

NASA. (2004, May 13). Water, water, everywhere! Retrieved from

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_water.html.

Pidwirny, M., & Jones, S. (2010, June 4). Chapter 8: Introduction to the hydrosphere.

In, Fundamentals of physical geography (2nd ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/chapter8.html.

U.S. Geological Survey. (2016, May 2). Summary of the water cycle. Retrieved from

http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html.

Usher, P. J. (2000). Traditional ecological knowledge in environmental assessment

and management. Arctic, 53(2), 183–193.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-1

TRU Open Learning

Unit 4 (Modules 8 and 9): Human-Environment Interactions

Introduction

The previous modules have provided you with the conceptual and methodological

background necessary to understand important geographical approaches to human-

environment relationships. Having this background under your belt, you are now in

a position to progress from learning how to conceptualize human-environment

relations to examining what those relations are. We will next turn our attention to the

nature of human-environment relations.

Our focus for the next two modules is on the modifications humans make to the

natural, or biophysical, environment. The environment also impacts human

behaviour, either from natural change or from change resulting from human

activity, and thus imposes limitations on the degree of change humans can

introduce. We will examine both historical and contemporary processes and

changes. Module 8, we will look at two examples of historical impacts: origins of

agriculture and urban intensification. In Module 9, we will examine more closely

some present-day examples.

Unit 4 includes:

 Module 8: Early Agriculture and Urbanization

 Module 9: Contemporary Impacts on the Environment

Module 8: Early Agriculture and Urbanization

Overview

Human impacts on the biophysical environment are not only recent phenomena

resulting from the actions of our modern technological and growth-oriented

society—they have a long history. One of our first activities, then, will be to examine

changes wrought by earlier societies and technologies. In previous modules, we

placed modern concepts of human-environment relations in a context of past ideas.

In a complementary manner, we need also to look to the past impacts of people on

the environment to more fully understand the true role of humanity in changing the

face of the earth.

U4-2 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Key Concepts

In this module, key concepts are cultural theory; climatic change; population

pressure; urbanization; the Industrial Revolution; nomadic; land-use intensity; land

degradation, and direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 8, you will be able to:

 Discuss the scale and intensity of past human impacts on the environment.

 Describe the differences between direct and indirect impacts.

 Know what cumulative impact is.

 Discuss the differences amongst three theories of agricultural origins.

 Outline the human-environment interactions of the Industrial Revolution.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-3

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

8.1: Land Use and

Change

Reading and questions

8.2: Development of

Agriculture Across the

Ages

Reading, review, and

questions

8.3: Pity the Banana Reading and questions

8.4: The Industrial

Revolution

Reading and questions

Optional Web Activity Video

Portion of assignment for

Module 8; assignment due at

the end of Unit 4

Assignment 4 (10%)

Introduction

When we take a look at human impacts on the environment, it is important to

remember that while human-environment interactions can introduce negative

impacts on the environment, some impacts are positive, while others are benign. For

example, clearing forested land for agriculture can create the positive impact of

providing the means to feed one’s family; at the same time, a negative impact,

reducing biodiversity through removal of the forest, results.

It can be difficult to isolate impacts because the impacts themselves can be direct or

indirect. Direct impacts are those where the effect by a given action is felt at the

same time and place, while indirect impacts are those whose effects displaced in

time and place. For example, housing that cuts into the slope of a hillside and causes

the slope to erode into nearby creeks has both direct and indirect effects. The erosion

of the slope deposits soil into the creek and directly causes degradation of the water

quality. An indirect effect is the impact degraded water quality has on fish habitat

further downstream. Indirect impacts are displaced in either, or both, space and

time.

U4-4 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Because ecosystems and human behaviour are quite complex, impacts can occur at

local scale, regional scale, global scale, or all three of these, and do not obey

artificially created boundaries. For example, persistent organic compounds (POPs)

have been banned in Canada but their use in other nations means that migratory

birds are still exposed, thus affecting the birds that breed in Canada but winter

elsewhere negatively. One impact can exacerbate the impacts of other problems;

such is the case with climate change and habitat loss and invasive species.

Cumulative impacts are also important to assess. Cumulative impacts are those that

impact the earth incrementally—for example, the simultaneous consideration of

logging, oil and gas, and resort development, all within one geographic area,

provides an examination of the cumulative impact of those activities. Cumulative

impact studies also consider the effect of past, present, and future actions.

Finally, we need to recognize that impacts occurring from human-environment

interaction are not all one way, from humans to the environment. The environment

can impose limitations on human activity. For example, climate change and the

preponderance of even-aged pine stands has exacerbated the spread of the mountain

pine beetle in BC. Immediately following the beetles attack on pine stands, the

province experienced a small boom in harvesting, which resulted in prosperous

economic times. But that increase in harvesting has reduced the availability of

timber in later years and now communities that rely on economic activity from the

timber industry are threatened by economic slow-down.

Activity 8.1: Land Use and Change

Understanding and identifying direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts is an

important skill to have as a geographer. Please read Section 2.3 “Land Use and

Degradation” (Avaiable in your online course material) in One Planet, Many People:

Atlas of Our Changing Environment and record your answers to the following

questions:

2. What do the authors mean by land use intensity? How does this differ from

their definition for land degradation?

3. What factors are important to consider when assessing land use intensity?

4. Describe the characteristics of projected patterns in agricultural crop

production worldwide over the next thirty years.

5. In addition to changing agricultural patterns, what factors do the authors

identify as contributors to landscape change?

6. What evidence do you see of direct and indirect impacts from human-

environment interaction? Record three example of each.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-5

TRU Open Learning

Human-Environment Interactions: Early Agricultural Impacts

While our knowledge of the location of early agricultural centres has progressed

beyond that available to Sauer, the causes of early agriculture remain hotly debated.

Given the emergence of Homo sapiens about 100,000 years ago, agriculture

developed only recently and very quickly at about 11,000 years BP. Geographers

have long been interested in the question of what triggered the move away from

hunting and gathering as the dominant way of living toward plant cultivation and

animal domestication. Another way of looking at this question is, how did the

environment influence human behaviour, or conversely, how did humans influence

their environment? Three main groups of theories have been advanced.

Cultural Theory

Cultural theory argues that the replacement of hunter-gathering was part of an

inevitable gradual cultural evolution and that the forces moving humans towards

agriculture were internal rather than external. Paleolithic foragers (from 2.6 million

to around 10,000 years ago) knew plants very well—which ones were medicinal,

which poisonous, which good for food—and knew how they grew. There is

evidence that some foragers cultivated, pruned, and otherwise manipulated wild

plants; for example, the earliest records of humans purposely using fire to influence

what plants grew in an area date between 0.2 and 1.7 million years ago! Cultural

theory argues that such practices eventually led to sedentary agricultural societies

and to actual cultivation and domestication as humans looked towards

manipulating their environment to achieve greater gains than resulted from foraging

alone. In other words, agriculture was an organic internal cultural evolution.

Critics of this theory, however, argue that food returns from early agriculture may

well have been lower than those from foraging. The early ancestors (proto-

domesticates) of modern grains such as teosinte (from which corn developed), or

small wild tubers, were not very productive for food value. And agriculture was

certainly a lot more work-intensive and uncertain than hunting and gathering. So,

critics of culture theory maintain that external forces must have pushed people into

developing agriculture.

Deterministic Climatic Change Theory

One such theory purporting external forces responsible for the development of

agriculture was the deterministic climatic change theory. The Pleistocene-Holocen

transition (at the end of the last ice-age) was a time of enormous global climatic and

environmental changes, and this view proposes that it was these changes that were

the catalyst for agricultural development. The earliest version of this deterministic

U4-6 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

climatic change theory was put forward by British archaeologist V. Gordon Childe

(1892–1957).

Childe postulated increased aridity in the Middle East during the late Pleistocene

and early Holocene (a period beginning around 12,000 years ago, and continuing to

the present), and suggested that this desiccation crowded human populations into

oases as they searched for water sources. In these areas, more intensive land use—

that is, agriculture—had to be developed in order to support populations.

Agriculture was thus forced into existence by climate change.

However, later paleontological evidence (Childe worked from the 1930s to the 1950s)

suggests that climate in the Near-East was in fact warmer and wetter at the time of

domestication and that these wetter conditions favoured intensification of

subsistence and, ultimately, agriculture.

Certainly, climatic change at the end of the Pleistocene did mean that agriculture,

formerly impossible in widespread areas, was now possible. But climatic change was

not uniform or unidirectional (as we see from present day conditions), and

agricultural hearths arose at different places and at different stages of climatic

change, rather than all at around 11,000 BP. Perhaps climatic change is not enough,

in itself, to explain agricultural origins.

Population Pressure Theory

Childe’s oasis theory of climatic aridness forcing people into small areas is the

germinate for a third theory. The population pressure theory was developed by

anthropologists and archaeologists, notably N. Cohen, who were influenced by the

ideas of the Danish economist Ester Bosrup (1910–1999) on agricultural

intensification, as expressed in her 1965 publication, “The Conditions of Agricultural

Growth: The Economies of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure.”

The population pressure theory is based on an assumption that agriculture, in

contrast to foraging, increases food production per unit area of land. Foraging

depends on mobility and, in Childe’s oasis theory, mobility and foraging were

constrained by the forced concentration of population into limited, environmentally

favourable areas. The enforced sedentarism led to increased harvesting and hunting,

and the depletion of plant/animal resources. A response to this depletion was a

move toward the planting and tending of crops, which are less vulnerable to

overexploitation and depletion (for example, seeds can be saved for the following

season, fields can be protected), thus forcing the adoption of agriculture. This

process, repeated on a more generalized scale through the early Holocene as a long,

slow build-up of population that gradually drove societies to intensify their

subsistence economies, eventually triggered a move to the cultivation of

domesticated plants.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-7

TRU Open Learning

Activity 8.2: Development of Agriculture Across the Ages

To understand more about the development of agriculture and its impacts, read the

following sections in Chapter 10:

 “The Agricultural Location Problem” looks at physical, cultural, political and

economic explanations for why agricultural activities occur in certain places

(pp. 344–354)

 “Domesticating Plants and Animals” (pp. 355–357)

 “The Evolution of World Agricultural Landscapes” and “World Agriculture

Today: Types and Regions” (pp. 357–370)

Review Chapter 1 of One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment.

(Available in your online course material) When you are finished, please answer the

following questions in your journal:

1. Identify the various agricultural stages identified in your readings. What are

the defining characteristics of each?

2. Summarize the general factors that influence where specific agricultural

activities are located. How important do you think physical factors are? What

other factors are important?

3. Which stage of agricultural development do you think is the most significant

in terms of increasing worldwide agricultural productivity? Why?

Impacts of Agriculture

Agricultural societies survived and developed by deliberately transforming the

environment in a manner that hunter-gatherer or pastoral nomadic cultures did (and

could) not. The growth of agricultural societies resulted in the development of

increasingly artificial ecosystems of domesticated plants and animals, almost totally

dependent on human intervention for reproduction and maintenance. For example,

did you know that the banana does not produce viable seeds and therefore is

dependent on farmers for propagation?

U4-8 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Figure 8.1: Bananas

(Image transcript available online)

Over the years, agricultural practices have introduced many impacts on our

environment. The clearing of woodlands, the confinement of animal herds in

restricted areas, the exposure of soils to concentrated erosion, the proliferation of

open disturbed areas, the creation of new plants—all these activities signalled a new

phase in human relations with the environment. Further developments, such as

irrigation, the use of animals for traction, and arboriculture, had to wait for some

time after initial cultivation and domestication took place, as they required the

development of more complex technologies (Figure 8.2).

Once established (probably by about 5000 BP in Egypt), irrigation intensified the

impact of human activities on the environment. In Mesopotamia, for example, there

is abundant evidence that population growth, resulting from irrigation-based

agricultural and urban development, caused large-scale deforestation, over-

cropping, over-grazing, salinization, and erosion. Large areas of Iran and Iraq still

bear the scars of these early impacts.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-9

TRU Open Learning

Figure 8.2: An Egyptian tomb painting depicting the use of a shaduf—an early

irrigation mechanism still in use today (Image transcript available online)

Scene of gardener using a Shaduf, Tomb of Ipuy at Deir-el-Medina, West bank of

Thebes, TT217. (n.d.). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipuy_shaduf.jpg.

Let’s look at a couple of other examples of how historic impacts on the land continue

to influence the land today. In both eastern Brazil and Britain, the effects of past

environmental change continue to influence the nature of the present environment,

but in very different ways. In Brazil, the establishment of tropical and subtropical

plantations and deforestation programs to prepare land for cattle grazing has

wrought tremendous change in the environment as large swaths of land were

cleared.

In contrast, in other areas, such as Europe, the past impacts are less obvious and

sometimes more benign (Figure 8.3). An important idea to keep in mind is that

environments and landscapes are constantly evolving and that human impacts on

them have been an integral part of that evolution. What we see in the environment

today is part of an ever-changing landscape.

U4-10 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Figure 8.3: Snowdonia National Park in North Wales, UK

(Image transcript available online)

Activity 8.3: Pity the Banana

Let’s have some fun by taking a look at some of the common foods we eat every day.

We hardly give bananas, soybeans, tomatoes, coffee, and other foods a thought

when we consume them. But what would our world be like without them?

Read the article “The Sterile Banana”, (Available in your online course material) and

answer the following:

1. According to the article, what are some of the risks with propagating only

one type of banana (or any other crop)?

2. If there are risks with growing only one type of banana, why do people do

this (what is the trade-off for the risks)?

3. Do you think that if you could choose amongst a greater variety of bananas

(yellow versus green ones, stouter versus thinner, sweeter versus not-so-

sweet) that you would become a connoisseur of bananas? Why or why not?

Human-Environment Interactions: Urbanization

Civilizations as we know them today could really only arise after agriculture became

established as a means to supply communities with regular provisions. The

development of food surpluses led to the freeing of people from purely agricultural

tasks and thus enabled the beginnings of trade, specialization in crafts, and the

means to support bureaucratic infrastructures and ruling aristocracies. Increased

population densities and political identities inevitably led to increased competition

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-11

TRU Open Learning

for land and resources, and the need for soldiers and armies to protect or impose the

wishes of the growing political states.

The Industrial Revolution

The later phases of European colonization of the other continents were accelerated

by the Industrial Revolution. That revolution transformed not only the landscapes

and face of Europe itself, but also had enormous impacts on the environment of

those areas in the world that were colonized by Europeans.

The Industrial Revolution developed progressively through the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries, as industrial processes gradually gained momentum and the

economies of societies were transformed from an agricultural base to one much

more dependent on manufactured goods. Productive activity became mechanized,

with machines replacing handwork. New power sources were introduced, the

means of transport transformed, and the factory system introduced.

In terms of environmental change, Industrial Revolution technologies had a very

profound effect. The most significant early technological revolution was that of

steam power, and thus new industries and associated growing urban centres were

situated near the fuel that provided that power—the coalfields. New steam engines

improved the efficiency of coal mining, and increasing quantities of mine waste

piled up, creating sterile landscapes. The working of metallic minerals, such as those

extracted from the 250 tin mines in the southwestern English county of Cornwall,

brought about equally spectacular environmental changes, many of which remain.

In particular, the smelting and working of iron and, later, steel had major

environmental impacts. Coke and coal were used in these processes, and iron

manufacturing sprang up all over coalfield areas, with attendant blast furnaces,

chimneys, engine houses, and massive heaps of blast-furnace slag. These industrial

landscapes appeared in places as diverse as the English Yorkshire Moors and

Midlands, the valleys of south Wales, the Ruhr, the Belgian lowlands, and northeast

France.

Textile manufacturing, which initially used water power, turned to coal and steam.

The industry moved onto the coalfields and grew rapidly, spawning William Blake’s

(1757–1827) “dark Satanic mills” and dismal industrial landscapes of Manchester,

Leeds, and other cities around the Yorkshire and Lancashire Pennines. Chemical

processes were developed for the bleaching, colouring, and printing of fabrics, and

the mining of required basic raw materials, such as salt, had considerable

environmental impact. Landscapes were disfigured by the dumping of toxic wastes,

rivers were polluted by run-off from waste heaps, and fumes from chemical

processing destroyed vegetation. Massive air and water pollution problems emerged

along with the growth of industrialization.

U4-12 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

For instance, one of the chemicals in great by the textile, glass, paper, and soap

industries was soluble alkali. Prior to the 1870s, the main source of alkali was the

LeBlanc soda-making process that utilized sodium chloride and sulphuric acid. So

serious was the damage caused by gaseous and liquid hydrochloric acid byproducts

of the process that the British Alkali Act of 1863 was introduced to control its worst

effects.

Evolutions in Transportation and Transport of Goods

Just as developments in manufacturing brought about environmental changes so did

developments in transportation, but to a lesser extent. The canal network in Britain

expanded rapidly, but because canal routes followed natural contours and blended

into the landscape, this expansion had relatively little negative impact on the

environment. Similarly, in Europe, canalization was mainly confined to improving

the navigability of the major rivers such as the Danube, Rhône, and Rhine, and had

minimal direct environmental impacts. Even railroad embankments and cuttings in

Britain and Europe merged into the countryside as they were colonized by plant life.

Britain also exported railroad engineering skills and hardware to America, Africa,

and many territories in the Empire.

The environmental impacts of those exports on the recipient countries was much

more profound than it had been in Britain, as railroads enabled vast new areas to be

opened to settlement, agriculture, forestry, and resource extraction (Figure 8.4).

Figure 8.4: North American railroad scene (Image transcript available online)

Ives, J. M., & Palmer, F. F. B. (1868). Across the continent: Westward the course of Empire

takes its way [Lithograph]. New York, NY: Currier & Ives.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-13

TRU Open Learning

Although new forms of transportation opened up the countryside in Britain and

Europe, most of the impact of the Industrial Revolution was concentrated in the

urban areas on the coalfields, and much of the countryside appeared unchanged.

Britain’s “green and pleasant land” still existed alongside the dark, satanic mills. But

industrialization did indirectly make its mark on the countryside. Wool was in great

demand by the mills; steel was used to make better plows and reaping machines

efficient and productive agriculture. Improved agricultural machines required larger

fields; increased acreage came at the expense of marsh drainage and improvement of

poor marginal land.

All these pressures from industrialization and agricultural technologies forever

changed the face of Europe before they were turned loose on the pristine lands of the

new world. In those areas, such as Australia, Canada, and the United States,

technological innovations in sowing and harvesting had a tremendous impact, as

they could be employed in converting immense expanses of grassland never before

under cultivation.

Activity 8.4: The Industrial Revolution

In the textbook, read the section on the Industrial Revolution in Chapter 13 (pp. 473–

476). Answer the following:

1. According to Norton and Mercier, what were the effects of the Industrial

Revolution on cities and agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries?

2. What are the theories that explain why the Industrial Revolution began in

England and not in some other countries?

3. Describe the ways in which coal was a central component of the Industrial

Revolution.

4. One of the key concepts that Norton and Mercier identify is diffusion. What

do you think were some of the ways that the Industrial Revolution diffused

into other parts of the world?

Optional Web Activity

Watch the following YouTube video .

AllHistories. (2009, October 2). Turning points in history–Industrial Revolution [Video].

Retrieved from https://youtu.be/3Efq-aNBkvc.

Then, consider the following questions:

1. What are some of societal costs to the Industrial Revolution?

U4-14 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

2. Considering our own economic and social environment today, do you see

any industries that are changing (or evolving) to the degree of some of the

examples given in this video?

Conclusion

This module has selectively introduced you to the ways in which earlier human

cultures and technologies changed the environment and has given you some idea

how the scale and intensity of those changes varied in time. We can now move on to

look at contemporary human-caused changes in the environment.

Assignment 4 (10%)

Assignment 4 covers both modules 8 and 9. You may want to complete the portion

of the assignment that covers module 8 at this time, but wait until you have

completed the entire assignment before sending it to your Open Learning Faculty

Member. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about Module 8, consult your Open

Learning Faculty Member.

References

AllHistories. (2009, October 2). Turning points in history–Industrial Revolution

[Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/3Efq-aNBkvc.

Ives, J. M., & Palmer, F. F. B. (1868). Across the continent: Westward the course of

Empire takes its way [Lithograph]. New York, NY: Currier & Ives.

James, S. R. (1989). Hominid use of fire in the lower and middle Pleistocene: A

review of the evidence. Current Anthropology, 30(1), 1–26.

Pearce, F. (2008). The sterile banana. Conservation, 9(4). Retrieved from

http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2008/09/the-sterile-banana/

Scene of gardener using a Shaduf, Tomb of Ipuy at Deir-el-Medina, West bank of

Thebes, TT217. (n.d.). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipuy_shaduf.jpg.

United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). (2005). One planet, many people:

Atlas of our changing environment. Nairobi: United Nations Environment

Programme.

Module 9: Contemporary Impacts on the Environment

Overview

For a long time, geographers ignored the importance of human impact on the

environment; they were first preoccupied with the impact of the environment on

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-15

TRU Open Learning

people. As we saw in Module 2, geographers considered many human activities to

be determined by environment. They subsequently came to view people in a more

possibilist framework and began to raise the question of environmental perception, but

the notion of people as an agent of change was still given short shrift. Some

geographers thought that, compared with the natural geomorphic agents operating

over most of the 4,500 million years of the earth’s history, the influence of such a

recent animal as Homo sapiens must be insignificant.

The recent expansion of ecological knowledge, however, and the growth in concern

for environmental matters, particularly the impact of pollution and the problems

concerning the future availability of essential resources, have led to a great deal

more attention being given by geographers to human impact on the environment.

Concern for the environment and a growing understanding of the environmentalist

viewpoint has been one of the most significant social phenomena in Western culture

since the 1960s. As a result of this increased concern for the environment, we have a

greater appreciation of the ability of modern societies to change, and possibly

damage, the environment.

Obviously, many changes introduced to the environment by humans do cause a

decline in environmental quality. But how do we identify and measure

environmental quality? Some activities that cause environmental change may be

viewed from an ecosystem perspective to cause degradation, but from a social

perspective may be viewed to improve the landscape by making it more usable as it

supports other activities, such as recreation, agriculture, grazing, or logging. These

modified landscapes do, however, require active management to maintain them as

high-quality humanized environments, and, if that management fails, degradation

may well ensue.

In this module, we will examine three examples of contemporary human-

environment interactions:

1. Fire and grazing

2. Introduction of new plant and animal species or communities to areas

3. Climate change

Key Concepts

The key concepts in this module are anthropogenic fire, natural fire, grazing,

Tragedy of the Commons, degradation, global warming, climate change, and

pastoral.

U4-16 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 9, you will be able to:

 Relate scale and intensity of present day impacts to early agriculture and

urbanization.

 Describe and evaluate in specific detail a number of contemporary impacts

operating at varying intensities on different parts of the biosphere.

 Describe the Tragedy of the Commons and apply to real-world examples.

 Outline ways in which human behaviour can impact ecosystems.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-17

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

9.1: Three Contentious Issues Reading and

questions

9.2: Impacts on Ecosystems Reading and

questions

9.3: Pastoral Nomadism Reading and

questions

9.4: Tragedy of the

Commons

Reading and

questions

Optional Web Activity Online atlas of British

Columbia plants

Optional Web Activity Video and websites

on Garry oak

ecosystem recovery

9.5: Climate Change Reading and question

Optional Web Activity Videos and questions

Due at the end of

Unit4

Assignment 4

(10%)

Interrelated Impacts

By now, it will be clear that the way humans impact the environment and the way

the environment impacts humans is rarely isolated. Impacts by one activity can

create or contribute to other problems (Figure 9.1). As a result, it is difficult to

explore causes and effect of human-environment interactions without examining

direct and indirect relationships.

Further, impacts are not just environmental; as we have seen, changes to how we

interact with the environment can introduce social, political and economic change.

U4-18 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Figure 9.1: Human impacts on the biosphere

(Image transcript available online)

Activity 9.1: Three Contentious Issues

In Chapter 4, “Humans and Environment,” read the section “The Current Debate:

Three Contentious Issues” (pp. 106–107). Norton and Mercier raise three issues that

they identify as crucial to understanding the impacts humans have on the

environment in a contemporary world. Most importantly, these issues are

impacting how the world looks at, and addresses, environmental problems. (There

are links in this section to some of the key concepts in our geography “toolbox”,

including scale and globalization.) After you have read this section, answer the

following questions in your journal:

1. In your own words, identify and summarize the three issues Norton and

Mercier identify.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-19

TRU Open Learning

2. Based on what you learned about the development of agriculture and the

Industrial Revolution in Module 8, do you think any of these three concerns

were evident during earlier periods? If so, which ones and why?

3. Norton and Mercier state that “market forces are unlikely to solve

environmental problems” (p. 107). Do you agree? Why or why not? What

other factors, besides economic, might play a key role in our attempt to deal

with environmental issues?

Activity 9.2: Impacts on Ecosystems

Your textbook begins Chapter 4 by stressing that “everything is related,” meaning

that changes to one element will often have knock-on effects to a host of other

elements. As an example, the deforestation of an area for agricultural use will

remove most, if not all, of the native vegetation and animals and alter the soil

chemistry. The removal of a large forested area alters the level of photosynthesis

occurring in the area, leading to changes in air quality. Moreover, by planting

shallow rooted crops surface run-off will increase, perhaps the water will be

polluted by fertilizers, in turn altering the flow and potentially the water chemistry

of surrounding watersheds.

In this module we are going to take a closer look at the way humans impact

ecosystems in the contemporary world. Read the sections describing human impacts

on natural ecosystems, starting with “Human Impacts on Vegetation” and ending

before “Human Impacts on Climate” (pp. 107–118). Answer the following:

1. Explain how human-induced vegetation change can cause impacts that will

cascade (direct and indirect effects) on other ecosystems.

2. What are some of the difficulties in measuring and reporting direct and

indirect effects of human interactions with the environment? How do you

think these difficulties impact our abilities to make decisions related to

protection of the environment?

Hint: Direct and indirect impacts are a key tool in our geography “toolbox”

and may be terms you want to include in your Final Project.

1. What are two consequences of rain forest removal?

2. What are the two ways that water can become polluted?

3. Norton and Mercier identify a number of impacts that humans can have on

the environment. If you were forced to pick just one, which one do you think

U4-20 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

could have the greatest effect on the human quality of life? Explain your

selection.

Human-Environment Interaction: Fire and Grazing

Fire is an integral part of many ecosystems. Fire (whether by natural or

anthropogenic causes) significantly affects the structure, dynamics, and nutrient

cycling of ecosystems and, if repeated, becomes a major determinant of ecosystem

characteristics and distribution. Natural wildfires, for example, those caused by

lightning, are an essential component of maintaining open grasslands and forest

ecosystems.

For example, fire has supported the Ponderosa pine ecosystem, found in British

Columbia at low elevations and along the dry valleys, in existing where otherwise

Ponderosa pine would be replaced by more shade-tolerant species.

Conversely, when fire is absent, the landscape can change dramatically from its

natural patterns. When we decide as a society to suppress wildfire in order to

preserve other values (timber, houses, and other structures), we are impacting

ecosystem structure and biodiversity.

Savannas and Fire

Humans have long used fire for many purposes, including: forest clearance,

improvement of grazing land, attracting or driving game animals, protection from or

eradication of predators and pests, and the smelting of metallic ores. Fire as a tool is

particularly important for peoples at low population densities. It is used by

pastoralists of grassland and savanna areas as a means of clearing forests in tropical

and subtropical shifting agricultural systems.

Savannas—tropical and subtropical vegetation dominated by various grasses but

with low and varying amounts of trees and shrubs—are of particular interest in

regard to fire. They were originally thought to be controlled by climates with

seasonally alternating wet and dry periods. Yet, many savannas occur in areas that

are climatically suited to woodland or forest vegetation. These savannas appear, in

some instances, to be controlled by soil rather than climate, or to be relics from

previous climatic periods. Whatever the specific origins of particular savanna

regions, the common feature that maintains most of them at the present seems to be

repeated, or cyclical, fire.

Not only have many savanna plants become fire resistant, they also actively use fire

environments to establish and maintain themselves. Natural lightning fires are too

infrequent to maintain savanna vegetation in many areas, and more frequent

human-caused fires are necessary. The distribution of savannas in large areas of

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-21

TRU Open Learning

Africa, Asia, central and southern America, and Australia owes much to a long

history of fire use.

Grazing and Fire

Grazing of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats often goes hand in

hand with fire. In tropical areas, this grazing is often as much for milk production as

it is for meat (as in the Masai areas of East Africa), and its influence on the

environment almost equals fire in its potential for creating change. Moderate

grazing, in conjunction with fire, will not only maintain savanna areas but also can

increase environmental diversity by opening up the ecosystem and creating new

niches for a wide variety of organisms.

Grasses are well adapted to grazing, their basal growth shoots are protected from

damage, and the continued grazing in fact actually promotes growth, as long as the

area isn’t overgrazed or grazed before grasses have established themselves in each

growing season. Although moderate grazing may maintain savannas, heavy

domesticated stock grazing may, paradoxically, increase the amount of woody

shrubs and trees, causing a change in the vegetation. This happens because heavy

grazing removes grass fuel from the surface so that natural fire incidence is reduced.

Trees and shrubs that are less fire resistant than grasses can then invade the area.

Activity 9.3: Pastoral Nomadism

Read section “Pastoral Nomadism” in Chapter 10 (pp. ), then answer the following:

 Grazing was once a pastoral activity that involved people moving from place

to place with their herds. Today, much grazing is concentrated in fewer areas.

What are the potential environmental concerns from this change? What are

some examples of management change that must take place in order to

ensure that the environment remains protected?

Overgrazing Leads to Degradation of the Natural Resource – An Australian Example

In many low population areas where pastoralism is the main activity, grazing has

become so intense that severe degradation has set in. Increasing cattle numbers may

cause excessive physical trampling and compaction of the soil surface, reducing the

infiltration rate and initiating erosion.

One Tree Corner is situated in western New South Wales, Australia (Figure 9.2). It

sits astride an old droving route, along which sheep and cattle were driven from the

interior to the coast for slaughter and export. It was also one of the route’s main

watering holes (for the drovers, not the animals). The whole area is now a barren

desert pan, almost a metre lower than it was originally—the end result of soil

U4-22 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

erosion from decades of trampling by the confined animals as they waited for the

drovers. Where overgrazing is not severe enough to completely eradicate vegetation,

it is often associated with a change in plant species because the resistant and

unpalatable species tend to be aggressive weedy annuals adapted to open disturbed

conditions, rather than perennials.

Figure 9.2: Three images of cattle grazing and soil erosion

(Image transcript available online)

Removal of vegetative cover to promote open grazing areas for sheep or cattle can

also result in significant irreversible environmental impacts. Trees transpire a large

amount of water, and if they are removed and replaced by grasses or other species

that transpire less, then water may accumulate in the soil and raise the water table.

In sloping areas, severe erosion may result.

Much of the world’s grazing follows sound science and behavioural practices ensure

that grazing activity is balanced with ecosystem protection. For example, moving

herds from one area and into another before damage is done to plants, soil or water

is a common approach to protecting the ecosystem for future use. As we will

discover in the next activity, common access to resources, without regulation, can

lead to severe environmental damage.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-23

TRU Open Learning

Activity 9.4: Tragedy of the Commons

The Tragedy of the Commons is one theory that predicts how humans will use a

common resource if unregulated. This theory has application to real-world

situations where resource access has been under- or unregulated. The original theory

was developed around observations made about access to common grazing areas.

Please turn back to Chapter 4 and read Box 4.3 “The Tragedy of the Commons or

Collective Responsibility?” section (p. 106 ). Then answer the following:

1. In your own words, what is the “tragedy” that Hardin refers to?

2. What is meant by a “technical solution” to the problem?

3. Based on your knowledge so far, what other natural systems do you think

may be susceptible to Tragedy of the Commons problems?

4. The main question here—how do we ensure that individuals act for the

common good rather than for personal gain?—is one that remains at the heart

of our use of the natural world. Three solutions are discussed in your

textbook. If you were a land manager, which of the three solutions discussed

do you think would provide the best framework for protecting the

environment in the following activities? Defend your choices.

a. Logging in British Columbia

b. Fishing salmon in the Pacific Ocean

c. Providing nature tours of the Arctic Tundra near Pangnirtung,

Nunavut

Human-Environment Interaction: Introduction of New Plant and Animal Species or Communities

The general impact of human activities, even at low population levels, is to

gradually create more uniform, open, and disturbed conditions. (For reference,

reread pages 113–115 in your textbook.) The more specialized species of the biotic

community tend to disappear. They are displaced by the more adaptable and

“aggressive” species capable of coping with fluctuating environmental conditions or

open and disturbed areas. Within the wide range of such available sites, these

species are capable of withstanding many different conditions. These weeds, or

ruderals as they are sometimes called, include such plants as the plantains (often

found in your lawn); the Eurasian knapweeds that have invaded rangelands in

British Columbia and Alberta; many grasses, including the notorious tropical

Imperator cylindrical, which has overrun many areas of Southeast Asia; and animals

U4-24 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

such as the European starling and house sparrow (both common in British Columbia

and throughout North America), cockroaches, and rats.

Human beings have, either directly or indirectly, introduced many species to

different parts of the globe. Many of these introductions are aggressive generalist

weeds, but others are more specialized species that, for one reason or another, are

able to establish themselves. For example, in New Zealand, peaches have become

established in the wild. It has been estimated that only ten per cent of the species

now growing in the Argentine Pampas are native. Many European plant species

have been introduced over the last 300 years into the Americas. In California, alien

plant species increased by 800 per cent (from 100 species to 900 species) in the period

from 1850 to 1950.

In parts of BC, as many as 40 per cent of plant species are introduced. Well-

established aliens such as European holly or English ivy are so ubiquitous that they

are considered by many to be parts of the natural environment: conversely, some

native plants such as Garry oak (Quercus garryana) in BC, are thought by some to be

introduced.

Optional Web Activity

If you have access to a guidebook to flora of your home region, you might be

interested in checking it to see how many plant species that are now an integral part

of the local vegetation have been introduced from elsewhere. Here are three

resources that provide information on invasive and introduced species:

 E-Flora BC is an electronic atlas of British Columbia plants developed at the

University of British Columbia. E-Flora BC provides descriptions, photos,

and maps of species. Citizen scientists can contribute by taking and

submitting photographs. E-Flora BC has a lengthy and informative section on

alien and invasive plants.

 The Invasive Alien Plant Program of the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and

Natural Resources Operations has many good resources towards identifying

and reporting invasive plant species.

 Report-A-Weed is a free iOS and Andriod-OS app that supports identifying

and reporting alien and invasive plant species.

Use the above websites (and others, as appropriate) to guide your answers in this

activity (spring, summer, fall):

1. Using the online guides, and any other informative material (plant ID books,

etc.) take a walk around your neighbourhood. Include in your walk areas

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-25

TRU Open Learning

along roads, developed (built-up areas), urban parks, and more natural areas

(trails and parks).

2. Make note of any invasive or introduced species that you see.

3. Using either a sketch map (showing your area categorized by ecosystem

type), or by making a list detailing which species were seen in which areas,

answer the following questions:

a. Do you see any patterns where invasive or introduced species are

located?

b. Do you find more invasive or introduced species in one type of

ecosystem versus the others?

c. What would explain any pattern you see?

Restoring the Garry Oak Ecosystem

We might note also that, in addition to inadvertently creating new plant

communities, society often deliberately attempts to restore ecosystems and

communities to their former condition and thus reverse environmental change. For

instance, one of the most endangered ecosystems in BC—indeed, in Canada—is the

complex of communities constituting the Garry oak ecosystem. Only a fraction of the

original area remains, most of it having disappeared because of agricultural

encroachment, or more recently because of urban development. In one area of

Vancouver Island, attempts are being made not only to preserve small remaining

areas of the ecosystem, but also to reintroduce it to areas from which it has been

eradicated (Figure 9.3).

U4-26 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

Figure 9.3: Garry oak ecosystem (Image transcript available online)

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-27

TRU Open Learning

Optional Web Activity

Learn more about the Cowichan Garry oak site.

See the basic information page on Nature Conservancy Canada’s Cowichan Garry

Oak Preserve web page, and visit the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team

(GOERT) Society’s website for comprehensive information on restoration efforts.

 Nature Conservancy Canada. (n.d.) Cowichan Garry oak preserve. Retrieved

from http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/british-

columbia/featured-projects/cgop/.

 Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) Society at

http://www.goert.ca/

Additionally, Cowichan Today produced a great video on restoration efforts at:

 Ives, P. (2011, May 10). Cowichan Garry oaks preserve [Video]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/Y4HJieBSy-Y.

When you are finished viewing the video, consider these questions:

1. How are researchers able to measure change to the Garry oak ecosystem since

the mid to late 1800s?

2. The main speaker describes the different ways that varying groups and

individuals see and use the land. Considering that their perception of the

landscape and its values determines how they want to learn the land, identify

three different uses of the land and its ecosystems in the past and present

day. Are these views mutually exclusive (incompatible), or do you find some

evidence of common ground?

3. What are some present day challenges to keeping the property a healthy

Garry oak ecosystem?

Human-Environment Interaction: Climate Change

Climate change is a long-term (backed by statistics) change in weather patterns.

People also use the term climate change when they talk about global warming. This

is somewhat confusing because it implies that in the past, the climate was stable and

unchanging, and that only in recent years has it changed. It also implies that change

is, somehow, bad. All systems experience some degree of change (even those that are

stable) and so we would expect the climate to change over time. The most obvious

evidence that our climate changes over time is the simple fact that our landscape is

formed by past glaciation events.

Climate affects our entire globe, but change does not affect areas equally. Predicting

what changes will happen with climate change is a very difficult exercise. For one

U4-28 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

reason, we simply can’t predict all the variables. Some predicted changes, for

example models that show that some tree species will grow far north of their current

northern limits, are unlikely to come true because other limitations, such as soil

properties and conditions, will limit their growth. Other predicted changes are ones

that may have indirect causes; for example, climate change creates conditions where

air pollution increases (a direct impact), and this in turn may have devastating

impacts on human health (an indirect impact). Further, it often proves impossible to

isolate the exact cause of environmental change when variables are multiple. The

discussion surrounding climate change and its causes and effects may be the most

pressing scientific issue of our day, and is a perfect illustration of how humans

impact their environment, and how environmental change can impact humans.

The concern today about climate change is centred on how the global climate overall

appears to be on a warming trend and how anthropogenic impacts (greenhouse

gases) may be altering our atmosphere and amplifying the effect of atmospheric

warming. Thus, a more appropriate term might be climate warming or global warming,

although to be consistent with popular and scientific literature, we will use the term

climate change throughout this discussion.

The dominant scientific view is that human activity has altered the balance between

incoming heat energy from the sun and the outgoing radiation from earth back to

space, at least at the regional, and possibly at the global scale. One of the critical

factors in that balance is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) (and other greenhouse

gases, especially methane) in the lower atmosphere. These gases, in effect, trap and

retain heat radiated from the earth’s surface, slowing down its eventual return to

space and thereby increasing the temperature of the lower atmosphere. This process

is commonly called the “greenhouse effect.”

The pre-industrial amount of natural atmospheric CO2 was about 0.029 per cent by

volume, or about 300 parts per million. Continuous discharge of unlimited

quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere from industrial processes, especially the

burning of fossil fuels, has increased amounts well beyond the natural level. In

addition, the large-scale destruction of wetlands and forests that act as CO2 sinks,

sequestering CO2 or converting it to oxygen (O2), may also contribute to rising CO2

levels. Levels of atmospheric CO2 are now almost 40 per cent higher than they were

in 1860. Since the early 1900s, average global temperature has increased by about 0.8

C. The rise has not been linear, however, and some of the temporary reversals in the

trend have occurred at times of heavy CO2 emissions, such as from 1940 to 1965.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-29

TRU Open Learning

Activity 9.5: Climate Change

Please read the section on “Human Impacts on Climate” in Chapter 4 (pp. 119–124).

Answer the following:

1. What are the physical causes of climate change?

2. How does human-induced climate change differ from natural climate

change?

3. Summarize the science supporting human-induced climate change.

4. Why and how was climate science politicized?

5. How would your life be different without fossil fuels?

Skeptical Science

Public opinion polls indicate that 20–40% of the population do not believe the

science behind anthropogenic-caused global warming. Some people do not believe

that the role CO2 and other gases play in atmospheric temperature fluctuations and

the current global climate warming is clear. As well, some believe that others have

been so eager to find evidence of global warming that they have not interpreted the

data objectively. Others argue that global warming is a natural climate shift and that

humans, plants and animals can and will adapt to, or mitigate, impacts successfully.

Still others argue that although human-induced warming is real, the projected

impacts are debatable. Your textbook, in the section “Acknowledging Uncertainty”,

looks at some of these views.

Optional Web Activity

Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish environmentalist who calls himself the “Skeptical

Environmentalist” and publishes written material and videos questioning widely

held assumptions about environmental issues. His methods bridge different

disciplines and he employs a wide diversity of data and analysis to make his

observations and conclusions.

View the Skeptical Environmentalist in a number of YouTube videos, including the

following one:

Audible Silence. (2008, January 14). Bjørn Lomborg: The skeptical environmentalist

[Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/igN3GTneE6A.

Answer the following:

1. What are the main ways that Lomborg’s conclusions diverge from

mainstream science?

U4-30 Unit 4: Human-Environment Interactions

TRU Open Learning

2. What role does uncertainty play in understanding how humans and the

environment interact?

Conclusion

Assignment 4 (10%)

Now that you have completed modules 8 and 9, you are ready to finish Assignment

4 and send it to your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Unit Conclusion

Perhaps the most striking feature of past, present, and, probably, future

environments, is the trend toward the increasing variety as well as intensity of

human impacts. Of comparatively recent origin (and, of course, of increasing

significance) are deep well injections of toxic and radioactive residues, the disposal

of vast amounts of solid waste from cities, the heavy use of various biocides and

fertilizers, the use of underground nuclear explosions, and construction of massive

water storage and diversion projects. In spite of a growing concern for

environmental stability and health, there are few signs that these impacts will

diminish significantly: In the current surge of globalization, small is not beautiful,

but mega-projects are.

Thus, we have to recognize a tendency toward greater complexity in human impact

on the environment with more intricate, interconnected, and far-reaching

repercussions, many of them indirect. Some of those repercussions, at both local and

global scales, are cause for real and potential concern. Possible disasters include the

unintended triggering of earthquakes, even more catastrophic and inadvertent loss

of soils through agricultural malpractice and deforestation, evolutionary and genetic

shifts in fauna resulting from industrial pollution, and diminution of the biosphere’s

genetic pool because of plant and animal extinctions.

In most developed countries, there is some form of control over environmental

changes, for example, regulations around proposed land-use change as well as

regulations and monitoring of pollutant levels. But attempts to control pollution

through legislation are not always successful. In many countries, industry is given

the right to pollute until that pollution is proven harmful, and there is little use of

the precautionary principle. The burden of proof is born by environmental interests

and agencies that do not command the political and economic weight of industry.

The cumulative long-term effects of pollution often remain unclear, and definitions

of what is considered harmful are elusive and hotly contested. Only in rare

instances, such as a range of cases associated with the use of DDT and mercury, has

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U4-31

TRU Open Learning

it been possible to ascertain something of the true environmental impact of a

particular pollutant.

Even when harmful effects are known or suspected, emission standards are often set

at low levels, and frequently there are legal or economic reasons why even those

levels are not adhered to. Courts may take a long time to reach a decision, and the

economic penalties for violating pollution standards are often much less expensive

and disruptive to industry than the costs of cleaning up after itself.

We continue to gain a wider and deeper social knowledge of environmental issues.

The increased concern pertaining to environmental issues in our world reflects a

growing awareness that ecological instability and environmental degradation in one

area of the globe are paralleled by and interwoven with other areas of the globe. As

we continue in this course, we will take a closer look at how issues in one area of the

globe are intertwined with causes and impacts in other areas.

References

Agee, J. K. (1993). Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, DC: Island

Press.

Audible Silence. (2008, January 14). Bjørn Lomborg: The skeptical environmentalist

[Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/igN3GTneE6A.

Bowman, D. M., Balch, J. S., Artaxo, J., Bond, P., Cochrane, W. J., D’Antonio, M. A.,

DeFries, C.M., et al. (2011). The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth.

Journal of Biogeography, 38(12), 2223–2236.

Gray, M. (2005). A tale of two grasslands: The slow road to restoration in British

Columbia and Kenya. Canadian Geographic, January/February 2005. Retrieved

from

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jf05/indepth/international.asp

Ives, P. (2011, May 10). Cowichan Garry oaks preserve [Video]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/Y4HJieBSy-Y.

Kerns, B. K., Buonopane, M., Thies, W.G., & Niwa, C. (2011). Reintroducing fire into

a ponderosa pine forest with and without cattle grazing: Understory

vegetation response. Ecosphere, 2(5), 1-23.

Nature Conservancy Canada. (n.d.) Cowichan Garry oak preserve. Retrieved from

http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/british-

columbia/featured-projects/cgop/.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-1

TRU Open Learning

Unit 5 (Modules 10, 11, and 12): Human- Environment Interactions— Limitations

Introduction

The size of any population fluctuates as a result of changes in three factors: birth

rate, death rate, and migration rate. In this module, you will be introduced to

reasons why population levels fluctuate, as well as methods to measure and evaluate

this information. Assignment 5, encompassing modules 10, 11, and 12, will be

introduced at the end of Module 12.

Unit 5 includes:

 Module 10: A Crowded Home

 Module 11: An Unequal Home

 Module 12: Resource Geography—Identifying and Understanding Limits

Module 10: A Crowded Home

Overview

The United Nations predicts that there will 7.9 billion people in the world by 2025.

By 2050, the global population is expected to be over nine billion. Although at first

glance it may appear to be relatively simple to ask, “Can the planet support that

many people?”, estimating human impact on global natural resources is difficult.

There are many variables to consider and the process of estimating population

growth and its impacts is challenging. Geographers ask questions about how the

influences of population change interact with economic, social, and environmental

change. To more fully understand the way population change and issues associated

with population change interact, we need to learn about tools and approaches to

measuring population.

Key Concepts

In this module, key concepts are fertility, mortality, human population, s-shaped

curve model, Malthusian theory, Marxist theory, Boserup theory, demographic

transition theory, fertility transition theory, expanding, diminishing, and stable.

U5-2 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Module 10, you will be able to:

 Describe the history of population growth.

 Differentiate amongst six approaches to understanding historic population

change.

 Discuss rates of population growth through time, relating them to

technological, economic, and social factors.

 Calculate crude birth rate and crude death rate.

 Conceptualize exponential growth rate.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-3

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

10.1: Understanding Historic Population Change

Reading and questions

Optional Web Activity Video

10.2: Calculating Fertility and Mortality

Calculations and questions

Optional Web Activity Reading and questions

10.3: Factors Affecting Fertility and Mortality

Reading and questions

10.4: 21st-Century Nightmare Reading and questions

10.5: Construct a Population Pyramid

Exercise

Portion for Module 10; Assignment 5 is due at the

end of Unit 5

Assignment 5

(10%)

Due at the end of the course Final Project (30%)

Introduction

The human population is an integral factor in ecological and environmental

processes, as demonstrated by the progressive and intensifying “humanization” of

the biosphere that we have previously mentioned. A fundamental geographical

characteristic of the planet is the uneven distribution and density of its human

population. With its strong chorological (spatial) focus, geography attempts to

describe distribution and density patterns and to explain those patterns—to answer

the question, “Why are people where they are?” The human population, in addition

to being unevenly distributed, exhibits a very uneven pattern of growth. The causes

of growth, the growth patterns themselves, and the relationships of population

growth to the availability of resources are of major concern to geographers and other

social sciences (and to humanity as a whole).

U5-4 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Something to think about... You may come across various terms used by different

authors, sources, and agencies to distinguish between the economic and

development status of different nations. The categorical terms “First World” and

“Third World” have been used in the past (and might cause you to ask, what

happened to “second”?), but, generally, these terms have been replaced by the

terms, respectively, highly developed countries (HDC) and less developed

countries (LDCs). The poorest and least developed of the LDCs are sometimes

labelled LLDCs. The terms more economically developed countries (MEDCs) and

less economically developed countries (LEDCs) sometimes replace the terms HDCs

and LDCs.

The same distinctions are also expressed as the contrasts between the “have”

nations—the (developed) North—and the “have-not nations”—the (less-developed)

South. But, Australia and New Zealand on one hand, and North Korea on another,

have always been an anomaly in this context, and more recently, southern countries

such as Singapore have attained “North” status. We will use the terms HDC and

LDC in this course.

History of Population Growth

Historically, the primary constraining variables on population growth, climate and

food availability, reflected how easy or hard it was to survive. The Agricultural

Revolution marked a significant turning point in population change because it

resulted in a more sedentary population. Before the Agricultural Revolution, both

birth and date rates were high. After agriculture became more widespread, birth

rates remained high while death rates fluctuated due to periods of disease, famine,

and warfare.

Population levels, overall, were relatively constant. But, in the 18th century, change

began to occur. In the early period of the Industrial Revolution (starting about 1750),

the world’s population began to steadily increase. People began to migrate en masse

to cities. The combination of large-scale changes to transportation and an increase in

both food distribution and production resulted in a rapid decrease in mortality and a

delayed, but equally significant, drop in birth rates. Overall, the world’s population

continued to grow.

Activity 10.1: Understanding Historic Population Change

Scholars have developed a number of models to explain and understand why

population levels have fluctuated. These models include:

1. S-shaped curve model

2. Malthusian theory

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-5

TRU Open Learning

3. Marxist theory

4. Boserup theory

5. Demographic transition theory

You may have already been introduced to one or two of these approaches in past

courses and therefore elements may seem familiar. Other theories will be completely

new to you.

Your textbook (pp. 155–158) outlines the five theories and describes characteristics of

each. What is equally as important to consider when reading your textbook and the

various explanations is to keep in mind that these are different ways of looking at the

same phenomena. None of them are perfect; all have room for criticism. The role of the

human geographer is to consider the facts, evaluate the approaches, and determine

which elements seem most probable. As views in society and academia change (as

we saw in earlier modules when we looked at how various geographic streams of

thought have evolved), new theories emerge.

Please read the section “History of Population Growth” to the end of the section on

the Demographic Transition theory (pp. 149–158). When finished, consider the

following questions, and write answers in your journal:

1. Differentiate amongst the five approaches by describing key differences.

What, if any, models share characteristics? What do you think are the most

significant differences?

2. What are some of the criticisms with the demographic transition model?

3. If fertility were to suddenly decline in a LDC, which model, in your opinion,

would best be able to explain the decline? Why?

The World’s Population Today: Patterns and Explanations

Let’s take a closer look at contemporary population levels and patterns. At the global

scale, population increase or decrease is the difference between the birth rate and the

rate over a given length of time. Births and death are natural processes, so

population changes resulting from the balance between them are called natural

changes. At the local or regional level, population changes are also influenced by net

migration—the difference between inward and outward migration. But, when we

are concerned with the overall global scale, migration is irrelevant, as we are dealing

with a closed population system (with all that a closed system implies for the

population-resource balance).

U5-6 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Figure 10.1: Global population changes

(Image transcript available online)

Population Doubling Time

Human population increases in a geometric (incremental) manner. The simplest case

of geometric growth is when the rate of increase stays constant from year to year, and

each annual increment is added to the previous total so that the amount of the increase

becomes progressively larger. Thus, the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, and so on is an

incremental doubling sequence (increasing by 100 per cent per year). This sequence

will eventually produce the typical J curve that is introduced in Figure 5.2 of the

textbook (page 140). Early growth appears quite slow, but, beyond a certain point,

the volume of annual increments becomes so large that the growth rate accelerates

“around the bend,” and population size escalates very rapidly.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-7

TRU Open Learning

Consider this simple analogy to understand the J curve model of population growth.

A sheet of paper (about 0.1 millimetres thick) is folded so that the thickness is

doubled to 0.2 mm (an increase of 100 per cent). Progressive doubling of the paper

produces thicknesses of 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 mm—nothing really exciting yet. But

after ten doublings, the wad of paper is 10.2 mm thick, and the characteristics of the

incremental J curve are appearing. Twenty doublings will produce a paper over 100

metres thick: 30 doublings will result in a paper that is 8,500 kilometres high. And if

we could manage it, 42 doublings would take us to the moon—all from a piece of

paper 0.1 mm thick!

Optional Web Activity

If you would like to see the above concept illustrated, view this TedEd talk, “How

folding paper can get you to the moon,” by Adrian Paenza.

 Paenza, A. (Educator), Labovic, B. (Director), Lai, C. (Artist), & Palomares, F.

(Animator). (2012, April 19). How folding paper can get you to the moon [Video].

Retrieved from http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-folding-paper-can-get-you-to-

the-moon.

The volume by which populations (or paper thickness!) increase in such progressions

is impressive, but it is only part of the story. Notice that the growth rate (i.e., the

percentage change) for each step stays constant. When this is so, the time for each

doubling itself also remains constant. For instance, if a population of 1,000 grows at

one per cent per year, it will take 70 years to double to 2,000, another 70 years to

double to 4,000, and so on. However, if the growth rate increases from one to two

per cent, then the doubling time from 4,000 to 8,000 is reduced to 35 years. (Note:

The doubling time for any population can be calculated by dividing the number 70

by the per cent rate of increase.)

So, as the rate of growth increases, the time that it takes for the population to

double decreases, and in conjunction with the great volume changes that are

possible, produces exponential growth. The increase in the human population

dramatically illustrates the results of exponential growth. The global population at

the start of the Neolithic revolution, 10,000–12,000 years BP, has been estimated at

about 5 million. By the time of Christ, it had increased to about 250 million, a fifty-

fold increase, which could have been accomplished in approximately six doublings:

5 million–10– 20–40–80–160–320 million. Therefore, the average doubling time

through the 1,000 years may have been about 1,500 to 1,600 years, resulting from an

average growth rate of 0.04 per cent. Table 10.1 summarizes what has happened

since then and projects what might happen by 2050.

U5-8 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Notice from the table that the growth rate probably stayed at 0.04 per cent until

1650, so that the doubling time remained the same as it had been in the past. After

1650, however, the growth rate increased and the doubling time declined

drastically. In 1987, the population reached 5 billion. Predictions in that year were

that it would double to 10 billion by 2010, a doubling time of 23 years. But, as we

have mentioned above, the population in 2012 is 7 billion. Since the 1980s, the

global growth rate has declined from 2.4 per cent to around 1.2 per cent.

Table 10.1: Changes in the global human population, 0 AD to 2050 AD

Date Estimated

Population

Growth Rate Doubling Time

0 AD 250 million 0.04 per cent 1650 years

1650 AD 500 million 0.35 per cent 200 years

1850 AD 1 billion 0.90 per cent 80 years

1930 AD 2 billion 1.56 per cent 45 years

1975 AD 4 billion 2.00 per cent 35 years

2010 AD 8 billion 1.4 per cent Has not doubled

2050 AD 9–10 billion

The human population at the start of the 20th century was about 1.6 billion: 100

years later, although the growth rate had begun to slow, it had reached over 6

billion. What caused the growth rate to climb so spectacularly up to the 1980s? The

answer, of course, is that there was an increasing imbalance between the two

natural rates—the birth rate and the death rate. The sustained population growth

has been due to improvements in medicine and sanitation, the use of antibiotics

and vaccines, and the curbing of many diseases that, particularly in the 19th and 20th

centuries, lowered the death rate by quite a staggering degree. Conversely,

variations in fertility had little impact, as birth rates remained quite constant

through much of the past few centuries. But, in the past few decades, the global

fertility rate has declined significantly, and this decline has had a marked impact on

the global growth rate.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-9

TRU Open Learning

Activity 10.2: Calculating Fertility and Mortality

Examining global, regional, or local population change for relative significance

involves looking at raw data, identifying patterns, and formulating theories that will

explain the patterns. To understand population dynamics, we need to start with

basic fertility and mortality rates of a population. The two vital rates are the crude

birth rate and crude death rate, which are, respectively, the number of births and

deaths in a given time period, each divided by the average population. Each of these

is expressed as a rate per 1,000 people.

We can calculate vital rates for Canada in, for instance, the period July 1, 2011, to

June 30, 2012. In that year, there were 381,598 births and 252,242 deaths in Canada:

the population at midyear was about 34.9 million.

(Answer available in your online course material)

Thus, the crude growth rate (the difference between the crude birth and death rates)

during this year was 10.2 minus 7.2—or three per thousand people. Note that this is

the natural growth rate: to obtain the total growth rate we will need to add in

migration numbers.

1. Compare the above figures for crude birth rate and crude death rate with the

figures for 2014 on page 139 in the textbook. Answer the following in your

journal:

a. Record the differences (if any).

b. What characteristics of our population might explain any differences?

Optional Web Activity

To compare the above figures for Canada with those from other countries, read the

online figures for crude birth and death rates in the CIA’s The World Factbook:

 Country Comparison: Birth Rate https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-

world-factbook/rankorder/2054rank.html

U5-10 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

 Country Comparison: Death Rate https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-

world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html

Examine the figures and answer the following in your journal:

1. What are the birth and death rates for Canada for the most recent year of

data?

2. Which countries are closest to Canada in terms of their CBR and CDR?

3. Where are these countries geographically located, and what do we have in

common with them?

Activity 10.3: Factors Affecting Fertility and Mortality

Fertility and mortality rates vary by country and over time. By comparing

differences amongst countries, we can begin to identify some of the factors that may

be impacting population growth and decline, and overall human survival.

Factors include governmental policies, health issues, and differences in cultural

beliefs toward birth and death.

In Chapter 5 in your course textbook, read the sections “Fertility” and “Mortality”

(pages 134–144). When you are finished, answer the following:

1. What are the factors affecting fertility?

2. How do cultural and development affect fertility and mortality in the HDC

and LDC countries?

3. What is the replacement-fertility rate, and how does it relate to total fertility

rate and crude birth rate?

4. Which figure shows less variability across the globe: CBR or CDR? Why?

Twenty-First Century Nightmare?

In 1998, the United Nations revised its projected 2050 global population downward

from 9.4 to 8.9 billion. Rising death rates, either actual or expected, were the single-

most important reason for that revision, and the main cause of the rising rates was

the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency

syndrome (AIDS). AIDS mostly claims people between the ages of 15–49, who also

comprise the most socially and economically productive population.

HIV and AIDS has been particularly impactful on populations in sub-Saharan

Africa, where it is believed that, since 1991, almost 10 million children have lost their

mothers to AIDS. In 2002, the United Nations predicted that by 2020, 68 million

Africans will die from this disease.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-11

TRU Open Learning

HIV has reversed the gains in life expectancy made in southern sub-Saharan Africa,

where a significant proportion of the adult population is infected with HIV. More

than 14.5 million adults are infected with HIV, notably in Swaziland (26.1% of adults

with HIV/AIDS), Botswana (23.9%), Lesotho (23.2%), South Africa (18.1%),

Zimbabwe (15.3%), Namibia (15.3%), and Zambia (15.2%).

Unless modern medicine somehow intervenes, many African countries will lose at

least 20 per cent of their adult population to AIDS and will experience declines in

population.

Activity 10.4: 21st-Century Nightmare

In Chapter 5, read the section “The Tragedy of Aids” (pp. 199–202) and answer the

following:

1. Poverty is the biggest single factor contributing to the spread of AIDS.

Summarize the role poverty plays.

The Composition of a Population: Age and Gender Structure

We have, so far, confined our discussion of population growth to crude birth, death,

and growth rates. While these crude rates are essential components of population

growth, we need to add an understanding of the age and gender structure of

populations, as these are important influences on population change.

Natural changes (the balance between fertility and mortality) are obviously affected

by the number of males and females in a population, as well as by gender age

structure (agencies that gather statistics on population composition, like Statistics

Canada, use male and female as categories). The relationship between the number of

males and females in a population is termed the sex ratio and is usually expressed as

the number of males per 100 or 1,000 females. A perfectly balanced ratio would be

100/100; more females than males would be, for example, 97/100; and more males

than females might be 103/100.

It is important to know the sex ratio for the purpose of social or economic planning,

and it can also be used to estimate future marriage patterns and family formation,

and, ultimately, fertility trends. In general, women live slightly longer than men,

except in countries where their subordinate status is reflected in abuse, neglect,

poorer food, fratricide, and higher mortality throughout their life cycles, especially

during pregnancy. Because it depletes the number of potential mothers, post-natal

mortality of women in their childbearing years (15–44 years) can have significant

consequences for future population growth.

Knowing the sex ratio of a population is important, but so is knowing the age

structure. A declining population may be caused by a number of factors, including,

U5-12 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

for example, increased elder mortality, low birth rates, or out-migration of young

people. If we are to use population data in planning, then we need to know which

section of the population is declining.

The method used to express the age composition is generally the population

pyramid. This is a bar graph with a vertical scale representing age groups, graduated

in five- or ten-year intervals, and a horizontal scale showing the number or

percentage of males and females within each age group (or cohort). Traditionally,

males are on the left-hand side, females are on the right, and the resulting basic

shape is a generalized pyramid because the chances of dying increase with age (for

an example, see your textbook Figures 5.6 and 5.8). In reality, the pyramid is rarely

symmetrical, as mortality, fertility, and migration not only vary with age and

gender, but also with the demographic conditions of previous years. For instance,

reduced fertility or increased mortality because of famine or war may reduce the

numbers in one age cohort and thus exert an influence on future patterns of growth.

We can recognize three basic types of population pyramid that result from the

varying interactions of death and birth rates and migration (textbook Figures 5.7 and

5.8):

Expanding Pyramid

The expanding pyramid has a structure that approximates a typical pyramid shape,

with a wide base. This shape denotes population growth. Population rates are high,

resulting in large numbers of children, and death rates are declining so that

population is expanding rapidly.

Stable Pyramid

The stable pyramid shows a decline in mortality and fertility, and a very moderate

or slow growth rate. Each group is similarly sized, with the exception of the oldest

group, which are losing members.

Diminishing Pyramid

The diminishing pyramid has the most un-pyramid shape to denote a declining or

regressive population in which the birth rate has fallen below the death rate and

insufficient numbers of children are being born to maintain the population.

Population pyramids are not confined to generalized national statistics. They can be

constructed for differential age structures of groups within countries that have

populations of varied ethnic origin (such as South Africa or the United States). Until

recently, French Canadians were generally younger than English-speaking

Canadians; the Maoris of New Zealand and the Africans in Zambia are younger than

the Europeans of each country. Urban-rural differences also lend themselves to

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-13

TRU Open Learning

illustration by this technique and, even within cities, pyramids have been used to

illustrate the relatively young populations of modern housing developments from

the generally older populations of the 19th century inner-city areas (at least until the

onset of inner-city gentrification).

Activity 10.5: Construct a Population Pyramid

From the following table, construct a population pyramid for Canada’s population.

You may draw your pyramid by hand or with a computer.

Table: 10.2: Population by sex and age group

Statistics Canada. (2016, September 28). Population by sex and age group (Table 051-0001). Retrieved

from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo10a-eng.htm.

When you are finished, answer the following:

U5-14 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

1. Would you describe the shape of your pyramid as expanding, stable, or

diminishing?

2. What conclusions about the future can be drawn from the shape of your

pyramid?

Hint: You may want to read further in Chapter 5

Global Population Change and Global Inequality

During the 1960s, global population was increasing by 2.4 per cent per year. At the

turn of the millennium in 2000, the growth rate had declined to 1.2 per cent, and

there were approximately 6.1 billion people globally. In that year, the United

Nations predicted that the global population would grow to 9.4 billion by the year

2050. Since then, about 200,000 people have been added each day, or about 70

million each year, and there are now (2013) more than 7 billion.

It seems, then, that the repeated and rapid population doubling of the past century

has ended: The United Nations has predicted that the global population will

probably not double again but will reach stability at around 11 billion by the year

2100. The growth of global population has peaked, and from the late 1980s onward,

it has taken and will continue to take, increasingly more time to add the next billion

to the earth’s population (Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2: Global population changes

(Image transcript available online)

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-15

TRU Open Learning

The declining global growth rate, however, hides significant disparities. The

population of the HDCs is expected to actually decline by 2050. Some countries, such

as Russia (–0.6 per cent) and Hungary (–0.4 per cent), already have negative growth

rates. Europe had 20 per cent of the global population in 1800: fuelled by the

Industrial Revolution, that figure had risen to 25 per cent by 1900. It has now fallen

to 6 per cent and will continue to decline, as practically all the future growth will be

in the developing world. Sixty per cent of the growth will be in Asia, from 3.4 to 5.4

billion. By 2050, China and India will each contain 1.5 billion people (up from

China’s 2012 level of 1.3 billion and India’s 1.2 billion).

Something to think about... Can you think why India will add 600 million to its

population by 2050, while China will add only 300 million (predicted figures)?

The slowdown in the global population growth rate is largely due to declines in

fertility. On average in 2000, women were bearing 2.6 children (down from 3.3 in

1990), and this figure is getting close to the replacement rate. In the LDCs, fertility

rates are the major cause of the growth and future size of the populations, but rates

are declining in the LDCs and, since World War II, the average number of children

born per woman has fallen from six to four (except in China). However, growth rates

will not slow quickly because of this drop in fertility, as more and more women are

surviving to childbearing age in many of the LDCs, both in absolute terms and

relative to the rest of the population. This population momentum was responsible

for an estimated 75 per cent of global population growth in 2002.

U5-16 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Figure 10.3: Structural changes in the global population, 2004–2050 (Image transcript available online)

The trends to lower fertility and mortality account for the fact that the global

population, while growing, is also aging, and will continue to do so during the next

50 years or so.

Conclusion

Population predictions are fraught with uncertainties. How fast global population

grows in the next few decades, and how that growth will be distributed, will be

determined by a multitude of factors, which are difficult to predict. In Module 11 we

will look at population distribution.

Assignment 5 (10%)

Assignment 5 covers modules 10, 11 and 12. You may want to complete the portion

of the assignment that covers Module 10 at this time, but wait until you have

completed the entire assignment before sending it to your Open Learning Faculty

Member. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Module 10, consult your

Open Learning Faculty Member.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-17

TRU Open Learning

Module 11: An Unequal Home

Overview

Along with birth and death, migration is the factor determining population growth

and contraction. Understanding migration is essential to comprehending how

people transform both the place they emigrate from and the place they immigrate to.

With migration, cultures interact in ways that they had not previously, sometimes

causing conflict but always causing change.

Key Concepts

In this module, key concepts are population distribution, population density,

migration, push-pull, social change, cultural change, citizenship, refugee,

immigration, and emigration.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of Module 11, you will be able to:

 Define population distribution and population density.

 Calculate the population density of Canada.

 Discuss how migration contributes to determining a country’s population.

U5-18 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

 Identify physical and cultural variables that cause people to migrate.

 Apply Ravenstein’s Laws on migration to a real-life example.

 Describe how refugees are different from other classes of migrants.

 Discuss the degree to which overpopulation does, and does not, contribute to

the world’s problems.

 Discuss the balance between population and food supply, especially in the

less developed countries (LDCs).

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

11.1: Population Distribution and

Density

Compare and contrast,

questions

Optional Web Activity Characteristics of population

density

11.2: Why People Live Where They

Reading and questions

11.3: Laws of Migration Readings and questions

Optional Reflective Activity Reflective journal questions

11.4: Refugees Reading and questions

11.5: World Inequalities Reading and questions

Portion for Module 11;

Assignment 5 is due at the

end of Unit 5

Assignment 5

(10%)

Due at the end of the course Final Project

(30%)

Introduction

In this module, we examine population patterns and their impact on social,

economic, and environmental change. Some key questions forming the basis for this

module are:

1. Where do we live—and why?

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-19

TRU Open Learning

2. Why have so many people, past, and present, moved from one location to

another?

3. How do the characteristics of HDCs and LDCs reflect stable and increasing

populations in our world?

Population Distribution and Density

Population distribution refers to the pattern of where populations are found or live.

Populations can be densely or sparsely located. Generally, areas with more dense

populations have more favourable conditions, such as a more habitable climate,

while sparsely populated areas are deemed to be less favourable.

Population density is a measure of the number of people per unit area. Typically,

density is expressed in terms of number of people per square kilometre. Density is

calculated by dividing the number of people in a given area by the total of number

of square kilometres. Population density throughout the world is uneven. Figures

11.1 and 11.2 use colour shading to show where populations are densest (darker

shading).

Figure 11.1: Map of the world displaying densities of different regions. United Nations Environment Programme. (2005). Population density map [Map]. In, One planet,

many people: Atlas of our changing environment (p. 18). Nairobi: United Nations Environment

Programme. Retrieved from

http://na.unep.net/atlas/onePlanetManyPeople/images/chapters/Atlas_Chapter2_Printer.pdf.

U5-20 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Figure 11.2: Map showing density of BC

(Image transcript available online)

Foster, L. T., Keller, C. P., McKee, B., & Ostry, A. (2011). BC atlas of wellness (2nd ed., p.

34). Victoria, BC: Western Geographical Press.

Activity 11.1: Population Distribution and Density

The previous module mentioned that the total population of Canada is 36.2 million.

The total geographic size of Canada is 9,984,670 km2. Given these numbers, calculate

the density of Canada and write your answer in your journal.

Hint: You will express your answer as “# of people per square km”.

Figure 5.13 on pages 159–160 in your textbook illustrate a map showing global

population distribution and density.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-21

TRU Open Learning

Using the information on population distribution and density in your textbook, and

by reading Tables 5.10–5.13 in your textbook (pages 161–163), answer the following

questions:

1. Given what you know about the distribution of Canada’s population, what

areas of the country have the densest populations? What do you think are the

factors drawing people to live in these areas? Why do you think that some of

the highest population densities can be found along Canada’s border with the

US? What geographical factors might have driven settlement in these areas?

2. In Table 5.11, take a look at the list of the world’s most populous countries. If

you were to group the list into countries of similar sizes, where is there a

substantial break in population (millions of people)? Now compare the list

with the table of population densities (Table 5.12). Which countries have the

densest populations? What challenges might emerge for countries with

rapidly growing populations in terms of distribution?

Optional Web Activity

Online, find and view the most recent World Population Data Sheet (from the

Population Reference Bureau). Use this resource and, in your journal, respond to the

following:

1. What is the population density of Canada, and how does that compare with

the countries listed in the tables above?

2. If a difference exists, what explains it? If there is no difference, what does this

say about Canada’s population?

3. Explore some of the statistics for the world’s countries.

Factors Affecting Distribution and Density

Density is significant because it impacts how we use and consume resources. For

example, populations often grow around features that people are reliant on or

benefit the greatest from. For example, people typically live around bodies of water.

If you go back and look at Figure 11.1, you can see that concentrations of people

occur in areas of arable land and temperate climate.

In Canada, the population is densest around areas adjacent to the US border. If you

can visualize a 150 km “wedge” of land along Canada’s southern border with the

US, eight of our ten largest cities can be found with this 150 km “wedge”, and 75 per

cent of the population live within this same “wedge”.

U5-22 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Activity 11.2: Why People Live Where They Do

Both natural and human elements affect and explain distribution and density, and in

this activity we will take a closer look at those elements.

In Chapter 5, re-read Box 5.7 “World Population Density,” and answer the

following:

1. Your textbook identifies four physical variables that are important to

determining where people live where they do. Identify these four variables.

Which ones are key to reasons why people live in your town or city?

2. Your textbook also references “cultural organization” as a variable that

determines where people live. What do the authors mean by this concept?

What happens when cultural organization exists in a place, but then

suddenly disintegrates?

Migration

Although the world population continues to grow, the Canadian population, if we

relied solely on births in this country to replace deaths, would be shrinking. In fact, a

staggering 67 per cent of our country’s population growth is because of emigration

to Canada (people emigrate from a place, and immigrate to a place). Statistics Canada

predicts that this contribution could rise to 80 per cent within 20 years (Canadian

Press, 2012). Therefore, migration to Canada is very important to ensure that Canada

continues to have a growing population—a factor that is important in terms of

economic growth.

The textbook defines migration as “mobility that involves a spatial movement of

residence” (Norton & Mercier, 2016, p. 161). Thus, a temporal condition is required

for movement to qualify as migration; movement is only migration if people move

their residence. Migration can occur between countries, provinces (regions), or

neighbourhoods. Migration can be permanent or semi-permanent. When

geographers study migration, they are interested not only in the changes that occur

when people leave one place and settle in another, but also why people migrate.

Hint: Diffusion—the spread of phenomena over space and growth through

time—is one way change occurs. The migration of people is an example of

diffusion. See the textbook for a discussion of this term. You may want to use

this term in your final project!

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-23

TRU Open Learning

Why People Migrate

Push-pull factors are at the centre of analysis examining migration. Push factors are

those that people have for leaving one place for another; in essence, any factor that

pushes out. Pull factors are those that attract migrants. Some push factors include

war, famine, lack of economic opportunity, and natural events impacting humans

that change one’s ability to live comfortably in a place. Pull factors include better

economic opportunities, lower cost of living, moving to be near family, safer

neighbourhoods or countries, and warmer climate, amongst others (see Table 5.13

on page 163 and pages 161–162 in your textbook for a discussion of push and pull

factors).

Activity 11.3: Laws of Migration

E. G. Ravenstein (1834–1913), writing more than a century ago, created the earliest

systematic study of migration. His interest was examining the relationship between

mobility and distance; after studying the 1871 and 1881 British censuses, he

developed 11 laws, or generalizations. Many of his laws remain true, while others,

such as his assertion that urban residents are not as migratory as rural residents,

have not held up over time.

Box 5.8 (page 164) in the textbook lists each of these laws and a brief description of

each. At this time, read each law and make notes in your journal to help you

distinguish one from another.

Many of Ravenstein’s laws are still relevant as the main reasons people migrate

today—for example, law 11, “The major causes of migration are economic”, is

probably one of the most important drivers.

When you are finished your notes on the reading, consider the following resources

that describe migration patterns within Canada (between provinces and territories),

and then answer the questions:

Resources: (Available in your online course material)

 Chan, P. C. W., & Morissette, R. (2016, April 11). The impact of annual wages on

interprovincial mobility (StatsCan Catalogue No. 11F0019M-No. 376). Retrieved

from Statistics Canada website:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2016376-eng.pdf.

 Bendiner, J. (2013, June 17). Interprovincial migration shifts in Canada [PDF

document]. Retrieved from

https://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/jb0613_interprovincia

l_migration.pdf.

U5-24 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

 BCStats provides tables and maps on mobility within British Columbia,

which are updated annually at

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Demography/Mobility.aspx.

 Hasham, A. (2012, March 14). Gen Y on the move: Why Canadian young

people leave home for work. Toronto Star. Retrieved from

https://www.thestar.com/business/2012/03/14/gen_y_on_the_move_why_can

adian_young_people_leave_home_for_work_1.html.

 Delisle, F, & Shearmur, R. (2009). Where does all the talent flow? Migration of

young graduates and non-graduates, Canada 1996–2001. The Canadian

Geographer, 54(3), pp. 305–323. doi: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.2009.00276.x.

Questions:

1. What evidence do you see that Ravenstein’s laws can explain migration

movements within Canada?

2. What patterns do you see that are not accounted for by Ravenstein’s list of

laws, or that run contrary to them? What changes do you think could be

made to Ravenstein’s laws to make them move applicable?

3. Are there differences between regional levels (for example, within British

Columbia) and national levels (for example, between British Columbia and

other provinces) in migration patterns? If so, what factors might explain these

differences?

Optional Reflective Activity

In your journal, respond to the following:

1. What impact does a region’s economy, climate, politics, and culture have on

migration to and from the area?

2. Have you or your family ever moved? What were the reasons for doing so?

Do any of these reasons fit into Ravenstein’s systems of laws? Which ones?

3. What are some reasons that people might move from one part of Canada to

another?

Refugees

Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Canadian government defines

three categories of permanent residents. Permanent residents are persons who have

not yet become Canadian citizens, but have been authorized to live and work in

Canada indefinitely, provided that they continue to meet residency requirements

and do not lose their status by reason of serious criminality, security, human rights

violations, organized crime, or misrepresentation.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-25

TRU Open Learning

The three categories are economic, family, and protected persons. Family permanent

residents are those who are a family member of someone with Canadian citizenship.

Economic residents are those who have the ability to contribute economically in

Canada, typically by working in an area that is under-resourced. Protected persons are

thosewho have applied for and been accepted as refugees under the Refugee

Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

Refugees are those who are forced into migration. Typically, refugees are people

who face persecution for their political, religious, or other beliefs and actions. The

United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (CRSR) is an

international convention that defines who qualifies as a refugee. However, there can

be challenges with determining who is and isn’t a refugee; government policies

around this are frequently contentious.

The following table (Table 11.1) shows permanent residents by gender and category

for the period of 1989–2014:

(Available in your online course material)

Table 11.1: Permanent residents by gender and category, 1989 to 2014

Government of Canada. (2015, August 1). Facts and figures 2014 – Immigration overview: Permanent

residents [Table]. Retrieved from

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2014/permanent/01.asp.

Where Are Canada’s Refugees From?

The following table summarizes information about the origin of Canada’s refugees,

for the years 2004–2013.

(Available in your online course material)

Table 11.2: Refugee claimants’ source countries (number of refugees shown)

Schwartz, D. (2015, October 4). Refugees landed in Canada, plus dependants, 2004–2013 [Table].

Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-refugees-by-the-numbers-the-data-

1.3240640#inCanada.

Activity 11.4: Refugees

In Chapter 6 of your textbook, read the section titled “Refugees” (pages 191–194),

and answer the following questions:

1. According to your textbook, what are some of the reasons people become

refugees?

2. What is a country of asylum?

3. What do you think Canada can or should do in response to the increasing

number of refugees?

U5-26 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Continue with our reading in Chapter 6 with “Disasters and Diseases” (pages 194–

202). Next, consider the following questions:

1. What factors make the less developed world more vulnerable to disasters?

2. What are some of the human consequences of poverty in relation to disasters?

3. Why do your textbook authors present the view that the term “natural

disaster” is inappropriate?

The World Food Problem

One of the main reasons that people immigrate or become refugees is because they

can no longer afford or have access to one of the basic elements of life: food.

It is no secret that the world has a food problem. Some people seem to have an

abundance of food, while in many other areas, particularly in LDCs, people don’t

have enough. Lack of food over long periods can cause undernutrition.

Malnutrition occurs when people rely on food lacking in proteins and vitamins. Both

these situations will lead to significant human health issues.

Overpopulation in certain areas of the globe has been blamed for undernutrition and

malnutrition. These conditions can lead, in turn, to increased mortality rates. Other

problems are also responsible for the lack of food in certain regions.

Increasing fuel costs have led to a market increase for biofuels, and some land has

been shifted away from food production to grow biofuels. As well, increasing fuel

costs have increased the cost of food production, and these extra costs are passed on

to the consumer. Notably, growing environmental or developmental pressures in

some areas have led to a loss of cropland.

Shrinking Cropland Per Person

If population increases but there is not a complementary increase in the amount of

agriculturally productive land, then there is, automatically, a reduction in the

amount of cropland per person. Other things being equal, it follows that there is a

reduced ability to produce enough food to support the growing population. In many

nations, there is little potentially arable land remaining into which to expand, or

there are serious economic, social, political, or other barriers (such as the lack of

adequate water) to that expansion. This is, in fact, what is happening in many LDCs.

For instance, Zambia, Tunisia, and Cambodia are just three countries where the area

of arable land per person has shrunk to that approximating the area of a tennis court.

This situation increases the dependence of many countries on imported food,

especially grains. But supplies may not always be available, and many LDCs may

not be able to afford, or have enough influence to assure, imports. For comparison,

Canada has one of the highest amounts of arable land per person, at 1.35 hectares

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-27

TRU Open Learning

per person. This reflects our large land mass and relatively small and low density

population.

We might note that some countries deliberately steer themselves down the path

toward increasing dependence on food imports. In 1994, the government of Taiwan

legislated that 18 per cent of the nation’s farmland would be converted to factory

and housing use over the following decade and that 75 per cent of farm workers

would be transferred into the industrial workforce. Taiwan was already importing

50 per cent of its grain needs in 1994.

Can it be assured that the supplies will always be there to import? What of the

competition from the other seven developing nations in Asia who, by 2020, will

contain over half (2.5 billion) of the region’s population and will need to import at

least 25 per cent of their food grain? And if those seven countries can afford to

import that grain, what are the supply implications for those impoverished LDCs

elsewhere, who cannot afford or politically/strategically command those imports?

Activity 11.5: World Inequalities

In Chapter 6, read the sections “Explaining World Inequalities” (pages 174–176),

“Identifying World Inequalities” (pages 176–183), and “Feeding the World,” (pages

183–190) and answer the following questions:

1. What are the world systems theory and the dependency theory? What are the

main elements of world systems theory and how does the dependency theory

relate?

2. Norton and Mercier describe the world as divided into core, semi-periphery,

and periphery zones. What are the definitions of each? Which zone do you

think Canada belongs to?

3. Describe the three main factors that have been used to explain the world food

crisis. What role does overpopulation play in this analysis? What two factors

do analysts consider to be more important as overpopulation?

4. Given all that you have read, if you were given the task of solving the world’s

food crisis, how would you go about it?

Conclusion

The earth’s population has grown more since 1950 than it did in the previous 4

million years. That growth has placed enormous strains on the earth’s carrying

capacity and continues to do so. The burden that the human population places on

the earth consists of much more than simple numbers of people. The environmental

footprint of the HDCs is prodigious—some would argue it is unsustainable. What

will be the footprint of the developing LDCs with their much larger and still

U5-28 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

growing populations as they move toward the technological, economic, and resource

use levels of the HDCs?

Assignment 5 (10%)

Assignment 5 covers modules 10, 11, and 12. You may want to complete the

portion of the assignment that covers Module 11 at this time, but wait until you

have completed the entire assignment before sending it to your Open Learning

Faculty Member. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Module 11,

consult your Open Learning Faculty Member.

Module 12: Resource Geography—Identifying and Understanding Limits

Overview

The general themes that we have explored in the previous units are brought into

focus in this final module, number 12. Ultimately, geography has but one set of

objectives—to understand, and thereby improve, relationships between people and

their environment. So, in a very real sense, all of geography is resource geography.

The organization of the planet’s surface has evolved over time, in part, because of

the interactions between the natural world and its physical and biological

phenomena on the one hand, and the cultural needs and achievements of the human

world on the other. Resource geography focuses specifically on these interactions,

examining the functional and temporal relations between people and their

environmental resources. This is a vast field of inquiry involving a wide range of

techniques and approaches, and also is an inquiry shared with many other

disciplines in the natural and social sciences.

Key Concepts

In this module, key concepts are limits to growth, sustainability, water,

globalization, resources, LDC, HDC, water footprint, consumption, degradation,

overpopulation, and resource geography.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-29

TRU Open Learning

Learning Outcomes

At the end of Module 12, you will be able to:

 Discuss the limits to growth concept.

 Understand the variable in the IPAT equation.

 Define sustainable development.

 Contrast the dominant social paradigm (DSP) with the new environmental

paradigm (NEP).

 Measure and understand one example of your personal sustainability and

consumption, your water footprint.

U5-30 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Activity and Assessment Checklist

Use the following checklist to track your progress through the module. Check off

each activity as you complete it.

√ Activity Description Assessment

12.1: The Population Bomb Reading and questions

Optional Web Activity Internet search and

questions

12.2: Sustainability Reading and questions

12.3: Your Water Footprint Activity and questions

Due at the end of

Unit 5

Assignment 5

(10%)

Due at the end of the

course

Final Project (30%)

Introduction

In the years following the Industrial Revolution, the prevailing attitude toward

resources in the highly developed countries (HDCs) was that technological progress

would make possible the continuing exploitation of the earth’s material and

biological resources. Until recently, this attitude continued to dominate, and non-

renewable resources such as metallic minerals and fossil fuels have been regarded as

an infinite pool from which to draw, with the environment perceived as a sink of

unlimited capacity down which to flush the by-products of converting those

resources. It has also been assumed that renewable biological resources such as soils,

forests, and wildlife populations are capable of renewing themselves in spite of

human pressure and demands. And when these biological resources did not renew

themselves, there were always new areas to move into and exploit.

Even in today’s world, where our general awareness of limitations of natural

resource use is prominent in our news, policies, and decision making, many

individuals and societies still proceed to use resources as if their supply is infinite.

Escalating levels of consumption, increased world population, pressures on land

use, more sophisticated technology, accelerating rates of environmental change, and

the accumulating impact of pollutants have all combined to instill a greater

awareness of the finiteness of the material, biotic, and energy sources of the planet

and the biosphere.

Significant segments of modern societies are now concerned about the planet’s

ability to sustain such demands; it is becoming clear that basic changes in social

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-31

TRU Open Learning

attitudes and technologies are necessary to reduce those demands and mitigate the

worst examples of environmental degradation.

One of the most influential events in bringing environmental concerns about the

future of the planet into the public forum was the 1972 Club of Rome publication The

Limits to Growth, by D. Meadows et al. Using then-current trends and a large-scale

computer model of global economic futures, The Limits to Growth essentially and

vividly warned of the perils facing the world if growth and resource development

were not curtailed.

The Limits to Growth

Much observation, interpretation, and prediction of population growth and its

relation to required food and other resources has been and still is conditioned by the

late 18th and early 19th century writings of the English theologian and demographer

Thomas Malthus. You have already read about Malthus on pages 155–156 in the

textbook when you critically examined theories explaining population growth.

Malthus was concerned about the imbalance between the geometric rate of

population growth and the arithmetic rate of increase in food production. He wrote:

The human species would increase as the number 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128,

256, and subsistence as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In two centuries the population

would be to the means of subsistence as 256 to 9; in three centuries as 4096 to

13, and in two thousand years the difference would be almost incalculable.

(Malthus, 1798)

Malthus argued that this relationship between incremental population growth and

arithmetic growth in food supply would lead to an inevitable crisis in the

population-resource balance. Therefore, he argued, to prevent the apparently

inevitable crisis that would happen when the two growth curves met, checks had to

be applied to limit population growth. Humanity had the choice of applying the

checks itself or having them imposed by nature.

In the 1960s, neo-Malthusians (those who share Malthus’s concerns about over-

population) such as Paul and Anne Ehrlich, writing on the global population

problem, often reinforced their arguments on the dangers of continued growth in

LDCs by pointing out that these populations have an inbuilt dynamism in the form

of the children already born. So, they argued (and many still do) that irrespective of

a decline in birth rates:

As the mass of young people moves into its reproductive years during the

next decade, we’re going to see the greatest baby boom of all time. Those

youngsters are the reason for all the ominous predictions for the year 2000.

They are the gunpowder for the population explosion. (Ehrlich, 1968, p. 28)

U5-32 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Were these concerns justified?

In theory, an unchecked population will expand indefinitely and exhibit the

exponential J-shaped growth curve, which we mentioned previously, and which you

can review on page 140 of the textbook. The global population as a whole

approaches this theoretical trend. But, in actuality, individual populations of plants,

animals, and human beings may be controlled by natural (or social) processes that

can limit the potential for exponential growth. If a population outstrips food supply

or living space, then predators, starvation, and disease will reduce numbers, and the

population declines to be more closely balanced with its environment. These checks

act as a ceiling—the carrying capacity—that restrains the growth of the population.

Under these conditions, the growth curve of a population levels off at a value that is

determined by the carrying capacity. This logistic growth curve has the characteristic

flattened S-shape that you saw in Figure 2.12 on page 41 in the textbook.

Because human populations are governed as much by social and economic factors as

they are by natural and ecological ones of food and space, it has been found

impossible to fit their growth to an S-shaped curve or to confirm that they tend

towards a logistic growth pattern. According to the neo-Malthusians, however, it is

only these ecological factors that will, over the long run, limit population growth.

Activity 12.1: The Population Bomb

Paul Ehrlich is credited with developing the IPAT equation to explain a population’s

relationship to the environmental impact it causes. IPAT is composed of three

variables, where human impact (I) is the result of combining population (P),

affluence (A),and technology (T):

I = P × A × T

Ehrlich viewed increasing population size as the main cause of our environmental

problems. The T (technology) variable in the equation reflects the degree to which

production of resources impacts the environment, including how much impact is

caused by creating, transporting, and disposing of the goods, services, and amenities

used.

Read the following articles: (Available in your online course material)

 Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (2008, August 4). Too many people, too much

consumption. Yale Environment 360. Retrieved from

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2041.

In the article “Too Many People, Too Much Consumption,” the Ehrlichs

consider the use of IPAT in policy-making.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-33

TRU Open Learning

 Biello, D. (2008, August 12). Population Bomb author’s fix for next extinction:

Educate women. Scientific American. Retrieved from

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sixth-extinction/.

In the article “Population Bomb Author's Fix For Next Extinction: Educate

Women,” a proposed solution to population growth is presented.

After reading both articles, consider the following questions:

1. According to Paul and Anne Ehrlich, what are the reasons the population

bomb concept is mainly ignored by policy-makers?

2. In addition to educating women, David Biello declares three other actions

that we could take to offset the impacts of a growing population on the loss of

biodiversity. What are these steps?

3. Can you think of some other solutions to the Ehrlichs’ concerns? For example,

what if we redistributed our resources more evenly?

Optional Web Activity

Barry Commoner was an environmentalist who had a long-running debate with

Paul Ehrlich on the causes of environmental degradation. Commoner argued that

the main cause of environmental degradation was that industrial and agricultural

production had intensified after World War II, for it was more profitable to do so.

Thus, he viewed blaming the increase in environmental degradation solely on rising

population as a cop-out.

Search online to locate articles by and about Commoner. Explore some of the views

and writings of Barry Commoner and his ongoing debate with Paul Ehrlich.

Consider the following questions:

1. Do you agree or disagree with either Commoner or Ehrlich?

2. Do you think that there is room for including both views in your analysis of

environmental degradation? If so, how would you do that?

Sustainability

Coincidentally, with the publication of The Limits to Growth, an even more influential

event happened—the hosting by the city of Stockholm of the United Nations

Summit on the Environment, the first major international meeting concerned with

relations between humankind and the biosphere. The Earth Summit gave rise to the

United Nations Environment Program, and the formation of the World Conservation

Strategy. Then, in 1983, the World Commission on Environment and Development

(WCED, more popularly known as the Brundtland Commission after its chair, the

U5-34 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

then Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland) was established. It

published its famous report titled Our Common Future in 1987.

Our Common Future (the “Brundtland Report”) recognized the necessity of economic

growth but also stressed the need to redefine economic growth in the context of the

stability (or sustainability) of social, cultural, and natural systems.

Rather than stress the protection of nature or the biosphere to the mutual exclusion

of other values, Our Common Future developed, popularized, and internationalized

the concept of “sustainable development”—defined as development meeting the

needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs and aspirations. A main theme in the report was the centrality of

human needs and the role of the environment in meeting those needs. To many

people, the primary focus on human needs and the apparent secondary focus on

balancing environmental protection made the concept of sustainable development

somewhat of an oxymoron. But Our Common Future was enthusiastically received by

many national governments, which were quick to incorporate the ideas of the report

into their own national perspectives.

The Canadian federal response to the WCED was to establish, in 1986, a national

task force on the environment and economy, which released a report in 1987, the

same year as Our Common Future was published. The task force broadly defined

sustainable development as the utilization of resources without sacrificing the

earth’s capacity to sustain them or damaging their use by future generations. It saw

sustainable development as bridging two basic ideologies:

 The biocentric, in which environmental concerns are dominant over human

and economic interests

 The anthropocentric, in which human and economic concerns are dominant

In 1990, the task force produced what was then considered a historical and

revolutionary document—Canada’s Green Plan, summarized as:

Our Green Plan for reversing the damage we are doing to our environment

today, maintaining development tomorrow, and securing a healthy

environment and a prosperous economy.

Sustainable development is still very much at the forefront of Canadian

governmental concerns. In 2008, the Federal Sustainable Development Act was passed,

followed in 2010 by the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy.

On a more localized or personal level, the question of sustainability may be

conceptualized as a conflict between the two different environmental ethics or

worldviews that we mentioned earlier. On the one hand is the anthropocentric

ideology, what might be termed the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP), the long-

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-35

TRU Open Learning

established technologic, economic production/consumption, and growth-oriented

worldview that has governed Western society. On the other hand is the biocentric

ideology or worldview, the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP), a constellation of

beliefs and values that emphasizes an environmentally benign and sustainable

approach to society’s use of the environment.

Although some resources can be valued in dollars, many resources (like the forests

of southern Haida Gwaii or the cultural heritage of Vancouver’s or Victoria’s

Chinatowns) have values that cannot be measured in strictly economic terms. Many

people argue that the importance of these values is equal to or greater than the

importance of economic values. Their perception of the environment is a key to

understanding why they feel the way they do. Pollution-free environments of clean

air and water, wilderness areas, and wildlife populations are increasingly regarded

as essential resources.

However, society has yet to fully come to terms with such non-consumptive values

because its established method of social choice—the economics of supply, demand,

and the market price—is difficult to apply to intangible values. And, although the

general trend in highly developed industrial countries may be toward a wider view

of resources that encompasses non-utilitarian values, we must remind ourselves that

LDCs mostly cannot afford the luxury of such a viewpoint.

In those countries, sheer pressures of population growth and numbers, basic food

production, and survival needs, coupled often with the desire to approach the living

standards of the developed world, mean that resources are viewed mainly in terms

of exploitation, conversion, or export. Moreover, in some cultures, the perception of

what constitutes a resource may have no relation to the perceptions of modern

industrial cultures. In contrast to contemporary Western people, who tend to view

land as a commodity, the few remaining indigenous peoples of the Kalahari and the

Australian outback regard land as an integral part of their community. They survive

in a world of resources that we would not recognize and on a resource base far

below that which would meet even minimal Western needs.

Hint: This is a perfect opportunity to consider using perception as one of

your key terms in your Final Project.

Activity 12.2: Sustainability

In Chapter 4 (pp. 126–129), read the section “Sustainability and Sustainable

Development.” Answer the following:

U5-36 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

1. In your own words, write a definition for sustainability and for sustainable

development. How do these definitions differ, and how are they the same?

2. How do you think we can move towards a sustainable world where

economic and social changes are in accord with sound ecological principles?

3. After reading Box 4.7: Clayoquot Sound: The Case for Sustainability (p. 127),

what changes do you think residents of the area, recreationists (such as hikers

and kayakers), and industry will have to make in order to make Clayoquot

Sound a sustainable place? Do you think that there will be conflict between or

amongst different users, considering each has unique perspectives on what is

important? What are some of the challenges to making one place sustainable?

Resource Geography: An Example

We will end this course and your introduction to human geography by taking a

closer look at a very important element in our world: water. When you read Chapter

4 of your textbook (in Module 7), you had an introduction to the water cycle and

looked at some of the actual and potential impacts on water quality and quantity. In

this section, we will bring that information on an ecosystem functioning together

with the material that you learned about in later modules and textbook chapters on

global population challenges.

It is a simple act that without water, humans wouldn’t be able to survive. Yet our

water supply, both globally and regionally, is becoming increasingly threatened.

And this is not a remote problem faced only by over-populated LDCs. Water

resource use in areas of Canada, including the Okanagan and Great Lakes regions,

has become and will continue to be a challenge. Just as important as the availability of

water (quantity) is the quality of water—whether our water is polluted or brackish

from natural sources and therefore undrinkable (or requires great resources and

effort to make it drinkable) can be a great problem.

Just some of the challenges faced in managing water and our use of water can be

highlighted. For example:

 More than 40 per cent of the world’s food is harvested from irrigated lands.

Water shortage in these areas thus means potential food shortage. In India,

where half the grain harvest comes from irrigated land, groundwater

withdrawals are already double the rate of aquifer recharge. How long can

agricultural productivity be maintained? Almost 780 million people around

the globe lack access to potable water. Worldwide, more than 3.4 million

people die from water-borne disease each year; that number is more than the

population of Vancouver and equal to the combined populations of Ottawa,

Calgary, and Edmonton.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-37

TRU Open Learning

 Problems of water supply and water pollution play a significant role in

international relations and tensions. For instance: conflict over the

increasingly pressured water resources of the Jordan Valley is a significant

stumbling block to peace in the Middle East; the abundant water resources of

western Canada are viewed with envy and avarice by the western United

States; and the Canadian mining company Teck Resource Ltd., the owners of

the Trail smelter, have recently admitted in US court that their smelting

operations have polluted the Columbia River for more than a century. The

more localized and tremendous demand of large cities for water is another

example of a basic and widespread problem: Water is often not available in

the right amounts, at the right times, in the right places, and in the right

quality.

 People are attracted to places of high resource availability and potential. But

an increase in population density can be the cause of environmental

degradation to water resources. Lake Victoria, in Kenya, is the world’s second

largest (second only to Lake Superior) in terms of surface area. Its shores are

home to many towns and industries that discharge their sewage and

industrial waste straight into the water (see Figure 12.1)!

Figure 12.1: Population density, Lake Victoria, Kenya.

(Image transcript available online)

United Nations Environment Programme. (2005). Population Density, Lake Victoria, Kenya

[Map]. In, One planet, many people: Atlas of our changing environment (p. 20). Nairobi: United

Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from

http://na.unep.net/atlas/onePlanetManyPeople/images/chapters/Atlas_Chapter2_Printer.pdf.

U5-38 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

The above set of images show how population pressures on the shores of Lake

Victoria have increased between 1960 (far upper left) and 2000 (lower right). The

orange (medium population density) and red (high population density) increases

over the decades. On one hand, the lake offers people resources that can sustain or

improve their livelihoods; on the other, the growing population creates pressure on

the water resource in terms of both water quality and availability.

Activity 12.3: Your Water Footprint

The United Nations Development Program calculates that the average person living

in a HDC, like Canada, uses more water in one, five-minute shower than a person

living in the slum of a LDC uses in an entire day. Your daily water consumption is

frequently called your water footprint. What is your water footprint?

Search online for a water use calculator. Using an online or app-based water

calculator, track and record the amount of water you use for various activities for 24

hours. After you have calculated how much water you used for the goods and

services you consumed, answer the following in your journal.

Here are some calculators and other resources to assist you:

Water footprint calculators:

 Water Footprint Network. (n.d.). Personal water footprint. Retrieved from

http://waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/personal-water-footprint/.

 National Geographic. (n.d.). Water footprint calculator. Retrieved from

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-

the-course/water-footprint-calculator/.

 The Water Conservation School. (n.d.). Make every drop count. Retrieved from

http://www.waterconservationschool.com/watercalculator.htm.

iTunes water footprint apps:

 National Ground Water Association. (2012, December 7). Water Use

Calculator (Version 1.1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-use-calculator/id553141703?mt=8.

 Raureif. (2012, September 30). Virtual Water (Version 1.6) [Mobile application

software]. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-

water/id369876250?mt=8.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-39

TRU Open Learning

Resources on Canadian water use:

 Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2016, February 17). Residential

water use in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-

indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=7E808512-1.

 The Conference Board of Canada. (2016, April). Water withdrawals. Retrieved

from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/environment/water-

withdrawals.aspx.

 Environment Canada. (2004). Threats to water availability in Canada [PDF

document]. Retrieved from https://www.ec.gc.ca/inre-nwri/0CD66675-AD25-

4B23-892C-5396F7876F65/ThreatsEN_03web.pdf.

Answer the following:

1. After reviewing your results from your water use calculations, did any one

activity surprise you in terms of how much water you consumed?

2. Can you think of ways that you could reduce your water use?

Conclusion

Assignment 5 (10%)

Now that you have completed the readings and activities for Modules 10 thru 12,

you are ready to complete Assignment 5 and send it to your Open Learning Faculty

Member. Instructions for completing assignments and details of Assignment 5 are provided under the Assignments Overview tab. Consult your Open Learning Faculty Member if you have any questions. Keep a copy of your assignment as a

backup so that you can refer to it when you are discussing your work with your

Open Learning Faculty Member.

References

Biello, D. (2008, August 12). Population Bomb author’s fix for next extinction:

Educate women. Scientific American. Retrieved from

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sixth-extinction/.

Capra, F. (2002). The hidden connections: Integrating the biological, cognitive, and social

dimensions of life into a science of sustainability. New York, NY: Doubleday.

The Conference Board of Canada. (2016, April). Water withdrawals. Retrieved from

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/environment/water-

withdrawals.aspx.

Erhlich, P. R. (1968). The population bomb. New York, NY: Ballantine.

U5-40 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

Erhlich, P. R., & Erhlich, A. H. (1970). Population, resources, environment: Issues in

human ecology. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.

Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (2008, August 4). Too many people, too much

consumption. Yale Environment 360. Retrieved from

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2041.

Environment Canada. (2004). Threats to water availability in Canada [PDF document].

Retrieved from https://www.ec.gc.ca/inre-nwri/0CD66675-AD25-4B23-892C-

5396F7876F65/ThreatsEN_03web.pdf

Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2016, February 17). Residential water use

in Canada. Retrieved from https://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-

indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=7E808512-1.

Haig-Brown, R. (1961). The living land. Toronto, ON: McMillan.

Hembd, J., & Silberstein, J. (2011). Sustainable communities: Sustainability and

community development. In J. W Robinson & G. P Green (Eds.), Introduction to

community development: Theory, practice, and service-learning (pp. 261–277).

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Inkpen, R. (2009). Development: Sustainability and physical geography. In N. J.

Clifford, S. L. Holloway, S. P. Rice, & G. Valentine (Eds.), Key concepts in

geography (2nd ed., pp. 378–391). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Malthus, T. (1798). An essay on the principles of population. London, UK: J. Johnson.

Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., & Randers, J. (1992). Beyond the limits: Confronting

global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future. Toronto, ON: McClelland &

Stewart.

Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. W. (1972). The limits to

growth. A report for the Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. New

York, NY: Universe Books.

Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Living beyond our means. Washington:

Island Press.

National Geographic. (n.d.). Water footprint calculator. Retrieved from

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-

the-course/water-footprint-calculator/.

National Ground Water Association. (2012, December 7). Water Use Calculator

(Version 1.1) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/water-use-calculator/id553141703?mt=8.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-41

TRU Open Learning

Raureif. (2012, September 30). Virtual Water (Version 1.6) [Mobile application

software]. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-

water/id369876250?mt=8.

The Water Conservation School. (n.d.). Make every drop count. Retrieved from

http://www.waterconservationschool.com/watercalculator.htm.

Water Footprint Network. (n.d.). Personal water footprint. Retrieved from

http://waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/personal-water-footprint/.

World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). Our

common future: The World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford,

UK: Oxford University Press.

United Nations Environment Programme. (2005). Population Density, Lake Victoria, Kenya [Map]. In, One planet, many people: Atlas of our changing environment (p. 20). Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from http://na.unep.net/atlas/onePlanetManyPeople/images/chapters/Atlas_Chapter 2_Printer.pdf.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have reached the end of the course units.

By completing Assignment 5 and the Final Project, you will have completed the

course.

You now have a solid foundation for that part of geography that focuses on the

relation between people and their environment. Our survey of human-environment

relations has introduced you to an extraordinarily complex subject. Remember that it

is the environment as perceived that forms the basis of human-environment

relationships and behaviour. And because individuals, cultures, and social groups

vary in their environmental perceptions, images, and preferences, they also vary in

how they choose to interact with the environment. Perhaps we should re-emphasize

two important integrative paradigms that we introduced earlier in the course.

The first of these is the phenomenological paradigm, especially as it relates to

cognitive behaviourism and environmental perception. The paradigm is perhaps

encapsulated in Brookfield’s 1969 observation: “Decision-makers operating in an

environment base their decisions on the environment as they perceive it, not as it is.”

The second integrative paradigm, and one that you would have been much more

familiar with before you started the course, is the ecological paradigm. As Brookfield

continues, “The action resulting from decision, on the other hand, is played out in a

real environment.” Ecological processes and relationships are critical in that real

environment. In their reviews of particular human-environment relations, the last

U5-42 Unit 5: Human-Environment Interactions—Limitations

TRU Open Learning

five modules of the course, implicitly or explicitly, drew heavily on these two

paradigms.

Our introduction to maps and mapping will serve you well in your future

geography studies. After all, the world is spatial, and all our questions, implicitly or

explicitly, have spatial elements. Your new skills can help you review critically the

many online maps you see and use—as we have seen, an image can influence the

conclusions we form, or the perceptions we have.

Finally, as a reminder, this course was structured using two frameworks from the

textbook: first, the major themes:

 Humans and land

 Regional studies

 Spatial analysis

Second, the 11 key concepts for analyzing your observations and experiences. These

are by no means the only tools for human geography, but they provide a great

starting point for understanding the world around you:

 Space

 Location

 Place

 Region

 Distance

 Scale

 Diffusion

 Perception

 Development

 Discourse

 Globalization

Overall, we hope this course has met one other objective beyond the primary one of

introducing you to the geography of human-environment relations. Hopefully, the

course has provided you with some insights into, and perhaps questions about, your

own relationships with your environment. If you feel that it has, then the work you

have done has been worthwhile.

GEOG 1191: Introduction to Human Geography 1: People and the Environment U5-43

TRU Open Learning

Final Project (30%)

You should be well on your way towards completing your Final Project. It is now

time to send it to your Open Learning Faculty Member. If you have any questions,

please contact your Open Learning Faculty Member.