GIS / Geography

Welcome to my Geography / GIS Website. You will find information pertinant to my classes here,
as well as information and resources about Geography and Geographic Information Technologies.

To learn about courses, click on the appropriate tab at the top of this page.
To learn more about the instructor, click on the Instructor tab above.
To learn more about Geography and GIT (GIS and Geospatical Technologis), keep reading!

"A transformation is taking place. Businesses and government, schools and hospitals, nonprofit organizations, and others are taking advantage of it. All around the world, people are working more efficiently because of it. Information that was limited to spreadsheets and databases is being unleashed in a new, exciting way—all using geography. This isn't your elementary school's geography. This is using geography, or location of information, to gain new insights and make better, more informed decisions.

"Linking location to information is a process that applies to many aspects of decision making in business and the community. Choosing a site targeting a market segment, planning a distribution network, zoning a neighborhood, allocating resources, and responding to emergencies—all these problems involve questions of geography. Where are my customers and potential customers? In which neighborhoods or ZIP Code areas do consumers with particular profiles live? Which areas of a city are most vulnerable to seasonal flooding or other natural disasters? Where are power poles located, and when did they last receive maintenance?

"How do organizations unlock geography from the data they use every day to make decisions? For anyone trying to evaluate information, the best way to view it is on a map. Not just any map—intelligent digital maps made possible by geographic information system (GIS) technology. Everyone, including people who have never used maps to analyze data, is finding that maps make processing information much easier and more effective."

From "Why Geography Matters," ESRI, 2008.

GIS - Geographic Information Technologies
The Power of Mapping

"A geographic information system (GIS) lets us visualize, question, analyze, and interpret data to understand relationships, patterns, and trends.

"GIS benefits organizations of all sizes and in almost every industry. There is a growing interest in and awareness of the economic and strategic value of GIS."

From "What is GIS?"," ESRI, 2017.

Many famous geographers and non-geographers have attempted to define the discipline in a few short words. The concept of geography has also changed throughout the ages, making a definition for such a dynamic and all-encompassing subject difficult. With the help of Gregg Wassmansdorf, here are some ideas about geography from throughout the ages:

"The purpose of geography is to provide 'a view of the whole' earth by mapping the location of places." - Ptolemy, 150 CE

"Synoptic discipline synthesizing findings of other sciences through the concept of Raum (area or space)." - Immanuel Kant, c. 1780.

Synthesizing discipline to connect the general with the special through measurement, mapping, and a regional emphasis." - Alexander von Humboldt, 1845

"Man in society and local variations in environment." - Halford Mackinder, 1887

"How environment apparently controls human behavior." - Ellen Semple, c. 1911

"Study of human ecology; adjustment of man to natural surroundings." - Harland Barrows, 1923

"The science concerned with the formulation of the laws governing the spatial distribution of certain features on the surface of the earth." - Fred Schaefer, 1953

"To provide accurate, orderly, and rational description and interpretation of the variable character of the earth surface." - Richard Hartshorne, 1959 "Geography is both science and art" - H.C. Darby, 1962

"To understand the earth as the world of man" - J.O.M. Broek, 1965 "Geography is fundamentally the regional or chorological science of the surface of the earth." - Robert E. Dickinson, 1969

"Study of variations in phenomena from place to place." - Holt-Jensen, 1980 "...concerned with the locational or spatial variation in both physical and human phenomena at the earth's surface" - Martin Kenzer, 1989

"Geography is the study of earth as the home of people" - Yi-Fu Tuan, 1991

"Geography is the study of the patterns and processes of human (built) and environmental (natural) landscapes, where landscapes comprise real (objective) and perceived (subjective) space." - Gregg Wassmansdorf, 1995

From Matt Rosenburg, About.com

Geography encompasses the world and the humans' interaction with it and within it. It is an approach to study causes and effects: essentially, our impact on the earth, and earth's impact on us. Geography is a discipline that specializes in a spatial understanding of our world. In other words, it asks the key questions "Where?” and "Why there?"
Geography crosses with many other disciplines, while offering a locational perspective. It contributes a spatial, synoptic view to such fields as geology, economics, biology, sociology, hydrology (water management), anthropology, archaeology, health sciences, business, energy, government, politics, culture, food, and emergency services, to name a few.
Our future is global, Geography is global, and humans need to understand their place in the world.
T. Watson