1So, welcome to your introductory geography lecture.
2We'll begin with some basics.
3Firstly, what do we learn by studying geography?
4Well, we learn a great deal about all the processes
5that have affected and that continue to affect the earth's surface.
6But we learn far more than that,
7because studying geography also informs us about the different kinds of relationships
8that develop between a particular environment and the people that live there.
9Okay.
10We like to think of geography as having two main branches.
11There's the study of the nature of our planet -
12its physical features, what it actually looks like -
13and then there's the study of the ways in which we choose to live
14and of the impact of those on our planet.
15Our current use of carbon fuels is a good example of that.
16But there are more specific study areas to consider too,
17and we'll be looking at each of these in turn throughout this semester.
18These include bio-physical geography,
19by which I mean the study of the natural environment and all its living things.
20Then there's topography -
21that looks at the shapes of the land and oceans.
22There's the study of political geography and social geography too, of course,
23which is the study of communities of people.
24We have economic geography -
25in which we examine all kinds of resource and their use - agriculture, for example.
26Next comes historical geography -
27the understanding of how people and their environments
28and the ways they interact have changed over a period of time -
29and urban geography,
30an aspect I'm particularly interested in,
31which takes as its focus: the location of cities,
32the services that those cities provide.
33and migration of people to and from such cities.
34And lastly, we have cartography.
35That's the art and science of map-making.
36You'll be doing a lot of that!
37So, to summarise before we continue,
38we now have our key answer...
39studying this subject is important
40because without geographical knowledge, we would know very little about our surroundings
41and we wouldn't be able to identify all the problems that relate to them.
42So, by definition, we wouldn't be in an informed position to work out how to solve any of them.
43Okay, now for some practicalities.
44What do geographers actually do?
45Well, we collect data to begin with!
46You'll be doing a lot of that on your first field trip!
47How do we do this?
48There are several means.
49We might, for example, conduct a census -
50count a population in a given area perhaps.
51We also need images of the earth's surface
52which we can produce by means of computer-generation technology
53or with the help of satellite relays.
54We've come a very long way from the early exploration of the world by sailing ships
55when geographers only had pens and paper at their disposal.
56After we've gathered our information, we must analyse it!
57We need to look for patterns, most commonly those of causes and consequences.
58This kind of information helps us to predict and resolve problems that could affect the world we live in.
59But we don't keep all this information confidential.
60We then need to publish our findings so that other people can access it and be informed by it.
61And one way which this information can be published is in the form of maps.
62You'll all have used one at some stage of your life already.
63Let's consider the benefits of maps from a geographer's perspective.
64Maps can be folded and put in a pocket
65and can provide a great store of reference when they're collected into an atlas.
66They can depict the physical features of the entire planet if necessary,
67or just a small part of it in much greater detail.
68But there is a drawback.
69You can't exactly replicate something that is three-dimensional, like our planet, on a flat piece of paper,
70because paper has only two dimensions,
71and that means there'll always be a certain degree of distortion on a map.
72It can't be avoided.
73We can also use aerial photographs...
74pictures taken by cameras at high altitude above the earth.
75These are great for showing all kinds of geographical features that are not easy to see from the ground.
76You can easily illustrate areas of diseased trees or how much traffic is on the road at a given time
77or information about deep sea beds, for example.
78Then there are Landsats.
79These are satellites that circle the earth
80and transmit visual information to computers at receiving stations.
81They circle the earth several times a day
82and can provide a mass of information -
83you'll all be familiar with the information they give us about the weather, for example.
84So, what we're going to do now is look at a short presentation...