Geography
Geography and Planning
Geography
Geography is the study of the way in which people interact with the environment.
Physical Geography
Geographers study why the environment comes to be how it is – and how it is changing. This branch of the subject is generally called “physical geography” and it focuses on climate and climate change (eg the notion of global warming), soils, vegetation and biodiversity (a field known as “biogeography”), and the landforms on the face of the earth and the processes that lead to these landforms (everything from earthquakes and tsunamis to rivers and mountain building).
Human Geography
Geographers also study how people use the environment. This branch of the subject is generally called “human geography”. The focus here is on who does what, where, when, why and with what effect. Human geography encompasses the study of why some countries are less developed than others (and what can be done about this), why some regions in otherwise developed nations are less developed than others (and what regional development policy can do about this), and how the nature of the population varies from place to place (such “population geography” including the study of birth rates, death rates, and migration). At the heart of such study is the question of why people live where they do. In Australia’s case, a particular focus is on why so many Australians live in big cities, how the nature of urban life is changing, and the consequences of this metropolitan dominance.
More Information
Geography is a very “down to earth subject”, both in what it studies and in the approach it adopts. The emphasis is on what is happening in the real world and how people’s lives are changing. UNE’s geographers have a long and proud tradition of work in applied geography. There are therefore very close links between Geography and urban and regional planning. It is our view that planners must have a good grounding in Geography.
Geography is fundamental to understanding the world in which we live. All educated citizens need to have a fundamental appreciation of the nature of the environment (there is, after all, only one earth). They also need to understand who is doing what where, when and why – and what the consequences are. We cannot ignore the future and the need to plan for it.
First year Geography (GEPL111 and GEPL112) introduce physical and human geography and set the scene for a wide range of studies of more specific areas of people-environment interaction.
- As a young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, ... I thought deeply about the matter and concluded it was too difficult a subject. With some reluctance I then turned to physics as a substitute.
Albert Einstein (He was kidding, wasn't he?)- Geography is the study of earth as the home of people.
Yi-Fu Tuan- Geography is the science of places ...
Vidal de la Blache- 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