NATURE AND SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY || BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY || TYPES OF GEOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Geography was first systematically studied by the ancient Greeks, who also developed a philosophy of geography. The term ‘geography’ was first used by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the 3^rd century B.C. He wrote the book Geography. There is no unanimity among the geographer to call father of geography but more acceptable is, Greek scholar Haecetus has been regarded as “father of geography”.  According to most scholars, Eratosthenes is known as the father of Geography because he is considered to have been the first person to use the word 'Geography'. Alexander Von Humboldt and Carl Ritter are known as “founders of modern geography”.

Geography is made up of two Latin words “Geo” and “Graphy”. Geo means “Earth” and Graphy means “to describe”. Thus the general meaning of geography is the branch of science which explains about the Earth. In other words “Geography is largely the study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena and landscapes created by such interactions.” It is about how, why, and where human and natural activities occur and how these activities are interconnected.

NATURE OF GEOGRAPHY 
The nature of geography is not static but highly dynamic. The nature of geography is both physical environment and human environment. However, the meaning and scope of Geography has dramatically changed with the passage of time, thus, is concerned with the study of Nature and Human interactions as an integrated whole. ‘Human’ is an integral part of ‘nature’ and  ‘nature’ has the imprints of ‘human’. Nature has influenced different aspects of human life. Its imprints can be noticed on food, clothing, shelter and occupation. Human beings have come to terms with nature through adaptation and modification.

According to Kant, the famous German scholar defined “geography as a study of the earth.”

The latest and comprehensive definition of Geography was given by Richard Hearthstone in his book in title "Perspective on the Nature of Geography" published in 1959. According to him "Geography is the concerned to provide accurate, orderly and rational description and interpretation of the variable characters of earth surface". 


According to Edward Augustus Ackerman in 1965 "It is the study of spatial distribution and space relation on the earth surface".

BRANCHES OR SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY

Basically the subject matter or scope of geography is too rigid. But for study purpose it  has two main branches: Physical Geography, Human Geography.

                                                                      

A. Physical Geography

Physical geography is the study of physical environment of the world, which is specifically composed of land, air, water, plants and animals. This gives rise to a number of subfields of physical geography.

i.    Geomorphology: It is concerned with the study of the landforms on the earth’s surface. It includes origin and development of landforms through erosional, transportation and depositional  processes of water, wind and glaciers.

ii.   Climatology: Climatology is the study of atmospheric conditions and related climatic and weather phenomena. It includes the study of atmospheric composition, climatic regions, seasons, etc.

iii.   Oceanography: Oceanography is the study of various types of Oceanic format component and processes related to ocean floor depths, currents, coral reefs and continental drifts, etc.

iv.    Soil Geography: Soil Geography is the study of soil in their environment. It is one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology. Pedology deals with pedogenesis, soil morphology, and soil classification, while edaphology studies the way soils influence plants, fungi, and other living things. 

v.    Bio-Geography: It is concerned with the biological phenomena in space, especially in terms of the distribution of various kinds of floral and faunal species. Biogeography may be subdivided into plant or floral geography, animal or faunal geography and human ecology.

vi.    Astronomical Geography: It studies the celestial phenomena which concerns the Earth’s surface particularly Sun, Moon and Planets of the solar System.

B. Human Geography

Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and socio cultural environment created by human beings through mutual interaction with each other. Geography is ‘the study of the earth as home of humans’.

Human geography has a number of sub-branches.

i. Anthropogeography: The term "anthropogeography" was first coined by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel. It largely deals with racial phenomena in their spatial context.

ii. Cultural Geography:  Cultural Geography focuses on the origin, components and impact of human cultures, both material and non-material.

iii.  Social Geography: Social Geography on social phenomena in space. Poverty, health, education, livelihood are some important fields of study in social geography.

iv.  Population Geography: Population  Geography is the of various dimensions of population like its population distribution, density, composition, fertility, mortality, migration, etc.

v.  Economic Geography: Economic Geography is the study of the location and distribution of economic activities at the local, regional, national and world scale. Economic geography can be studied under the following heads: Resource geography, Agricultural geography, Industrial geography and transport geography.

vi. Political Geography: Political Geography is the study of political phenomena in their spatial context. Main focus remains for creation and transformation of political and administrative regions.

vii. Historical Geography: Historical Geography emphasis on Spatial and temporal trends of geographical phenomena are studied in Historical geography.

viii.  Settlement Geography: Settlement Geography is the study of Rural/Urban settlements, their size, distribution, functions, and hierarch and of various other parameters of settlement system.

ix.   Urban Geography: Urban geography is a branch of human geography concerned with various aspects of cities. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment. 

x.    Rural Geography: The study of rural geography deals with phenomena which are typical of the rural space. It deals with rural settlements their characteristics and the socio-economic processes of change that occur in the rural space of the developed and less-developed countries.