The geography it is the science that studies the surface of planet Earth: its physical and natural description (reliefs, climates, soils, flora and fauna); its graphic representation and the societies that inhabit it. Geography describes and explains natural and social phenomena, what they were like and how they change over time.
Geography is divided into two main branches: regional geography (studies geographic complexes such as regions, territories, landscapes, countries) and general geography, which is divided into:
- Human geography. Study human societies, the relationship between them, the activities they carry out and the environment (territory, context) in which they live. Study the human being and the relationship with his environment. It includes various branches of study, for example: cultural human geography, rural human geography.
- Physical geography. Study the physical characteristics of the earth’s surface and the elements that make it up: relief conditions, vegetation, climate. It includes various branches of study, for example: climatology, geomorphology
Types of human geography
- Rural human geography. Study rural areas, their structure, their systems, their activities, how they are formed, their quality of life. Some sciences that can collaborate with this are agronomy and economics.
- Urban human geography. Study urbanized areas, their structure, their characteristics, elements that make them up, their evolution over time. Study the urban environment, the urbanization of cities.
- Medical human geography. Study the effects of the environment on people’s health. Study the health conditions of the population. Its auxiliary science is medicine.
- Human geography of transportation. It analyzes the forms of transportation and the means of transport within a given geographic space, their impact on society and the natural environment.
- Economic human geography. Study the economic activity within a certain geographic space. It shows the different forms of economic organization and exploitation of natural resources.
- Sociopolitical human geography. Study the forms of political and social organization of a population, institutions, government systems.
- Cultural human geography. Analyze the culture of each population or society in particular and the relationships within them.
- Historical human geography. Study the sociocultural changes that a certain population or geographic region undergoes over the years.
- Geography of aging. Also known as gerontological geography, it studies the implications of aging people in a population.
Types of physical geography
- Climatology. Study the climatic conditions of a region. It is divided in turn into analytical climatology (statistically studies the qualities of the climate), synoptic climatology (analyzes the climate of large land areas) and urban climatology (analyzes the climatic conditions of a particular city).
- Geomorphology. Study the shapes of the earth’s surface. It is divided into: fluvial geomorphology (studies those territories that were formed as a result of erosion and rain processes), slopes geomorphology (studies high lands, such as mountains), wind geomorphology (observe how the terrain changes due to the influence of the wind) , glacial geomorphology (studies the territory covered by large areas of ice), climatic geomorphology (studies the relationship between the climate and the territory) and dynamic geomorphology (studies the modifications of the soil by endogenous and exogenous processes of genesis and erosion).
- Hydrography. Study the spaces occupied by important bodies of water. It is divided into hydromorphometry (studies rivers and streams, their characteristics, dimensions) and marine hydrography (studies the bottom and surface of the oceans).
- Coastal geography. Study the characteristics of the coasts of rivers, seas, streams, lakes.
- Biogeography. Study the distribution of living things in terrestrial space. It is divided into phytogeography (studies the flora of the region and the relationships between these individuals), zoogeography (studies the fauna of the area and the relationships they establish with each other) and island biogeography (studies animal and plant life on the islands ).
- Pedology. Study the origin of soils in a specific area.
- Palaeogeography. He specializes in the reconstruction of a space throughout the different geological eras. It is divided into three branches: paleoclimatology (studies the variation of the climate over the years), paleogeobiography (studies the variations of a region with respect to flora and fauna), paleohydrology (analyzes the transformations of the seas, rivers, lakes ).