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What is Geography?

The Greeks were the first ones to you use the word ‘Geography’. ‘ geo’ for earth and ‘graphy’ for ‘ to write’ . There are many aspects to Geography and that’s why it’s called ‘ the mother of all sciences’ .
If you look Geography up in the dictionary it you’ll find: ’’ study of the earth's surface; includes people's responses to topography and climate and soil and vegetation’’. There are, however, many more aspects to Geography. It is the study of spatial aspects of human existence, ‘it is the study of the physical and human environments of the world and the way in which these environments interact with each other’. Geography has more to do with asking questions like ‘ why’ and ‘ where’ and solving problems, than with isolated facts and memorization.

One of the bigger aspects of Geography is the science of mapping, otherwise known as cartography.
Like Knox, Paul L. and Callie Marston said:‘ Maps and mapping, of course, play a key role in how geographers analyze and portray the world’. The earliest maps ever found were from Babylonians around 2300 B.C. The art of mapping was considerably advanced in Greece, and soon advanced maps became available. But why are maps so important for Geographers? The answer is simple: ‘Geographers learn about the world by finding out where things are and why they are there.’ Since Geographers need to be able to understand relations between specific places and regions they need cartography.

Geographers nowadays, can use advanced technologies to retrieve the data they need to find such connections, relationships, patterns and problems. The Systems that retrieve those things are called Geographic information systems(GIS).They are systems of hardware and software used for storage, retrieval, mapping and analysis of data. It’s capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying geographically referenced information.


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