Readings
for Workshop 8
The following material comes from Chapter 4 of
Geography for Life. You may read it here or in its complete
form in your text. For additional readings, go to Resources.
The National
Geography Standards for Workshop 8
The National
Geography Standards highlighted in this workshop include Standards
3, 8, 11, 14, and 16. As you read, be thinking
about how the standards apply in lessons you may have taught.
Standard
3: How to Analyze the Spatial Organization of People, Places,
and Environments on the Earth's Surface.
Thinking in
spatial terms is essential to knowing and applying geography.
It enables students to take an active, questioning approach to
the world around them, and to ask what, where, when, and why questions
about people, places, and environments. Thinking spatially enables
students to formulate answers to critical questions about past,
present, and future patterns of spatial organization, to anticipate
the results of events in different locations, and to predict what
might happen given specific conditions. Spatial concepts and generalizations
are powerful tools for explaining the world at all scales, local
to global. They are the building blocks on which geographic understanding
develops.
Thinking in
spatial terms means having the ability to describe and analyze
the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on
Earth's surface. It is an ability that is central to a person
being geographically literate.
Geographers
refer to both the features of Earth's surface and activities that
take place on Earth's surface as phenomena. The phenomena may
be physical (topography, streams and rivers, climates, vegetation
types, soils), human (towns and cities, population, highways,
trade flows, the spread of a disease, national parks), or physical
and human taken together (beach resorts in relation to climate,
topography, or major population centers). The location and arrangement
of both physical and human phenomena form regular and recurring
patterns.
The description
of a pattern of spatial organization begins by breaking it into
its simplest components: points, lines, areas, and volumes. These
four elements describe the spatial properties of objects: a school
can be thought of as a point connected by roads (which are lines)
leading to nearby parks and neighborhoods (which are areas), whereas
a lake in a park can be thought of as a volume. The next step
in the descriptive process is to use such concepts as location,
distance, direction, density, and arrangement (linear, grid-like,
random) to capture the relationships between the elements of the
pattern. Thus the U.S. interstate highway system can be described
as lines connecting points over an area - the arrangement is partly
grid-like (with north-south and east-west routes as in the central
United States) and partly radial or star-shaped (as in the highways
centered on Atlanta) - and the pattern of interstates is denser
in the East than it is in the West.
The analysis
of a pattern of spatial organization proceeds with the use of
such concepts as movement and flow, diffusion, cost of distance,
hierarchy, linkage, and accessibility to explain the reasons for
patterns and the functioning of the world. In the case of a physical
pattern, such as a river system, there is a complex hierarchical
arrangement linking small streams with small drainage basins and
large rivers with drainage basins that are the sum total of all
of the smaller drainage basins. There are proportional spatial
relationships between stream and river length, width, volume,
speed, and drainage basin area. The gradual changes that can occur
in these properties of a river system are related to climate,
topography, and geology.
Central to
geography is the belief that there is pattern, regularity, and
reason to the locations of physical and human phenomena on Earth's
surface and that there are spatial structure and spatial processes
that give rise to them. Students must be encouraged to think about
all aspects of the spatial organization of their world. Understanding
the distribution and arrangement of the Earth's physical and human
features depends on analyzing data gathered from observation and
field study, working with maps and other geographic representations,
and posing geographic questions and deriving geographic answers.
Spatial relationships,
spatial structure, and spatial processes are simple to understand,
despite their apparent unfamiliarity. For example, the spatial
organization of human settlement on Earth's surface is generally
a pattern of a few large cities, which are widely spaced and many
smaller towns, which are closer together. A comparative analysis
of those cities and towns shows that cities offer a wide range
of goods and services whereas small towns offer fewer goods and
services. Taken together, the description and the analysis explain
why consumers shop where they do, why they often buy different
products at different locations, and also why changes occur in
this spatial pattern.
Understanding
patterns of spatial organization enables the geographically informed
person to answer three fundamental geographic questions: Why are
these phenomena located in these places? How did they get there?
Why is this pattern significant? Description and analysis of patterns
of spatial organization must occur at scales ranging from local
to global.
Students confront
a world that is increasingly interdependent. Widely separated
places are interconnected as a consequence of improved transportation
and communication networks. Human decisions at one location have
physical impacts at another location. (For example, the decision
to burn coal rather than oil in a power plant may result in acid
rain damaging vegetation hundreds of miles away.
Understanding
such spatial linkages requires that students become familiar with
a range of spatial concepts and models that can be used to describe
and analyze patterns of spatial organization. This knowledge can
be grounded in the students' own immediate experiences, and yet
it will give the students the power to understand the arrangement
of physical and human geographic phenomena anywhere on Earth.
Standard 8: The Characteristics and Spatial Distribution of
Ecosystems on Earth's Surface.
Ecosystems
are a key element in the viability of planet Earth as human home.
Populations of different plants and animals that live and interact
together are called a community. When such a community interacts
with the other three components of the physical environment -
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere - the result is an ecosystem.
The cycles of flows and interconnections - physical, chemical,
and biological - between the parts of ecosystems form the mosaic
of Earth's environments. The geographically informed person needs
to understand the spatial distribution, origins, functioning,
and maintenance of different ecosystems and to comprehend how
humans have intentionally or inadvertently modified these ecosystems.
Ecosystems
form distinct regions on Earth's surface, which vary in size,
shape, and complexity. They exist at a variety of scales, from
small and very localized areas (e.g., a single stand of oak trees
or a clump of xerophytic grasses) to larger areas with precise
geographic boundaries (e.g., a pond, desert biome, island, or
beach). Larger scale ecosystems can form continent-wide belts,
such as the tundra, taiga, and steppe of northern Asia. The largest
ecosystem is the planet itself.
All elements
of the environment, physical and human, are part of several different
but nested ecosystems. Ecosystems, powered by solar energy, are
dynamic and ever-changing. Changes in one ecosystem ripple through
others with varying degrees of impact. As self-regulating open
systems that maintain flows of energy and matter, they naturally
move toward maturity, stability, and balance in the absence of
major disturbances. In ecological terms, the physical environment
can be seen as an interdependent web of production and consumption
cycles. The atmosphere keeps plants and animals alive through
solar energy, chemical exchanges (e.g., nitrogen-fixing and photosynthesis),
and the provision of water. Through evapotranspiration the atmosphere
and plants help to purify water. Plants provide the energy to
keep animals alive either directly through consumption or indirectly
through their death and decay into the soil, where the resultant
chemicals are taken up by new plants. Soils keep plants and animals
alive and work to cleanse water. The root systems of plants and
the mechanical and chemical effects of water percolating through
bedrock create new soil layers. Ecosystems therefore help to recycle
chemicals needed by living things to survive, redistribute waste
products, control many of the pests that cause disease in both
humans and plants, and offer a huge pool of resources for humans
and other living creatures.
However, the
stability and balance of ecosystems can be altered by large-scale
natural events such as El Niño, volcanic eruptions, fire,
or drought. But ecosystems are more drastically transformed by
human activities. The web of ecological interdependency is fragile.
Human intervention can shatter the balance of energy production
and consumption. For example, the overgrazing of pasturelands,
coupled with a period of drought, can lead to vegetation loss,
the exposure of topsoil layers, and massive soil erosion (as occurred
in the 1930s Dust Bowl); tropical forest clear-cutting can lead
to soil erosion and ecological breakdown, as is currently occurring
in Amazonia; the construction of oil pipelines in tundra environments
can threaten the movements of the caribou herds on which indigenous
Inuit populations depend.
By knowing
how ecosystems operate and change, students are able to understand
the basic principles that should guide programs for environmental
management. Students can understand the ways in which they are
dependent on the living and nonliving systems of Earth for their
survival. Knowing about ecosystems will enable them to learn how
to make reasoned decisions, anticipate the consequences of their
choices, and assume responsibility for the outcomes of their choices
about the use of the physical environment. It is important that
students become well-informed regarding ecosystem issues so they
can evaluate conflicting points of view on the use of natural
resources. The degree to which present and future generations
understand their critical role in the natural functioning of ecosystems
will determine in large measure the quality of human life on Earth.
Standard
11: The Patterns and Networks of Economic Interdependence on Earth's
Surface.
Resources
are unevenly scattered across the surface of Earth, and no country
has all of the resources it needs to survive and grow. Thus each
country must trade with others, and Earth is a world of increasing
global economic interdependence. Accordingly, the geographically
informed person understands the spatial organization of economic,
transportation, and communication systems, which produce and exchange
the great variety of commodities - raw materials, manufactured
goods, capital, and services - which constitute the global economy.
The spatial
dimensions of economic activity and global interdependence are
visible everywhere. Trucks haul frozen vegetables to markets hundreds
of miles from growing areas and processing plants. Airplanes move
large numbers of business passengers or vacationers. Highways,
especially in developed countries, carry the cars of many commuters,
tourists, and other travelers. The labels on products sold in
American supermarkets typically identify the products as coming
from other U.S. states and from other countries.
The spatial
dimensions of economic activity are more and more complex. For
example, petroleum is shipped from Southwest Asia, Africa, and
Latin America to major energy-importing regions such as the United
States, Japan, and Western Europe. Raw materials and food from
tropical areas are exchanged for the processed or fabricated products
of the mid-latitude developed countries. Components for vehicles
and electronics equipment are made in Japan and the United States,
shipped to South Korea and Mexico for partial assembly, returned
to Japan and the United States for final assembly intro finished
products, then shipped all over the world.
Economic activities
depend upon capital, resources, power supplies, labor, information,
and land. The spatial patterns of industrial labor systems have
changed over time. In much of Western Europe, for example, small-scale
and spatially dispersed cottage industry was displaced by large-scale
and concentrated factory industry after 1760. This change caused
rural emigration, the growth of cities, and changes in gender
and age roles. The factory has now been replaced by the office
as the principal workplace in developed countries. In turn, telecommunications
are diminishing the need for a person's physical presence in an
office. Economic, social, and therefore spatial relationships
change continuously.
The world
economy has core areas where the availability of advanced technology
and investment capital are central to economic development. In
addition, it has semi-peripheries where lesser amounts of value
are added to industry or agriculture, and peripheries where resource
extraction or basic export agriculture are dominant. Local and
world economies intermesh to create networks, movement patterns,
transportation routes, market areas, and hinterlands.
In the developed
countries of the world's core areas, business leaders are concerned
with such issues as accessibility, connectivity, location, networks,
functional regions, and spatial efficiency - factors that play
an essential role in economic development and also reflect the
spatial and economic interdependence of places on Earth.
In developing
countries, such as Bangladesh and Guatemala, economic activities
tend to be at a more basic level, with a substantial proportion
of the population being engaged in the production of food and
raw materials. Nonetheless, systems of interdependence have developed
at the local, regional, and national levels. Subsistence farming
often exists side by side with commercial agriculture. In China,
for example, a government-regulated farming system provides for
structured production and tight economic links of the rural population
to nearby cities. In Latin America and Africa, rural people are
leaving the land and migrating to large cities, in part to search
for jobs and economic prosperity and in part as a response to
overpopulation in marginal agricultural regions. Another important
trend is industrialized countries continuing to export their labor-intensive
processing and fabrication to developing countries. The recipient
countries also profit from the arrangement financially but at
a social price. The arrangement can put great strains on centuries-old
societal structures in the recipient countries.
As world population
grows, as energy costs increase, as time becomes more valuable,
and as resources become depleted or discovered, societies need
economic systems that are more efficient and responsive. It is
particularly important, therefore, for students to understand
world patterns and networks of economic interdependence and to
realize that traditional patterns of trade, human migration, and
cultural and political alliances are being altered as a consequence
of global interdependence.
Standard
14: How Human Actions Modify the Physical Environment.
Many of the
important issues facing modern society are the consequences -
intended and unintended, positive and negative - of human modifications
of the physical environment. So it is that the daily news media
chronicle such things as the building of dams and aqueducts to
bring water to semiarid areas, the loss of wildlife habitat, the
reforestation of denuded hills, the depletion of the ozone layer,
the ecological effects of acid rain, the reduction of air pollution
in certain urban areas, and the intensification of agricultural
production through irrigation.
Environmental
modifications have economic, social, and political implications
for most of the world's people. Therefore, the geographically
informed person must understand the reasons for and consequences
of human modifications of the environment in different parts of
the world.
Human adaptation
to and modification of physical systems are influenced by the
geographic context in which people live, their understanding of
that context, and their technological ability and inclination
to modify it to suit their changing need for things such as food,
clothing, water, shelter, energy, and recreational facilities.
In meeting their needs, they bring knowledge and technology to
bear on physical systems.
Consequently,
humans have altered the balance of nature in ways that have brought
economic prosperity to some areas and created environmental dilemmas
and crises in others. Clearing land for settlement, mining, and
agriculture provides homes and livelihoods for some but alters
physical systems and transforms human populations, wildlife, and
vegetation. The inevitable by-products - garbage, air and water
pollution, hazardous waste, the overburden from strip mining -
place enormous demands on the capacity of physical systems to
absorb and accommodate them.
The intended and unintended impacts on physical systems vary in
scope and scale. They can be local and small-scale (e.g., the
terracing of hillsides for rice growing in the Philippines and
acid stream pollution from strip mining in eastern Pennsylvania),
regional and medium scale (e.g., the creation of agricultural
polderlands in the Netherlands and of an urban heat island with
its microclimatic effects in Chicago), or global and large-scale
(e.g., the clearing of the forests of North America for agriculture
or the depletion of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons).
Students must
understand both the potential of a physical environment to meet
human needs and the limitations of that same environment. They
must be aware of and understand the causes and implications of
different kinds of pollution, resource depletion, and land degradation
and the effects of agriculture and manufacturing on the environment.
They must know the locations of regions vulnerable to desertification,
deforestation, and salinization, and be aware of the spatial impacts
of technological hazards such as photochemical smog and acid rain.
Students must be aware that current distribution patterns for
many plant and animal species area a result of relocation diffusion
by humans.
In addition,
students must learn to pay careful attention to the relationships
between population growth, urbanization, and the resultant stress
on physical systems. The process of urbanization affects wildlife
habitats, natural vegetation, and drainage patterns. Cities create
their own microclimates and produce large amounts of solid waste,
photochemical smog, and sewage. A growing world population stimulates
increases in agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization.
These processes expand demands on water resources, resulting in
unintended environmental consequences that can alter water quality
and quantity.
Understanding
global interdependence begins with an understanding of global
dependence - the modification of Earth's surface to meet human
needs. When successful the relationship between people and the
physical environment is adaptive; when the modifications are excessive
the relationship is maladaptive. Increasingly, students will be
required to make decisions about relationships between human needs
and the physical environment. They will need to be able to understand
the opportunities and limitations presented by the geographical
context and to set those contexts within the local to global continuum.
Standard
16: The Changes that Occur in the Meaning, Use, Distribution,
and Importance of Resources.
A resource
is any physical material that constitutes part of Earth and which
people need and value. There are three basic resources - land,
water, and air - that are essential to human survival. However,
any other natural material also becomes a resource if and when
it becomes available to humans. The geographically informed person
must develop an understanding of this concept and of the changes
in the spatial distribution, quantity, and quality of resources
on Earth's surface.
Those changes
occur because a resource is a cultural concept, with the value
attached to any given resource varying from culture to culture
and period to period. Value can be expressed in economic or monetary
terms, in legal terms (as in the Clean Air Act), in terms of risk
assessment, or in terms of ethics (the responsibility to preserve
our National Parks for future generations). The value of a resource
depends on human needs and the technology available for its extraction
and use. Rock oil seeping from rocks in northwestern Pennsylvania
was of only minor value as a medicine until a technology was developed
in the mid-nineteenth century that enabled it to be refined into
a lamp illuminant. Some resources that were once valuable are
no longer important. For example, it was the availability of pine
tar and tall timber - strategic materials valued by the English
navy - that in the seventeenth century helped spur settlement
in northern New England, but that region now uses its vegetative
cover (and natural beauty) as a different type of resource - for
recreation and tourism. Resources, therefore, are the result of
people seeing a need and perceiving an opportunity to meet that
need.
The quantity
and quality of a resource is determined by whether it is a renewable,
nonrenewable, or a flow resource. Renewable resources, such as
plants and animals, can replenish themselves after they have been
used if their physical environment has not been destroyed. If
trees are harvested carefully, a new forest will grow to replace
the one that was cut. If animals eat grass in a pasture to a certain
level, grass will grow again and provide food for animals in the
future, as long as the carrying capacity of the land if not exceeded
by the pressure of too many animals. Nonrenewable resources, such
as minerals and fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), can
be extracted and used only once. Flow resources, such as water,
wind, and sunlight, are neither renewable nor nonrenewable because
they must be used as, when, and where they occur. The energy in
a river can be used to generate electricity, which can be transmitted
over great distances. However, that energy must be captured by
turbines as the water flows past or it will be lost.
The location
of resources influences the distribution of people and their activities
on the Earth. People live where they can earn a living. Human
migration and settlement are linked to the availability of resources,
ranging from fertile soils and supplies of freshwater to deposits
of metals or pools of natural gas. The patterns of population
distribution that result from the relationship between resources
and employment change as needs and technologies change. In Colorado,
for example, abandoned mining towns reflect the exhaustion of
nonrenewable resources (silver and lead deposits), whereas ski
resorts reflect the exploitation of renewable resources (snow
and scenery).
Technology
changes the ways in which humans appraise resources, and it may
modify economic systems and population distributions. Changes
in technology bring into play new ranges of resources from Earth's
stock. Since the industrial revolution, for example, technology
has shifted from waterpower to coal-generated steam to petroleum-powered
engines, and different resources and their source locations have
become important. The population of the Ruhr Valley in Germany,
for example, grew rapidly in response to the new importance of
coal and minerals in industrial ventures. Similarly, each innovation
in the manufacture of steel brought a new resource to prominence
in the United States, and resulted in locational shifts in steel
production and population growth.
Demands for
resources vary spatially. More resources are used by economically
developed countries than by developing countries. For example,
the United States uses petroleum at a rate that is five times
the world average. As countries develop economically, their demand
for resources increases faster than their population grows. The
wealth that accompanies economic development enables people to
consume more. The consumption of a resource does not necessarily
occur where the resource is produced or where the largest reserves
of the resource are located. Most of the petroleum produced in
Southwest Asia, for example, is consumed in the United States,
Europe, and Japan.
Sometimes, users of resources feel insecure when they have to
depend on other places to supply them with materials that are
so important to their economy and standard of living. This feeling
of insecurity can become especially strong if two interdependent
countries do not have good political relations, share the same
values, or understand each other. In some situations, conflict
over resources breaks out into warfare. One factor in Japan's
involvement in World War II, for example, was that Japan lacked
petroleum resources of its own and coveted oil fields elsewhere
in Asia, especially after the United States threatened to cut
off its petroleum exports to Japan.
Conflicts
over resources are likely to increase as demand increases. Globally,
the increase in demand tends to keep pace with the increase in
population. More people on Earth means more need for fertilizers,
building materials, food, energy, and everything else produced
from resources. Accordingly, if the people of the world are to
coexist, Earth's resources must be managed to guarantee adequate
supplies for everyone. That means reserves of renewable resources
need to be sustained at a productive level, new reserves of nonrenewable
resources need to be found and exploited, new applications for
flow resources need to be developed, and, wherever possible, cost-effective
substitutes - especially for nonrenewable resources - need to
be developed.
It is essential
that students have a solid grasp of the different kinds of resources
of the ways in which humans value and use (and compete over) resources,
and of the distribution of resources across Earth's surface.
The above
material is from Geograpy for Life: The National Geography Standards,
1994. The Geography Education Standards Project.
© 1994 National Geographic Societly, Wahington, D.C.
Reprinted with the permission of the National Goeographic Society.
