Geography · Ch 7 — Geography as a Discipline
Branches of Geography (Based on Systematic Approach)
Branches of Geography (Based on Systematic Approach)
The diagram is a tree that starts from a single top box, Branches of Geography (Based on Systematic Approach), and fans out into four main limbs: Physical, Principles/Philosophy, Methods and Techniques, and Human. That top box is the trunk of the whole scheme — it tells you that this is one way of carving up the discipline, not by region but by the kind of question each branch asks.
The two middle limbs are the quiet backbone of the tree. Principles/Philosophy splits into Geographical Thought and Human Ecology (Land and Human Interaction) — these are the conceptual foundations, the ideas that shape how geographers think. Methods and Techniques is the tool-kit limb: it branches into Cartography and Field Survey Methods. Cartography then feeds into Quantitative Techniques, while Field Survey Methods feeds into Geo Informatics, which itself branches into GIS, GPS, and LIS. So the diagram is showing you that the discipline's practical side has grown from map-making and fieldwork into a family of digital spatial technologies.
The real story of the diagram is the horizontal bar that spans the lower middle, labelled Interface Biogeography. A double-headed arrow connects it upward to Physical on the left and Human on the right. That bar is the diagram's way of saying: some branches are neither purely physical nor purely human — they live in the zone where the two meet. Everything below that bar hangs off it, and the tree splits into two columns.
On the physical side, the chain runs Climatology and Hydrology down to Geomorphology and Soil Geography, then further down to Plant Geography and Zoo Geography, and finally to Ecology and Environmental Geography. Notice the logic: you start with the atmosphere and water, move to landforms and soils, then to living things, and end at the systems that tie them together. On the human side, the chain runs Social/Cultural, Population and Settlements, and Economic as the top tier. Social/Cultural branches into Historical and Political; Population and Settlements branches into Rural and Urban; and then Rural, Urban, and Economic all feed down into Agriculture, Tourism, and Infrastructure, which finally branch into Industrial, Trade and Transport, and Services. …
The systematic approach to geography breaks the subject into specialised branches, each focusing on one particular element of the Earth's surface or one type of human activity. Instead of studying a region as a whole, this approach isolates a theme — say, climate, population, or agriculture — and studies it across the entire world. The textbook presents this classification in three broad groups: the physical branches, the human branches, and the interface branches that link the two.
Physical Geography Branches
The physical side of the discipline is divided into three main branches, each further subdivided:
- Geomorphology — the study of landforms, their origin, evolution, and the processes that shape them.
- Climatology — the study of climate, including the average weather conditions of a place over a long period.
- Hydrology — the study of water on the Earth's surface, including oceans, rivers, and other water bodies.
These three form the core of physical geography, dealing with the natural features of the Earth.
Human Geography Branches
The human side of geography is organised into five branches, each examining a different dimension of human life and activity:
- Social/Cultural Geography — studies society and its cultural characteristics, including population growth, distribution, density, sex ratio, migration, and occupational structure. It also covers the characteristics of rural and urban settlements.
- Population and Settlement Geography — this branch is itself divided into two parts. Population geography studies population growth, distribution, density, sex ratio, migration, and occupational structure. Settlement geography, on the other hand, studies the characteristics of rural and urban settlements — how they are organised, how they grow, and what distinguishes one type from another.
- Economic Geography — studies the economic activities of people, including agriculture, industry, tourism, trade, transport, infrastructure, and services.
- Historical Geography — studies the historical processes through which space gets organised. Every region has undergone some historical experiences before attaining its present-day status. Geographical features also experience changes over time, and these temporal changes form the central concern of historical geography.
- Political Geography — looks at space from the angle of political events. It studies boundaries, spatial relations between neighbouring political units, delimitation of constituencies, and election scenarios. It also develops theoretical frameworks to understand the political behaviour of the population.
Biogeography: The Interface Branch
The meeting point of physical and human geography has given rise to a separate branch called Biogeography, which includes four sub-branches:
- Plant Geography — studies the spatial pattern of natural vegetation in its habitats.
- Zoo Geography — studies the spatial patterns and geographic characteristics of animals and their habitats.
- Ecology/Ecosystem — deals with the scientific study of the habitats characteristic of species.
- Environmental Geography — a newer branch that emerged because environmental problems such as land degradation, pollution, and the growing concern for conservation have become worldwide issues. This realisation led to the introduction of this branch within geography.
Branches Based on Regional Approach
Alongside the systematic branches, geography also has branches based on the regional approach, which studies particular areas rather than particular themes. These include:
- Regional Studies/Area Studies — comprising macro, meso, and micro regional studies, depending on the scale of the region being examined.
- Regional Planning — comprising country/rural planning and town/urban planning.
- Regional Development
- Regional Analysis
Common Aspects Across All Branches
The textbook points out that two aspects are common to every discipline, and geography is no exception. These are:
- Philosophy, which includes:
- Geographical Thought
- Land and Human Interaction / Human Ecology …