FINAL GEOGRAPHY

PROJECT

STUDENT: JOEL LÓPEZ GARCÍA

SUBJECT: GEOGRAPHY

SEMESTER: FIFTH

GROUP A"

TEACHER: FLAVIO HEREDIA QUIROZ

 FOREWORD:

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO SHOW

WHAT WE LEARNED REGARDING GEOGRAPHY IN
THE FIFTH SEMESTER. IN ADDITION TO MAKING
KNOW ITS IMPORTANCE AS A SCIENCE THAT
PROVIDES NUMEROUS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
AND ADVANCES IN REGARDS TO LOCATION,
TECHNOLOGY, AND NUMEROUS DATA SUCH AS
RELIEF, VERY DETAILED MAPS THAT SUPPORT
OTHER SCIENCES TO ACHIEVE THEIR PURPOSE.
GEOGRAPHY AS A SCIENCE IS ESSENTIAL THAT
LIKE OTHER SCIENCES, IT SUPPORTS OUR GROWTH
AS A HUMAN RACE
I DARE TO SAY THAT I CANNOT IMAGINE HOW WE
WOULD BE HERE WITHOUT THE HELP OF
GEOGRAPHY IN OUR LIVES. IN OUR KIND. I AM
COMPLETELY SURE THERE WOULD BE NO
PROGRESS. THAT IS WHY WE SHOULD LOVE IT
LIKE ALL THE OTHER SCIENCES THAT GIVE US
THEIR SWEET FRUITS DAY BY DAY.
WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY?
Geography is the science that studies the spatial distribution of all natural
(physical) or human phenomena on the surface of the Earth's globe. Analyzes the
interdependence between geographical areas, natural processes, social and
cultural activities. He is interested in the spatial interactions between human
groups and the environment that surrounds them. The word geography, or
"description of the earth" was created by the Greek Eratosthenes in the third
century BC. However, this discipline goes beyond the mere description of
phenomena and their distribution on earth; It is a social science that seeks to
explain the reason for this distribution. Furthermore, given the variety of concepts
and methods it uses, which belong to both the field of natural sciences and the
social sciences and humanities, Geography constitutes an integrated group that
tends to reduce the distance between the social sciences and the humanities.
other branches of knowledge.

FIELDS AND SUBFIELDS OF GEOGRAPHY

Traditionally, geography is divided into two fundamental branches, which are

systematic geography and regional geography.
Systematic geography mainly covers physical geography and human geography.
Physical geography studies the natural processes that cause the physical diversity
of the Earth and includes fields as different as geomorphology, climatology or
biogeography. Human (or cultural) geography is interested in all aspects of human
activities that are related to the physical environment or that can be interpreted in
spatial terms. This field is very broad since practically all aspects of social life have
a spatial dimension. For this reason, the subfields of human geography are
multiple and varied: among these is economic geography, which deals, among
other topics, with agricultural, industrial or commercial development, taking into
account the location of natural or human resources, the facilities transportation,
etc.; political geography, which studies social activities that are related to the
location and borders of nations or groups of nations; urban geography, which is
interested in cities, their location, their functions, development patterns and how
these are integrated into interurban networks.
Regional geography corresponds to a more integrated vision of the discipline. This
branch studies similarities and differences between different regions of the world; It
seeks to highlight the specific features that give a region its identity and distinguish
it from other regions of the world; That identity may be the result of a physical
element that gives a distinctive appearance to a landscape, or it may come from
some type of relationship that characterizes the society that occupies that space,
and whose cultural practices have notably marked the appearance of the region.
as would be a predominant type of agriculture. Often the original character of a
region is due to a combination of physical and cultural factors.
Today, the trend in Geography tends to overcome traditional divisions to focus on
the interrelationships between human beings and the geographic space that
surrounds them.

HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLINE

1. THE ERA OF DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY: FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE
FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

From very early on human beings developed a sense of space as witnessed by the
oldest map of the world, drawn on a mammoth bone about 15,000 years ago.' The
origin of geography dates back to the first descriptions that human beings made
about the world around them; The ancient peoples, oriental, Egyptian and
Phoenician, recounted their experiences of travel and exploration of unknown
lands. It was the Greeks, a people of merchants and colonizers, who gave the
world the first important geographical knowledge. Geography could claim Homer
among the first geographers since his Odyssey contains an accurate description of
several sites in the Mediterranean basin; Likewise, the archaeological discoveries
of the German Schliemann demonstrated that the Troy of the Iliad, which was
thought to be a poetic fantasy, corresponded to a true site. During the 5th century
BC, the Greeks began to seek explanations for the phenomena of the earth: Plato
was the first to claim that the earth was round; while Aristotle noted that the
shadow cast by the earth on the moon was circular, and stated that the
temperature decreased as one moved away from the equator. Eratosthenes (273-
192 BC) calculated the circumference of the earth by careful observations of the
elevation of the sun at noon in northern and southern Egypt. So, from its origins,
geography was based on mathematical knowledge.
At a time when the Roman Empire controlled much of Europe, North Africa, and
Western Asia, Ptolemy produced maps that show that he understood the problems
of trying to represent a spherical earth on a flat surface. Using the latitude and
longitude coordinate system we use today, he located more than 8,000 locations
on the Earth's surface. Unfortunately, it was his vision of a geocentric universe that
prevailed during the Middle Ages.
Geography entered a period of dormancy in the Middle Ages; the horizon of
Westerners was momentarily closed; There were few trips and explorations except
those carried out by the Scandinavians. However, interest in science, mathematics
and geography remained among the Arabs: their geographical knowledge was
immense, to the extent of their empire, which extended from Europe to Asia and
Africa; It is worth highlighting the figure of Al Khorizmi (algorithms) who sought
how, based on simple geometric principles, some rational patterns could be
revealed in the distribution and structure of towns, thus anticipating one of the main
topics of interest in geography. contemporary.2 The Crusades of the 12th and 13th
centuries, the voyages of Marco Polo and finally the preservation of the legacy of
the Greeks in the Byzantine Empire and its reintroduction into Western culture,
after the fall of Constantinople, opened the door to the era of explorations and the
great "discoveries" or encounters of the end of the 15th century.
This period coincides with a moment of enormous expansion of geographical
knowledge. At the Lisbon navigation school, established by Prince Henry of
Portugal, numerous cartographers drew maps of a round earth, and thanks to the
expeditions of Christopher Columbus, Vasco Da Gama, Magellan and others, by
1550 the limits of almost all The continents (except Australia and Antarctica) had
been figured on maps. Between 1550 and 1850, more data was collected, more
information about the physical world and also about the inhabitants of the
discovered regions, paving the way for the development of human geography.

2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISCIPLINE FROM THE 19TH CENTURY .

In an era of imperialism and colonization, numerous geographical societies appear
in various capitals of the world that encourage the exploration of still unknown
regions; These societies are sponsored by governments or by the business
bourgeoisie that seek to divide the world that remains to be explored.3 Geography
then becomes an academic discipline that is taught in German universities from
1874.4 Until the 19th century, geography was essentially a descriptive discipline; In
tune with the intellectual revolution of the time, geography then seeks to apply
scientific principles to better locate the phenomena studied and, above all, explain
the reason for their location. The beginnings of modern geography can be traced
back to two German geographers, Alexander von Humbold (1769-1859) and Carl
Ritter (1779-1859), who urged human geographers to adopt the same method of
scientific investigation used in the sciences. natural. They argued that the scientific
study of natural processes and social processes was fundamentally the same; and
that human geographers should try to discover general laws that governed their
field of study, and study the relationship between the physical environment and
human actions.5 The influence of Humbolt and Ritter had as a consequence the
introduction of the debate in geography and the emergence of the first schools of
geographical thought: environmental determinism and possibilism.
Environmental determinism represents one of the first attempts at generalization in
human geography. The main exponent, Friedrich Ratzel, is inspired by Darwin's
theory about the struggle for the survival of biological species, and applies it to
cultures. According to Ratzel, there is a cause and effect relationship between
human beings and their environment; The environment in which a society lives
explains both the physical and cultural traits of the human beings that make up it.
The purpose of geography was to explain how the environment affected human
beings. This theory influenced the geography of the early 20th century in the
United States. Among its main exponents is William Morris Davis, who considered
the relationship between the physical environment and human behavior in terms of
control and response. Another exponent is Ellen Churchill Semple of the University
of Chicago who stated that the environment determines human activities and that
"man is the product of the earth's surface."6
The reaction to the excesses of environmental determinism was manifested mainly
in France: the geographer Paúl Vidal déla Blache developed there the approach
called "cultural landscape" or regional geography, which emphasized the role of
history and human culture as essential agents in the formation of a unique
landscape, implicitly denying that the environment was always decisive. This
school, which in the United States counted among its exponents Carl Saber (1889-
1975) and Robert Platt (1880-1950), paved the way for the theory of possibilism.7
In his Geographical Introduction to History , the French historian Lucien Febvre
wrote: "needs exist nowhere, but possibilities exist everywhere."8 Possibilism
assigned a more active role to the human being as an agent of modification of the
environment: the environment does not shape human actions, but rather offers a
series of alternatives. among which societies choose those that best adapt to their
culture.
The debate between environmental determinism and possibilism dominated
geographical thought until the 1960s .
3. CONTEMPORARY GEOGRAPHY: METHODS AND PERSPECTIVES
Beginning at the end of the 1950s, essential changes appeared in human
geography: systematic studies multiplied; Interest in methodology is growing, and
human geographers are concerned with the search for laws that explain the
distribution of human activities. This moment is fundamental for the theoretical
development of the discipline.
In the United States, the schools of Iowa, Wisconsin, and especially Washington,
with the geographer WL Garrison, were pioneers in what is known as the
quantitative revolution in human geography. This consisted mainly of the
application of a stricter scientific method, based on statistics, and the expression of
geographical concepts through mathematical formulas. Technological progress in
the field of computers favored the management of greater amounts of information.9
Human geography is then characterized by the creation of models. A model is an
abstraction, which allows us to overcome the complexity of phenomena through a
simpler representation. The simplest model in human geography is the map, which
is a way of representing reality and highlighting some of its characteristics.
There are more complex models that are expressed through geometric concepts,
or equations: one of the best-known models is the "central place model" devised by
the German geographer Walter Cristaller (1893-1969) in the 1930s. From
observing maps of the southern part of Germany, Cristaller noticed that cities of
similar size were located regularly in the landscape; and prepared a geometric
model, hexagonal in shape, to explain the regularity of the distance between cities
of the same size in an area with similar characteristics. This model emphasizes
that large cities, which serve as markets and provide services to the people who
live in the area around them, are fewer in number and more distant than smaller
towns. This model became known in the United States in the 1960s.10
The revolution in human geography would not have been complete without the
emergence of a series of approaches or perspectives that gave contemporary
human geography its identity.
Among them, there are three main ones that correspond to different philosophies.
Positivist philosophy emphasizes that sensory experiences are the exclusive
source of valid geographical information, and believes in the objectivity of scientific
description. Supports the development of scientific models and theories in human
geography. This philosophy finds its best expression in the perspective of spatial
analysis, and in that of systems analysis.
The spatial analysis approach emphasizes the importance of the relative location
of people and places, and is interested in the spatial structure of phenomena, in
the differentiation between human activities, as well as in the interactions that
these produce in space. geographical. "Look for the factors that explain the
distribution pattern of geographical realities such as population density or rural
poverty, and how these can be modified."
Systems analysis: human geographers have adopted this perspective common to
several social sciences. A system is a set of interrelated elements, which also
implies a set of relationships with the environment that surrounds it. A group of
human establishments connected by a communication network constitutes a
spatial system that also has ties with other establishments located outside the
area. Geographers often create closed systems (rare in reality) in order to isolate
some of their salient features.12
Starting in the 70s, a new trend emerged in Human Geography, in reaction against
the objective vision of Positivism: it is humanistic geography. This is inspired by the
philosophy of Phenomenology and alleges that people live in a subjective world,
and interact individually with their environment; Therefore, this interaction must be
studied individually, and not as an illustration of a scientific model of behavior.
The third trend, called radical geography, includes Marxist-inspired studies,
emphasizing that the explanation of geographical phenomena is not in the
organizational patterns of said phenomena but in the underlying processes that
explain them. The plurality of approaches and the existing debate in contemporary
human geography attest to the current dynamism of this discipline.
BASIC CONCEPTS IN GEOGRAPHY 1. GEOGRAPHY EXPLAINS THE
LOCATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF PHENOMENA AND OBJECTS IN SPACE.

to. LOCATION
It refers to a particular position on the Earth's surface. Specifying the precise
location of an object or phenomenon is the starting point of geographical curiosity
and allows us to answer the question "where is it?" There are several ways to
indicate the location of an object. A place can be given a nominal location, through
a toponym: for example, I live in Puerto Rico, in the town of Mayagüez. Another
way to locate an object is through its relative location, that is, the position it
occupies in relation to another object: like this. Puerto Rico is located east of
Hispaniola. Relative location constitutes an essential interest for geography since it
allows us to go beyond description. The relative position of Puerto Rico in relation
to the Dominican Republic is one of the factors that explain the immigration of
Dominicans to Puerto Rico. Likewise, the location of natural resources such as oil
or coal in relation to Puerto Rico is of vital importance in determining the energy
future of the island. The most precise way to indicate the location of a place is
through mathematical measurements; The latitude and longitude system is
universally accepted. This system is established from imaginary lines, meridians
and parallels. The meridians are half circles that join the North Pole to the South
Pole, and the parallels are parallel to each other and to the Equator. Latitude and
longitude are expressed in degrees since they represent angular measurements.
Longitude is measured east or west of the prime meridian, which is Greenwich in
Scotland; Latitude measures distances north and south of the equator. Montreal,
the largest city in the province of Montreal in Canada, is located at 45 degrees
north latitude and 74 degrees west longitude.
b. PLACE OR SITE: ("SITE")
Place is also a particular position on the earth's surface; but that situation is
loaded with meaning. A place is the result of physical (climate, topography, natural
resources) or cultural characteristics that give an area its identity and help
understand the reason for human settlement in that particular area; Thus, in Puerto
Rico, the combination of flat and fertile lands, climate favorable to the cultivation of
sugar cane, transportation facilities, international demand for tropical products and
policy of the Spanish government towards foreigners from Catholic nations are
factors that made of Puerto Rico, a particularly attractive place for European
immigrants who arrived on the island in the first half of the 19th century.
The interpretation that a given society makes of a site can change due to social,
cultural or technological factors.
c. DISTRIBUTION
It refers to the way in which objects and phenomena are spread or arranged in a
given area; It is another topic of essential interest in geography, since the
distribution forms the basis of all maps and raises the problem of explanation, (why
is it there?). It is also useful when you want to carry out comparisons. The
elements common to all spatial distribution are density, concentration, and pattern.
Density represents the number of geographic data per unit of area: it is a concept
used in the study of population. A high density does not imply overpopulation, and
is only relevant when other criteria are considered such as the size of the area
considered, the socio-professional structure, technological development and the
standard of living of the population.13 Thus, the Netherlands has a density
population of 357 inhabitants per km2, while the density of Somalia is only 11.5
inhabitants per km2. Density is also not synonymous with population size: the
population density of China, the most populous country in the world (more than 1.1
billion inhabitants) is around 117 inhabitants per km2.'4 Dispersion or
concentration refers to the degree to which objects are close or far from each
other. As in the case of density, dispersion makes sense only in relation to a
specific area. To compare the concentration or dispersion of geographic objects in
two areas, it is necessary to consider two areas of equal size with the same
number of objects. This concept is widely used to study the geography of the
population, to understand the changes that have occurred in the distribution of a
population. Two areas with the same density can have very different
concentrations.
Pattern: refers to the geometric organization of geographical objects; A city can be
linear, such as those that develop along a river or a highway, centralized, such as
those that develop around the central square; uniform, that is, it is distributed
equally throughout the landscape, or dispersed, without organization. The
comparison of different spatial distribution patterns, such as the pattern of chemical
industries and the distribution pattern of certain types of diseases in a region, can
reveal a relationship between both phenomena.
 d. MAPS
The map is the first mode of expression of Geography. It is a two-dimensional
graphic representation of part or all of the earth's surface. It allows you to express
concepts such as location, quantity, shape, size, distribution, distance, etc. It helps
to simplify the phenomena under study according to the scale and criteria selected.
The scale expresses the relationship between the real surface and its
representation on the map. Maps can be very simple, or highly complex such as
those that come from data collected by satellites. Maps are of vital importance to
the geographer who uses them to store or illustrate information; They can also
serve to suggest explanations for the phenomena studied, for example, when
comparing a map of the relief of a region with a map of the distribution of human
settlements. Both regional and urban planning and the development of a country's
resources are closely related to the availability of specialized maps. There are
different types of maps: in addition to topographic maps and specialized maps
(water, soil, etc.), there are thematic maps that are generally used in human
geography to present a specific type of information, such as the distribution of a
population. , or the pattern of a disease. Among the most common thematic maps
are the statistical map that presents quantities per unit of area for a given period:
this could represent the number of crimes committed in the different neighborhoods
of the city of San Juan during the year 1992; the dot map, in which numerical
quantities are replaced by points for greater visual impact; In short, the choropleth
map, in which different colors are attributed to represent different quantities or
phenomena. Political maps, where different colors represent different national
units, are the most common example of a choropleth map.

2. GEOGRAPHY STUDIES THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE HUMAN

BEING AND THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT .

This is a basic topic in geography; Physical geography and human geography,

although they have traditionally been separated, have a close relationship.
Geographic space in its broad sense includes the earth's surface and the
biosphere; It is the habitable space, the place that humanity uses for its existence.
The omnipresent concept in geography is that the earth is the "habitat" of the
human species, and that this environment conditions a large part of the actions of
human beings. Climate, topography, distribution of people and resources, among
other examples, illustrate the role of the physical environment as a setting for
human behavior. This relationship is reciprocal and includes, on the one hand, how
the environment influences human beings, and on the other hand, how human
beings modify geographical space.

to. THE ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCES HUMAN BEINGS .

Human geographers need to be familiar with the main physical processes of
nature (climate, topography, etc.) since they can affect the distribution of people
and their activities. Comparing a global map of climates and a map of world
population distribution shows that humans tend to avoid climate extremes. The
climate of a specific region influences the type of agriculture carried out there: thus,
in southeast China, eastern India and much of southeast Asia, whose climate is hot
and humid, the main crop is rice. while in the interior of China and northeast China,
colder and drier regions, wheat is produced. It can be stated, without falling into
determinism, that the geographical environment in which a society develops
notably marks certain aspects of the culture of that society; Typical food, both for
its ingredients and the way it is prepared, certain ways of dressing and housing
bear the mark of the environment in which a certain society has developed.
Obviously, a culture is not exclusively a product of geography, as witnessed by
very different cultures that have developed in similar environments; However, it is
one of the elements that contribute to explaining certain traits, along with factors of
a social, historical or cultural nature.

b. SOCIETIES ALTER THEIR ENVIRONMENT .

Human action tends to convert the natural environment into a geographical

environment shaped by human activity throughout history. The role of the human
being as an agent of modification of geographical space really begins with the
beginnings of agriculture barely 7,000 years ago. However, the effect of human
action on the natural environment has been felt more strongly under the double
effect of demographic growth and technological progress.
Modern technology has drastically changed the conditions of interaction between
societies and their geographical environment. One of the most striking examples in
this regard is that of the Netherlands: more than half of the Dutch territory is
located below sea level, and would be submerged by water today if it were not for
the works undertaken by the Dutch since the 13th century. The "polders" are land
rescued from the sea by building walls and pumping water. This operation, which is
carried out today by means of powerful machines, was done in the past using the
windmills so typical of the Dutch landscape. The "polders", for the most part, are
dedicated to agricultural activities; They are also used for the construction of
homes, and Schiphol airport, near the city of Amsterdam, one of the busiest in
Europe, has been built on land rescued from the sea. On the other hand, to protect
that country, traditionally threatened by North Sea floods, the Dutch have built
dikes and developed large projects. One of these projects is the Zuider Zee, which
at the end of the 19th century was an arm of the North Sea and which the Dutch
converted into a freshwater lake in 1932. Another project is the Delta plan,
completed in the mid-1980s, consisting of closing most of the entrances to the
North Sea by means of dams, thus modifying the mouth area of numerous rivers
that formed a delta particularly vulnerable to the floods.15
Most of the changes made by societies in the space in which they live respond to
the intention of improving it, and of improving productivity or living conditions in a
given environment. Many changes, however, have had dire secondary impacts.
Some of these effects include: - The physical, chemical or biochemical alteration of
soils as a consequence of certain types of agriculture or practices related to
livestock raising. - Changes in the quality and quantity of groundwater, or surface
water or in the interior of countries (continental). -Minor modifications to rural
microclimates, and even more importantly, to urban microclimates. - Alterations in
the composition of the flora and fauna of a region including the disappearance of
certain species. - Accelerated erosion and sedimentation as a consequence of the
modification of the vegetation cover.16

3. THE REGION

A region is an area that is distinguished by one or several original characteristics -

natural or cultural-. Its limits can be precise, such as those that define the borders
of a country, or diffuse, such as those based on social customs such as religion or
language. Its size can vary: the coffee-producing area in the western hills of Puerto
Rico is a region, as is the Portuguese-speaking area of Latin America.
There are different types of regions such as the uniform region and the "nodal"
region. The uniform, formal or homogeneous region is one in which there is an
original characteristic that is present everywhere with the same degree of intensity.
That characteristic can be language, religion, a custom, a type of agriculture. A
country like Spain is a formal region; The state of California that has a government
that adopts laws, collects taxes, whose action is felt throughout the state is a
uniform region.
The "nodal" or functional region is a region established to carry out a specific
function: administrative, commercial, etc. This region may not be visible, but can be
represented on a map. The functional region has a well-defined center (node), in
which the characteristic is present with intensity but as one moves away from the
central nucleus, the presence of that characteristic decreases. The distribution
area of a newspaper, the broadcast area of a radio station, the delivery area of a
department store, or an urban region made up of a city and its sphere of influence
are examples of functional regions.
A region does not constitute an isolated entity: it is an organized part within a
system, and is part of a broader set; Regions are "worlds within a world", which
interest the geographer both for their own characteristics and for their relationships
with other regions of the world, since these favor geographical change. 4.
GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGE Geographic changes can arise from physical or
cultural processes or from the interaction between the two. Changes in the physical
environment can cause important social or cultural changes; Thus, in Puerto Rico,
as in California, the recurrence of earthquakes has required the development of
construction regulations adapted to that need. A dramatic case is that of the Sahel,
a region located south of the Sahara Desert. In the 1960s, that usually dry region
benefited from a period of greater humidity that caused an expansion of crops and
livestock raising. That period of exceptional humidity ended in 1968; Then, the
combination of drought, overuse of pastures, and excessive cereal crops caused
the deterioration of the soil and therefore an expansion of the Sahara desert zone,
with the social consequences of hunger, malnutrition, death, and dependence on
international relief organizations.17 Geographic change can be the result of
interaction between regions and the diffusion of objects, ideas and customs. The
spatial distribution of certain cultural features is constantly changing. New ideas
originate in a few places and spread across a large part of the world. As an
example of this we could cite the jean fashion or rock music, which were
accompanied by changes in certain lifestyles. The diffusion phenomenon is studied
in human geography; The geographer seeks to understand where and why a
geographic fact originates (language, artifact, disease, etc.), how?, through what
channels?, at what speed does this characteristic move to other places?, why? Do
some geographical facts persist or gain ground while others lose the space
previously occupied?
Research in human geography has revealed two main patterns of diffusion:
expansion and relocation.
The expansion process is a mode of diffusion by which ideas or objects pass from
one place to another; the diffused object remains in the region of origin while
expanding to new areas. We find an example of expansion in the spread of the
urban phenomenon that began in Mesopotamia and from there expanded to
southern Europe and then to the north of that continent. The expansion can be the
result of hierarchical diffusion, that is, transmitted according to a sequence of
order, classes, or hierarchy. Generally, larger urban centers, those where people
visit most frequently to obtain goods and services, are more likely to adopt new
ideas or technology first, and then these spread to the countryside. This would be a
typical diffusion pattern for consumer or fashion goods.
Expansion can be done by "contagion": it is then the wide spread of a
characteristic to a population, similar to the way a contagious disease spreads. It
involves direct contact, and decreases with distance.
The second mode of diffusion of a geographical fact is relocation: which consists of
a displacement of cultural elements that accompanies a movement of migrants
who go from one place to another, carrying their original characteristics. The arrival
of English and Spanish to the American continent illustrates the relocation of
linguistic characteristics. This process was followed after the expansion of those
languages in North and South America.18 Geographic studies on the phenomenon
of diffusion were initiated in Sweden by Torsten Hagerstrand, who established an
operational model of diffusion waves and was the precursor of many jobs in the
United States. Studies to understand how phenomena spread in space are
essential not only to understand a process itself, but also to prevent certain types
of diffusion such as diseases or drug use. The eradication of smallpox in Latin
America, Africa and Asia was the result of an analysis of the spatial diffusion of the
phenomenon. In the 1960s, after a strong outbreak of the disease, a map of the
affected areas was established based on the reported cases, and the World Health
Organization began a systematic vaccination policy in the infected regions. In
1979, the World Health Organization, WHO, was able to officially announce that
the disease had been eliminated.'9
The crucial problem of the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has
attracted the attention of geographers, and in one of the recent publications of the
Association of American Geographers, an analysis of the spread of AIDS takes into
account the geographical factors that eventually increase or The chances of
contracting the disease decrease. Thus, the mere fact of living in New York or
California - centers from which the disease spread throughout the country -
considerably increases the risk of suffering from AIDS compared to the rest of the
United States. Within the same cities, the spread of AIDS, as well as the possibility
of being a victim of this disease, varies according to neighborhoods. This tends to
indicate, as one of the doctors interviewed points out, that "in this epidemic, destiny
is geography."20
The point of view of human geography in that area, as in many others, represents
an approach that helps to better understand complex and multi-causal socio-
cultural phenomena. But the geographer goes beyond theoretical explanation; In
fact, human geography has developed a whole range of practical applications that
make the geographer a craftsman of first importance in matters of planning and
development of modern societies.

APPLICATIONS OF GEOGRAPHY

The need for organization of modern societies, which are becoming more complex
every day, requires a better organization of space: the concepts, methods and
approaches of geography are used to try to find solutions to a wide variety of
problems.
At the national level, geographers offer their services to governments, whether
national, state, or municipal, especially when it comes to economic, urban planning
and development, housing, transportation, recreation, medical services, facilities
for the disabled, etc. Their work generally consists of preparing reports and maps,
studying physical, social, and economic distribution patterns and their
interpretation. In the United States, geographers work in several federal agencies,
among which we can mention the "Bureau of the Census", where they are in
charge of interpreting and forecasting the main demographic trends in the United
States. Their training in the interpretation of data generated by satellite images
makes geographers represent valuable resources for agencies as different as the
Water Resources Board, the Soil Conservation Service, or the Department of
Defense.
At the international level, the applications of Geography are also multiple and
varied: At the end of the First World War, the American delegation to the Versatile
Peace Conference had the presence of the geographer, Isiah Bowman. He
advised President Wilson on the creation of a new map of Europe in which the
borders between countries reflected cultural differences.2' Recent discussions
about the borders between Chile and Argentina were carried out with the advice of
British geographers. Today many geographers work in the United Nations
organization.22
The concepts and methods of geography find an almost obligatory application in
the planning of the development of the so-called Third World. In his book
Geographer at Work, geographer Peter Gould writes: "...many development
problems do raise thorough geographic questions of location and accessibility, of
central place networks and dynamics, of changing connections and linkages, of
efficient flows of peoples and commodities , of the diffusion of ideas and
innovations, of information obtained by remote sensing, and so on. Even questions
of center and peripheries arise, at a variety of scales, ranging from a villager
access to modern services, to the macro-scale of center-peripherie relations
between the First and Third World".
The applications of geography are equally sensitive in the private sector,
essentially in the business world. Geographers intervene in different decision-
making processes: what is the best place to establish a new shopping center?
What potential market does a new sales establishment have? How to optimize a
distribution system by reducing transportation costs? What Does the project
deserve to be financially supported by a bank? What is the future demand for
energy or services in certain regions? etc.; These are just some examples of
problems that the geographer can contribute to solving.
CONCLUSION
Geography is one of the oldest disciplines and at the same time one of the most
contemporary. Its extraordinary development in the second half of the 20th century is due
to several reasons. Modern geography is the result of the technological revolution
associated with the era of satellites and computers. Due to its characteristics of applied
science, it provides an instrument to seek solutions to many of the problems that affect
current societies, especially in the crucial aspects of organization, planning and
development.
In short, perhaps, its current rise as a discipline taught in schools and universities
responds to an awareness of the deficiency of geographical education and the need for
each human being to have a better understanding of the societies and cultures of the
world. world. Indeed, due to the ties strengthened by modern media, due to the
globalization of the economy that makes our daily lives depend on what happens in the
Middle East or Japan, due to the necessary solidarity in the face of environmental
pollution, we are all citizens of the blue planet.