Geography is sometimes considered as the mother of all sciences due to its links and influences on a range of other scientific fields including biology, mathematics, anthropology, geology, astronomy and chemistry. The exploration and discovery of new places, new ideas and new cultures is something that is fundamental to the human knowledge.
Geography is defined as the science that studies Earth and its land, inhabitants, features and phenomena. The term was coined by Eratosthenes between 276 and 194 BC and has been in common use ever since. The field of geography was historically categorized into four different subject areas. These areas were; the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena, research in earth sciences, the study of man-land relationships and area studies. A more modern breakdown of geography is into a number of different branches. These branches often include physical geography, human geography, environmental geography, regional geography and geomatics. The most common division made is between human geography and physical geography.
Human geography is the branch that focuses its attention on the study of processes and patterns that shape and determine human's interaction with a variety of environments. Attention to detail is on human's affect on the landscape, rather than the physical landscape itself. Human geography can then be broken down into a number of categories including cultural geography, economic geography, health geography and religion geography. The other main division, physical geography, focuses primarily on geography as Earth sciences. It considers issues and problems in the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and pedosphere as well as within flora and fauna. Again, this can be categorized by a number of different topics including biogeography, coastal geography and oceanography.
The vast range of topics and sciences that are covered and understood by geography give rise to its common definitions as the 'mother of all sciences'.
Geography is defined as the science that studies Earth and its land, inhabitants, features and phenomena. The term was coined by Eratosthenes between 276 and 194 BC and has been in common use ever since. The field of geography was historically categorized into four different subject areas. These areas were; the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena, research in earth sciences, the study of man-land relationships and area studies. A more modern breakdown of geography is into a number of different branches. These branches often include physical geography, human geography, environmental geography, regional geography and geomatics. The most common division made is between human geography and physical geography.
Human geography is the branch that focuses its attention on the study of processes and patterns that shape and determine human's interaction with a variety of environments. Attention to detail is on human's affect on the landscape, rather than the physical landscape itself. Human geography can then be broken down into a number of categories including cultural geography, economic geography, health geography and religion geography. The other main division, physical geography, focuses primarily on geography as Earth sciences. It considers issues and problems in the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and pedosphere as well as within flora and fauna. Again, this can be categorized by a number of different topics including biogeography, coastal geography and oceanography.
The vast range of topics and sciences that are covered and understood by geography give rise to its common definitions as the 'mother of all sciences'.
