Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. It integrates knowledge from natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Geography is divided into three branches: physical geography studies natural environments; human geography examines human communities and interactions with space/place; regional geography analyzes characteristics of world regions. Physical geography sub-branches include biogeography, water resources, climate, geomorphology, lithology, and oceanography. Geography uses tools like statistics, cartography, digital cartography, remote sensing, and geographic information systems.

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Unit 0 Geography: Concept and branches
Contents:
- Concept of Geography
- Branches of Geography
Activities:
- Definitions´ workgroups
- Mind maps with geographical branches and techniques.
I- Concept of Geography
Welcome to Geography.
During the next few months you will learn what Geography is and what its main
purposes are. You will discover that Geography is a very ancient discipline, very useful
for human societies. For example, all the conquering empires along the History needed
to know how the world was and the resources of new lands to be discovered and
conquered.
First of all, we want to ask you about the meaning of Geography. Do you know who
Gaea is? Do you know the Greek myths about the world and the creation of humankind?
Do you know that Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the “father” of Geography?
And, what most importantly, do you know that Geography is more than studying maps?
Origin of Geography
Let´s begin with Greece. The ancient Greek civilisation is the origin of many of our
concepts about the world, and the very first creators of some of the science you will
study at school (Maths, Philosophy, History, etc.). Let´s read the myth of Uranus and
Gaea:
The Creation
In the beginning there was only Chaos. Then appeared Erebus, the place where
death lives, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, dark. Then, Love was
born bringing along the beginning of order. From Love emerged Light, followed
by Gaea, the earth.

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Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the sky.
Uranus became Gaea's husband,
surrounding her on all sides. Together,
they produced the three Cyclopes, the
three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.
However, Uranus was a cruel father and
husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires
and imprisoned them by pushing them
into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's
belly. This angered Gaea and she plotted
against Uranus. She tried to get her
children to attack Uranus. All were too
afraid, except the youngest Titan,
Cronus.
Gaea and Cronus set up a surprise attack
as Uranus lay with Gaea at night. Cronus
castrated him with the sickle, throwing
the severed genitals into the ocean. As
Uranus departed, he promised that
Cronus and the Titans would be
punished.
Cronus became the next ruler. He married his sister Rhea, and had many
children. He ruled for many ages; however, Gaea and Uranus both had
prophesied that Cronus would be eventually overthrown by a son. To avoid this,
Cronus swallowed all of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the
treatment of the children and plotted against Cronus. When it was time to give
birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, and then she left the child to be raised
by nymphs. To conceal her act she wrapped a stone in clothes and passed it off
as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.
This child was Zeus, who grew into a handsome youth at the island of Crete and
after several fights could release all his brothers.
All these Gods and Goddesses were unharmed and
thankful to their youngest brother, so they made
him their leader.
https://youtu.be/LxoRWD-RwtU
It is interesting, isn´t it? Remember that all the
religions throughout the History tried to explain

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the origin of the world and the humankind, some of them in a more fascinating way than
others...
So we know who Gaea or Gaia is, the personification of the Earth and one of the
Greek primordial deities. Could we connect Gaea with Geography? Of course, we can
say that Geography is just the science that studies the Earth. But that is not enough for
us.
Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their
environments. It is a discipline that integrates knowledge from natural sciences,
social sciences and humanities to build an understanding of the world.
II- Branches of Geography:
Geography is divided into three major branches:
 Physical geography is that branch of natural science which deals with the
study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the
atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
 Human geography is the branch of the social sciences that deals with the
world, its people and their communities, cultures, economies and interaction
with the environment by emphasizing their relationships with and across
space and place.
 Regional geography is the study of world regions. Attention is paid to
unique characteristics of a particular region such as natural elements, human
elements, and regionalization which covers the techniques of delineating
space into regions.
Throughout this course you are going to study Physical Geography, so we will take a
look at everything that deals with the natural features of the planet (mountains, coasts,
rivers...) and the elements that can affect it, such as climate, erosion and so on.
Here you have some of the main sub- branches of Physical Geography:
- Biogeography: Animals and plants on earth are usually distributed in specific
patterns and biogeography is the discipline that is involved in this study.
- Water Resources Geography: This is a branch of geography that normally deals
with the study of how water resources are generally managed in a particular
region. Geographers who are involved in this discipline normally look at the
manner in which water is collected, distributed and ultimately used in various
places across the planet.
- Climate Geography: Geographers in this branch of geography are usually
concerned with the investigation of the weather patterns of the earth and the way
in which they affect the climate as a result. Moreover, activities that are taking
place within the atmosphere of the earth are also studied in this discipline.

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- Geomorphology: Land forms on earth usually develop in interesting ways and
there are numerous processes that normally lead to their eventual vanishing.
Geographers who are involved in this field usually study the entire process from
start to finish and erosion has been discovered to be a major factor that
influences the vanishing of land forms.
- Lithology: Deals with the characteristics of rocks.
- Oceanography: The study of ocean currents waves and tides.
- Orology: Study of mountains.
- Etc.
However, do you think that Geography is something important in your life? Do you use
some of its tools in your daily life? I bet you do...
Let´s see some of the most commons techniques and tools you use in your daily life:
- Statistic and mathematical models that can be used for demography or
hydrology (birth´s rates, weather forecast, etc.)
- Cartography is the discipline that deals with the conception, production,
dissemination and study of maps. Cartography is also about representation – the
map. This means that cartography is the whole process of mapping.
Of course the humankind has made maps since ancient times, but nowadays new
technologies have developed new tools that can be considered as a “map´s revolution”.
For example, we can talk about GIT (Geographical Information Technologies) that
deals with the new tools we use for representing and analysing our planet, Digital
Cartography, Remote Sensing and the Geographic Information System (GIS).
a) Digital cartography:
b) Remote Sensing:

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c) GIS (Geographic Information System)
And now you know what Geography is, we can start the journey through this subject.