Methods and techniques of geography
Topic: Geography as a Discipline: Nature, Branches and Approaches · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Geography as a Discipline"
Meaning
Methods and techniques are the tools that every branch of geography uses to collect, show and study information about places. There are four main groups:
- Cartography, or map-making, which is now mostly done on computers as computer cartography.
- Quantitative or statistical techniques, which means working with numbers.
- Field survey methods, which means going to a place to observe and measure it.
- Geo-informatics, which covers three tools. Remote sensing gathers images of the earth from satellites or aircraft. GIS (Geographic Information System) is software that stacks map layers so they can be studied together. GPS finds an exact location using satellites.
The list keeps growing as technology improves.
Example
ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) runs the Bhuvan portal. On Bhuvan, a user can view satellite images of the Brahmaputra valley in Assam and lay layers of rivers, roads and district boundaries over them. This is remote sensing and GIS working together.
Don't confuse with
- Philosophy of geography: the other part shared by all branches. It deals with geographical thought and with how land and humans interact (human ecology), not with practical tools.
- GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System): the wider family of satellite navigation systems. GPS is one member. India's own regional system is NavIC.