Systematic geography
Also called: General geography · Topic: Geography as a Discipline: Nature, Branches and Approaches · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Geography as a Discipline"
Meaning
Systematic geography, also called general geography, was introduced by Alexander von Humboldt. It studies one phenomenon across the whole world and then identifies its types and spatial patterns (how they are spread out). Most branches of geography come from this approach. Physical branches include geomorphology, climatology, hydrology and soil geography. Human branches include population, economic and political geography.
Example
A systematic study of natural vegetation sorts the world's forests into types: equatorial rainforests (such as the Amazon basin in South America), softwood conical forests (such as the cold northern forests of Siberia and Canada) and monsoon forests (such as the deciduous forests of central India).
Don't confuse with
- Regional geography: regional geography (Ritter) studies all features within one region. Systematic geography studies one feature across the whole world.
Related concepts
- Systematic and regional approaches
- Regional geography
- Alexander von Humboldt
- Karl Ritter
- Dualism in geography
- Nomothetic and idiographic approaches