Discover The Different Branches of Human Geography That Affect Your Life

Think about how important geography is to our everyday lives and livelihoods. In This article, you will learn about the branches of human geography, the spatial dimension of human activity, and acquire a critical understanding of the dominant approaches to the study of human geography.

What Is Human Geography?

Human geography is the study of human interactions with the environment, as well as how humans modify and shape it. This includes issues such as population patterns, human migration, climate change and natural disasters. It also covers issues like war and gender inequality.

Human geography is also a social science that looks at how humans interact with their environment. This includes how people have affected our planet in terms of pollution, deforestation, exploitation and climate change. These interactions also include how humans have influenced other aspects of our physical surroundings such as urbanization or regional economic development.

Sub Branches of Human Geography

Geography is the study of human-environment interaction. Geographers explore how humans interact with their environment and what they can learn from that interaction.

Geographers explore many questions, such as: How does global warming impact human populations?

How does economic development affect the environment?

Why are some regions more vulnerable to natural disasters than others?

Human Geography can be further divided into the below categories:

#1. Cultural Geography

Cultural geography is the study of the spatial aspects of human culture and social life.

This subfield encompasses a broad spectrum of topics including the histories and cultures of places, their political and economic relations to other regions, and their environmental dynamics.

It also includes how people understand themselves in relation to their environment.

#2. Religion Geography

Religion is an important factor in determining the geography of a country. Some countries are entirely based on one religion, while others have multiple religions represented. The geographical aspect of a country can also be shaped by how its people interact with other religions and practices.

Some countries, such as Lebanon and Iraq, have been shaped by the different religions they contain. Lebanon has a long history of religious diversity, including Christians, Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Druze Muslims. Iraq is mainly Shia Muslim but there are pockets of Christianity in Baghdad where many churches still stand despite fighting from ISIS in recent years.

Many other countries contain a single religion that dominates their society. There are some countries where only one religion is allowed to exist at all (such as Saudi Arabia).

#3. Health Geography

Health geography is a field that studies the relationship between health and social, cultural, political, economic, and physical environments.

The goal of health geography is to understand how the environment changes people’s behaviour in relation to their health.

Health geography looks at a variety of factors that may correlate with various illnesses or diseases. It uses maps to show how geographical features such as water or roads might affect the prevalence of an illness.

Health geographers also look at how socioeconomic factors such as income can affect a person’s exposure to an illness or disease.

Social Geography is the use of social media data to make inferences about human population trends, including their locations and behaviour. It is the latest trend in marketing and product analytics that has been pioneered by the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Social Geography tools are used for understanding user behaviour on social media platforms and provide marketers and analysts with an opportunity to better understand their customers.

#5. Historical Geography

Historical geography is the study of the human, physical, and spatial dimensions of past human societies. This field has roots in historic geography. It developed as a result of the need to understand how people experienced their landscapes when they were historical societies.

Historical geography is a social science that has roots in both history and geography.

Geographers have historically explored spatial structures to understand how humans lived in different places at different times, while historians have focused on understanding why humans live where they do now and when they did then.

#6. Political & Geopolitics Geography

Geopolitics is the study of the ways in which geographical factors shape political action and international relations.

Political geography is the study of how geography affects politics. This includes content like international relations, environment, climate change, security issues, and trade. Geopolitics is a subset of political geography that focuses on geopolitical relationships between countries or regions.

Geopolitics can be considered as a subset of Political Geography that focuses on geopolitical relationships between countries or regions.

#7. Population or Demography Geography

Population geography is a field of study that examines the distribution, migration, and growth of populations as well as how they are affected by natural and man-made factors.

The United States Census Bureau defines population geography as “the study of the geographic distribution of population and its variations.” It encompasses both human and physical factors, like the environment, climate, water resources, etc.

#8. Development Geography

Development geography is a branch of geography that deals with understanding, mapping, and analyzing the economic and spatial characteristics of development.

The development geography degree is focused on understanding the effects of globalization on the spatial distribution of economic progress.

Development geographers study a variety of topics including political economy, globalization, inequality, poverty and its effects on health, urbanization and metropolitan growth.

Development geographers are interested in understanding how economic change influences people’s lives and how people respond to those changes.

#9. Transportation Geography

Transportation geography is the study of the spatial world. It is an academic field that looks at how people, goods and information are moved around.

This includes the physical infrastructure such as roads, railways and waterways. The digital infrastructure and data networks that support travel are also included. The study of transportation geography can look at how people move around in society, which regions benefit from transport-related investments, and how transport systems can be improved to better serve their users.

Transportation geography is a key component of wider human geography studies on how humans inhabit space.

#10. Economic Geography

Economic geography is the study of how the patterns of the production and distribution of goods and services are related to economic and geographic factors. Economic geography is closely related to economic development because it is concerned with the spatial aspects of economic activity (e.g., where do people work? Where are raw materials found?).

The study also considers how economics influence regional development, what factors determine a region’s success and issues that affect regional competitiveness.

#11. Tourism Geography

Tourism Geography is the study of the interaction between tourism and geographic space and how to best make use of geography for touristic purposes.

Tourism Geography is not just a science, but also an art. It involves understanding human behaviour, cultural diversity, environmental impacts, regional inequalities and many other aspects.

The idea behind Tourism Geography is that places are often defined by their unique physical characteristics-their geographical location or their climate-and these properties will dictate what kind of tourist attractions they have available.

#12. Urban Geography

Urban geography is the study and analysis of the spatial organization and use of urban land, property, and resources.

This branch of geography is mostly concerned with cities in our society today.

Urban geography is the study of the physical and cultural features of cities and metropolitan areas. It includes the study of how people interact with each other in their local communities, and how these communities are shaped by their physical environments, such as housing, transportation, public services, and sources of employment.

Summary: Branches of Human Geography

Human geography is a subfield of geography that attempts to understand the Earth as the product of human activity. Human geography deals with the spatial patterns of social and economic activity, as well as their implications for people’s living and working conditions.

Geography has long been a popular course in schools. It is not just about memorizing facts about different countries, landforms, climates, etc.

It is a critical part of learning more about the ways humans interact with one another in diverse landscapes from around the world.