Location (geography)

Geography is a branch of science that focuses on the study of the physical, biological, and cultural features of Earth. Geographers studied the places on Earth as well as the ways people interact with the environment. They classify the areas of Earth by asking three questions about each place: Where is it? Why is it there? What are the consequences of it being there?

The five themes of geography answered these questions and helped organize this broad subject. The themes connected to one another. Location was one of the five themes of geography that answered the question, "Where is it?" It did this by pinpointing the exact position of something. The other four themes were place, human/environment interaction, movement, and regions. 

Place used the physical and human characteristics of an area to explain what it was like there. Human/environment interaction described the way people related to the physical world to explain the relationship between humans and their environment. Movement showed the relationship between people and places to explain how and why places were connected. The theme of regions used physical and human characteristics to show how and why one area was similar to another. 

The five themes of geography were first published in the 1984 publication Guidelines for Geographic Education: Elementary and Secondary Schools. The themes became the basis for the National Geography Standards, developed by the Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP) in 1994 and updated in 2012. The standards, taught in many schools across the country, broke down the subject of geography into different areas of study and provided students with clear learning objectives. 

Overview

Location was the first theme of geography. Location was the position or point where an object existed. It described the positions where people and places were distributed on the surface of the earth. Location was important to geography and referred to specific areas where people settled, such as cities, towns, villages, states, countries, and more. 

Location was not the same as place, the second theme of geography. Geographers used place to describe the characteristics that make one place distinctive from another. These characteristics could be physical or human. Physical characteristics made up the environment of a place and could include landforms, bodies of water, climate, and plant and animal life. People's influence over the land influenced human characteristics. Some of these characteristics might include structures, such as bridges and houses, or intangible aspects of a place, such as language and governmental systems. For example, the North Pole was considered a place that is cold. Here, location and place worked together to give geographers more information about a particular area. 

Location used latitude and longitude to pinpoint the exact position of an object on Earth. Latitude was the distance north or south of the Equator, and longitude was the distance east or west of the prime meridian. Both were measured in degrees. An object's position was typically described according to absolute location and relative location. 

Absolute Location

Absolute location was an object's exact point on Earth, described in terms of latitude and longitude. Absolute location answered the question where was it? If asked where something was located, a person could point to its absolute location on a map or globe. If Earth were a grid, the absolute location in latitude and longitude coordinates would identify the exact location of an area. 

For instance, the Empire State Building's absolute location is 40.7 degrees North (longitude) and 74 degrees West (latitude). The absolute location of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, was 30 degrees north and 90 degrees west. 

Relative Location

Relative location describes how one area was related to another. Relative locations were related to one another by directions (North, South, East, West, etc.). However, some directions are cultural. For example, the state of Ohio is located east of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States, but the Wild West was a term used to describe an unspecific area west of the Mississippi River. It did not refer to the entire western portion of the country. 

Exact directions—such as left, right, up, or down—and addresses could provide locations that were more accurate. Explaining that the apartment was located upstairs from the lobby offered an exact location. Noting that the Empire State Building was located at the intersection of 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, New York, gave a person even more information. 

Relative location was also related by distance. For example, the Empire State Building was located fifteen blocks from Central Park in New York City. Its relative location was also 227 miles from the White House in Washington, DC. 

In addition, relative location could show how two places are connected by culture or technology. The cities of Key West, Florida, and Anchorage, Alaska, in the United States were located 3,999 miles apart. Even though they were located far from each other, residents in the two cities spoke the same languageEnglish. The cities also shared the same government system and had similar geographical features. 

Absolute location was actually a form of relative location. It showed how an area's position is related to the Equator or prime meridian. 

Like the earth itself, geographical reference names constantly changed. Many countries decided there were different ways they chose to be referenced. For example, following the ascendency of authoritarian leader Hugo Chavez to power in 1999, the Government of Venezuela changed its official name to the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela." This change had political overtones as the symbol of Simon Bolivar, the nineteenth-century liberator of large swaths of South America, became incorporated with Chavez's socialist agenda. Several other countries that had changed their names in the recent past included Türkiye (formerly Turkey), The Netherlands (Holland), the Kingdom of eSwatini (Swaziland), and Czechia (Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia). 

Location helped identify the exact position of something. It is just one of the five methods that geographers use to map the world, understand the earth's physical and human features, and determine how various places are connected. 

Bibliography

David, Lauren. "8 Countries That Changed Their Names and Why." How Stuff Works, history.howstuffworks.com/world-history/countries-changed-names.htm. Accessed 28 Mar. 2023.

Dill, Margo. "Study Guide for 5 Themes of Geography." Bright Hub Education, www.brighthubeducation.com/help-with-geography/47539-5-themes-of-geography-examples. Accessed 21 Nov. 2014.

"Frequently Asked Questions: What Are the Five Themes of Geography?" National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.com/education/faq/?ar‗a=1#what-are-five-themes-geography. Accessed 21 Nov. 2014.

"Geography." National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/geography/?ar‗a=1. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

"Location." National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/location/?ar‗a=1. Accessed 21 Nov. 2014.

"National Geography Standards Index." National Geographic, education.nationalgeographic.com/education/standards/national-geography-standards/?ar‗a=1. Accessed 21 Nov. 2014.

"Place." National Geographic, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/place/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Rosenberg, Matt. "The 5 Themes of Geography." ThoughtCo, 5 May 2024, www.thoughtco.com/five-themes-of-geography-1435624. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

"The Five Themes of Geography." California State University Stanislaus, www.csustan.edu/sites/default/files/TeacherEd/FacultyStaff/betts/Handouts/PDFs/Five%20Themes%20of%20Geography.pdf. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.