Integrated geography, integrative geography or environmental geography is the branch of geography that describes and explains the spatial aspects of interactions between humans and the natural world. It requires an understanding of the dynamics of geology, meteorology, hydrology, biogeography, ecology, and geomorphology, as well as the ways in which human societies conceptualize the environment (cultural geography). To a certain degree it may be seen as a successor of physical anthropogeography (Physische Anthropogeographie)—a term coined by the Vienna Geographer Albrecht Penck in 1924—and geographical cultural or human ecology (Harlan H. Barrows 1923).
The links between cultural and physical geography were once more readily apparent than they are today. As human experience of the world is increasingly mediated by technology, the relationships have often become obscured. Thereby, integrated geography represents a critically important set of analytical tools for assessing the impact of human presence on the environment by measuring the result of human activity on natural landforms and cycles. It hence is considered the third branch of geography, as compared to physical and human geography.
Famous quotes containing the words integrated and/or geography:
“Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one other—only in certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.”
—Talcott Parsons (1902–1979)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)