Geography as an Integrative Discipline of Physical and Human Dimensions

According to the Columbus State Community College (CSCC), geography is an integrative discipline that brings together the physical and human dimensions of the world in the study of people, places and the environments. Its subject matter is the earth’s surface and the processes that shape it, the relationship between people and the environments not leaving out the connections between people and places.The word ‘geography’ is derived from two words, namely; geo, which means earth and graphy, meaning to write about or describe.Geography puts the understanding of social and physical processes within contexts of places and regions, recognizing the differences in societies, political frameworks, economies, landscapes and the environments over the earth, and the connections between them. Understanding the reasons for the differences and inequalities between different places and social groups underlie much of the more current improvements in human geography.

Generally, geography can be sub-divided into two broad branches, areas of study within which geographers try to answer specific questions about the world. Physical geography is basically concerned with the study of spatial distribution of environmental phenomena, whilst human geography is basically concerned with the study of spatial distribution of humans and human activity.Another way in which geography can be sub-divided is through a topical or systematic approach. Thus, somebody who focuses within the physical domain may specialize in geomorphology (the study of landforms), climatology (the study of climates), and biogeography (the study of plants and animals). A person who concentrates on in the human domain may specialize in economic geography, population geography of which is the study of populations and their characteristics and urban geography.The author of geography today states that, geography provides a perfect structure relating to different fields of learning. Geography is in a more broad sense, an education for life and living. Learning through geography, whether learning gained through formal learning or experientially through travel, hands on work and campaigns helps each person to be more socially and environmentally delicate, well informed and responsible citizens.

Geography informs us about the following:

- The areas and communities in which we live and work

- Our natural environments and the pressures they come across with

- The interconnectedness of the world and our communities within it

- The choices that exist in dealing with our world for the future

- How and why our world is changing, globally locally·

The importance of location in business and decision making

Being able to see the world geographically is a key ability of each and every person. Understanding the connection between the environment and people, geography ties together differing sciences as geology, biology, and climatology with economics (financial aspects), history, and politics in light of area. Geographers understand conflict around the globe because a large number of factors are involved. That is what makes geography so important.Thought cooperation is of the opinion that things are looking up for geography, because more and more schools around the globe are either offering or requiring geography be taught at all levels, more especially in high schools. The introduction of the advanced placement of both human geography and physical geography course at high schools has increased the number of college/university-ready geography majors, accordingly expanding the number of geography students in undergraduate programmes.

New geography teachers and professors are needed in all areas of the educational system as more students start learning geography. GIS (geographic information systems) has also become popular in a wide range of disciplines and not just only in geography. The career opportunities for geographers with specialized technical skills in the area of GIS, is outstanding and is expected to continue growing. In closure, geography is the study of human or physical phenomena as distributed across the surface of the earth, not only to include the manifested patterns of this phenomena, but as well as the forces giving rise to these phenomena, the cooperation and inter-relationships of these phenomena to one another.Furthermore, any inquiry that accepts a spatial point of view, or researches something which suggests, related to, or involves space or place, may be considered as an exercise in geography. Fundamentally, if the spatial distribution of the myriad physical and human elements of the world can be mapped, then that is geography.