take place in it. Knowing that Iraq’s neighbors include countries such as Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia makes it easier to understand the complex ethnic, religious, and political stresses tearing at that country: Islamic State fighters centered in Syria, ethnic Kurds that straddle Turkey and northern Iraq seeking autonomy, and sectarian rivals from Saudi Arabia and Iran that clash in Iraq.
Regions
Regions are locations with unifying characteristics that distinguish them from other locations. Unlike places, which are viewed in a more holistic way and are more often found on general reference maps (Paris, Yellowstone National Park, Manhattan, Venice Beach), regions are distinguished by a limited number of human and/or physical characteristics.
Figure 1.29.Placelessness. Homogenous landscapes with few distinguishing characteristics are often considered “placeless.” Such places appear virtually the same in any location, with no visible ties to local culture and history. World Imagery basemap by Esri; data sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community. Streetscape photo by Yuriy Stankevich. Royalty-free stock photo ID: 589563587. Shutterstock.
Regions are a useful way of categorizing the world for purposes of geographic research. Just as biologists categorize the living world into species and historians categorize time into eras, geographers categorize space into regions. By creating categories, biologists can compare wolves with dogs, historians can compare the Middle Ages with the Renaissance, and geographers can compare North America and Latin America.
There are three types of regions: formal, functional, and perceptual.
Formal regions can be identified by mapping one or more human or physical features. The Corn Belt in the United States can be identified by mapping acreage devoted to corn production, while Tornado Alley can be found by mapping tornado frequency (figure 1.30). The Bible Belt can be mapped by the number of people who state they attend church on a regular basis. A common cultural trait, such as language or religion, can be used to distinguish North America from Latin America.
Functional regions are delineated by a central place, or node, and a surrounding hinterland that interacts with the node. For example, regional shopping malls and other businesses collect customer address data that they map and use to determine their functional sales region, or market area. A functional metropolitan region can be identified by mapping commuting patterns of workers and consumers who travel to a city (figure 1.31). The advantage of mapping functional regions is that it avoids the use of artificial city or county or even state boundaries when determining the region surrounding a central place.
Perceptual regions, also called vernacular regions, are based on subjective criteria of individuals. Everyone knows that the South and Southern California exist in the United States, but where exactly are they? One way of identifying this type of region is by having people draw boundaries on a map. With a large enough sample, a consensus as to where the boundaries lie will become clear.
Figure 1.30.Formal regions: Tornado Alley. View the entire dataset of over 52,000 tornados from 1950 to 2008 at http://arcg.is/2lzJ4Rk. Map by author. Data source: National Weather Service, Storm Prediction Center. Publication Date: 200906. Title: United States Tornado Touchdown Points 1950-2008. Publication Information: Publication Place: Reston, VA. Publisher: National Atlas of the United States.
Figure 1.31.Functional regions: Commuter megaregions of the US. This map shows commuter flows between census tracts based on the 2006–2010 US Census, American Community Survey. Map by Rae, Alasdair; [email protected] (2016): United States Commutes and Megaregions data for GIS. Figshare. https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.4110156.v4.
Perceptual regions evolve over time. For example, the Middle East gained its name as a perceptual region from the European perspective. The Near East, Middle East, and Far East were historically identified by their locations relative to Europe. Perceptions of the boundaries of these regions have changed over time, but the Near East tended to be countries along the eastern Mediterranean Sea (those “near” Europe), the Middle East was around the Persian Gulf, and the Far East included Asian countries that face the Pacific Ocean (those “far” from Europe). Perceptions of these regions differ somewhat today, but again, having a sample of people draw “the Middle East” on a map would lead to a consensus on its boundaries.
It is important to keep in mind that the boundaries between all types of regions are typically fuzzy. Just as there is no specific day that divides the Middle Ages from the Renaissance, there is rarely a fixed line that separates one region from another.
Go to ArcGIS Online to complete exercise 1.5: “Places and regions.”
Origin, spatial interaction, and spatial diffusion
Places, regions, and the spatial patterns of human features do not lie in isolation. Rather, patterns of human activity evolve through the movement and interaction of people and cultures from different locations. This movement and interaction helps explain why unique spatial patterns, places, and regions form.
Origin
Many spatial phenomena can be viewed in terms of origin and diffusion. The origin is a starting point, a location where something begins. It is often referred to as a culture hearth. A disease outbreak, a new musical style, a new technology, or a new idea will begin in a specific part of the world. While its exact origin point is still debated, the deadly flu pandemic of 1891 originated in one of several possible locations: Kansas in the United States, China, or France. From its origin point, it then diffused throughout the world, killing around 50 million people. Hip-hop originated in the Bronx, New York, in the 1970s before becoming a global phenomenon. The major monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism originated in the Middle East before spreading around the world.
Origin points must have the right conditions for a new phenomenon to form, and these conditions are typically related to human actions. For example, new disease outbreaks are more likely to occur in places with poor sanitation and weak health care systems (figure 1.32) than in places where sanitation and health care are adequate. New social and technological innovations are likely to form in societies that are open to new ideas and that already have the technological prerequisites for the innovation. For instance, some countries foment new ideas through the protection of free speech, whereas other countries stifle innovation through heavy censorship and limits on open debate. In addition to having an open society, innovations cannot materialize unless technological prerequisites are in place. The Wright brothers’ airplane could not have been built without technical knowledge of structures and materials, motors, and basic physics.
Thus, it is important to remember that the origin of new phenomena comes from the combination of multiple influences. This combination is typically the result of spatial interaction, the movement of ideas and things between places; and spatial diffusion, the spreading of an idea or thing across space over time.
Spatial interaction
Spatial interaction takes place when two or more areas are linked by a network. Transportation and communications linkages tie places together and allow for people, ideas, and things to move between them. The more spatial
