Geography

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Geography

Answer 1

Geoarchaeology

Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and subject matter of geography, geology and other Earth sciences to examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought. Geoarchaeologists study the natural physical processes that affect archaeological sites such as geomorphology, the formation of sites through geological processes and the effects on buried sites and artifacts post-deposition. Geoarchaeologists' work frequently involves studying soil and sediments as well as other geographical concepts to contribute an archaeological study. Geoarchaeologists may also use computer cartography, geographic information systems (GIS) and digital elevation models (DEM) in combination with disciplines from human and social sciences and earth sciences. Geoarchaeology is important to society because it informs archaeologists about the geomorphology of the soil, sediments and the rocks on the buried sites and artifacts they're researching on. By doing this we are able locate ancient cities and artifacts and estimate by the quality of soil how "prehistoric" they really are.

Column sampling is a technique of collecting samples from a section for analyzing and detecting the buried processes down the profile of the section. Narrow metal tins are hammered into the section in a series to collect the complete profile for study. If more than one tin is needed they are arranged offset and overlapping to one side so the complete profile can be rebuilt offsite in laboratory conditions.

Loss on ignition testing for soil organic content.- a technique of measuring organic content in soil samples. Samples taken from a known place in the profile collected by column sampling are weighed then placed in a fierce oven which burns off the organic content. The resulting cooked sample is weighed again and the resulting loss in weight is an indicator of organic content in the profile at a certain depth. These readings are often used to detect buried soil horizons. A buried soil's horizons may not be visible in section and this horizon is an indicator of possible occupation levels. Ancient land surfaces especially from the prehistoric era can be difficult to discern so this technique is useful for evaluating an areas potential for prehistoric surfaces and archaeological evidence. Comparative measurements down the profile are made and a sudden rise in organic content at some point in the profile combined with other indicators is strong evidence for buried surfaces.

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Answer 2

Geographical feature

Geographical features are man-made or naturally-created features of the Earth.

Natural geographical features consist of landforms and ecosystems. For example, terrain types, physical factors of the environment) are natural geographical features. Conversely, human settlements or other engineered forms are considered types of artificial geographical features.

There are 2 different terms to describe habitats. An ecosystem is a community of organisms interacting with its environment. In contrast, biomes occupy large areas of the globe and often encompass many different kinds of geographical features, including mountain ranges.

One conceptual definition of an ecosystem is: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (the 'community') in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system."

One conceptual definition of a biome is "a kind of ecosystem, desert, a tropical rain forest, or a grassland." A biome is "classified according to the predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment." It is a "geographically-defined area of ecologically similar communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, often referred to as ecosystems." Biomes are defined based on factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs, and grasses), leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna), and climate. Unlike ecozones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic, or historical similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of ecological succession and climax vegetation.

A landform comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such is typically an element of topography. Landforms are categorized by features such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. They include berms, mounds, hills, cliffs, valleys, rivers and numerous other elements. Oceans and continents are the highest-order landforms.

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Answer 3

Geopark

A Geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way, and promotes the economic well-being of the people who live there. There are Global Geoparks and National Geoparks.

A Global Geopark is a unified area with geological heritage of international significance. Geoparks use that heritage to promote awareness of key issues facing society in the context of the dynamic planet we all live on. Many geoparks promote awareness of geological hazards, including volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis and many help prepare disaster mitigation strategies among local communities. Geoparks hold records of past climate change and are educators on current climate change as well as adopting a best practise approach to utilising renewable energy and employing the best standards of "green tourism".Tourism industry promotion in geopark, as a geographically sustainable and applicable tourism model, aims to sustain, or even enhance, the geographical character of a place.

Geoparks also inform about the sustainable use and need for natural resources, whether they are mined, quarried or harnessed from the surrounding environment while at the same time promoting respect for the environment and the integrity of the landscape. Geoparks are not a legislative designation though the key heritage sites within a geopark are often protected under local, regional or national legislation as appropriate. The multidisciplinary nature of the concept of geopark and tourism promotion in geoparks differentiates itself from other models of sustainable tourism. In fact, sustainable tourism promotion within geopark actually encompasses many of the subdivisions of sustainable tourism including: geo-tourism (geo-site tourism: as a basic factor), community-based tourism and integrated rural tourism (as a vital needs), ecotourism, cultural heritage tourism, etc.

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Answer 4

Glacial refugium

A glacial refugium (plural refugia) is a geographic place or region which made possible the survival of flora and fauna in times of ice ages and allowed a post-glacial re-colonization. Different types of glacial refugia can be distinguished namely nunatak-, peripheral and lowland refugia.

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Answer 5

Governmentality

Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time.

The concept has been elaborated further from an "Anglo-Neo Foucauldian" perspective in the social sciences, especially by authors such as Peter Miller, Nikolas Rose, and Mitchell Dean. Governmentality can be understood as:

Governmentality may also be understood as:

This term was thought by some commentators to be made by the "…linking of governing ("gouverner") and modes of thought ("mentalité")". In fact, it was not coined by uniting words "gouvernement" and "mentalité", but simply by making gouvernement into gouvernementalité just like musical into musicalité [i.e. government + -al- adjective + -ité abstract noun] (see Michel Senellart's "Course Context" in Foucault's "Security, territory, population" lectures). To fully understand this concept, it is important to realize that in this case, Foucault does not only use the standard, strictly political definition of "governing" or government used today, but he also uses the broader definition of governing or government that was employed until the eighteenth century. That is to say, that in this case, for Foucault, "...'government' also signified problems of self-control, guidance for the family and for children, management of the household, directing the soul, etc." In other words, for our purposes, government is "…the conduct of conduct..."

In his lectures at the Collège de France, Foucault often defines governmentality as the "art of government" in a wide sense, i.e. with an idea of "government" that is not limited to state politics alone, that includes a wide range of control techniques, and that applies to a wide variety of objects, from one's control of the self to the "biopolitical" control of populations. In the work of Foucault, this notion is indeed linked to other concepts such as biopolitics and power-knowledge. The genealogical exploration of the modern state as "problem of government" does not only deepen Foucault’s analyses on sovereignty and biopolitics; it offers an analytics of government which refines both Foucault’s theory of power and his understanding of freedom.

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Answer 6

Hemispheres of the Earth

The Hemispheres of the Earth in geography and cartography refer to any division of the globe into two hemispheres (from Ancient Greek ἡμισφαίριον hēmisphairion meaning "half of a sphere").

The most common such divisions are by latitudinal or longitudinal markers:

The East-West division can also be seen in a cultural sense, as a division into two cultural hemispheres.

However, other schemes have sought to divide the planet in a way that maximizes the preponderance of one geographic feature or another in each division:

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Answer 7

Indices of deprivation 2010

The Indices of Deprivation 2010 (ID 2010) is a deprivation index at the small area level, created by the British Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and released on 24 March 2011. It follows the ID2007 and because much of the datasets are the same or similar between indices allows a comparison of "relative deprivation" of an area between the two indices.

While it is known as the ID2010, most of the data actually dates from 2008.

According to the research, the most deprived area in the country is in the village of Jaywick on the Essex coast.

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Answer 8

Intermontane

Intermontane is a physiographic adjective "" ("signifying among, between, amid, during, within, mutual, reciprocal) and the adjective "" ("inhabiting, or growing in mountainous regions, especially cool, moist upland slopes below the timberline.")

The corresponding physiographic noun is , while the noun intermontane is an ecologic noun meaning among, between, amid, or within " habitat." As an example, an alpine region would be an intermontane for a species that migrates between a glacial region and a subalpine region.

In palaeogeography, intermontane may refer to

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Answer 9

International date line in Judaism

The international date line in Judaism is used to demarcate the change of one calendar day to the next in the Jewish calendar. The Jewish calendar defines days as running from sundown to sundown rather than midnight to midnight. So in the context of Judaism, an international date line demarcates when the line of sundown moving across the Earth's surface stops being the sundown ending and starting one day and starts being the sundown ending and starting the following day.

However, the conventional International Date Line is a relatively recent geographic and political construct whose exact location has moved from time to time depending on the needs of different interested parties. There are no objective criteria for its placement. In that light, it cannot be taken for granted that the conventional International Date Line can (or should) be used as a date line under Jewish law. In practice, within Judaism the halakhic date line is similar to, but not necessarily identical with, the conventional Date Line, and the differences can have consequences under religious law.

Many of the opinions about the halakhic date line are structured as a response to the question of what days someone should observe as Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Shabbat occurs every seven days at any location on earth. It is normally thought to occur on Saturday—or more precisely, from Friday at sundown to Saturday at nightfall. But if the halakhic date line is not identical to the conventional Date Line, it is possible that what is Saturday with respect to the conventional Date Line is not Saturday with respect to the halakhic date line, at least in some places.

There are several opinions regarding where exactly the halakhic date line should be according to Jewish law, and at least one opinion that says that no halakhic date line really exists.

1. 90 degrees east of Jerusalem. The concept of a halakhic date line is mentioned in the Baal HaMeor, a 12th-century Talmudic commentary, which seems to indicate that the day changes in an area where the time is six hours ahead of Jerusalem (90 degrees east of Jerusalem, about 125.2°E, a line now known to run through Australia, the Philippines, China and Russia). This line, which he refers to as the K'tzai Hamizrach (the easternmost line), is used to calculate the day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. According to some sources it is alluded to in both the Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah and Eruvin) and in the Jerusalem Talmud. The Kuzari of Yehuda Halevi, also a 12th-century work, seems to agree with this ruling.

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Answer 10

Indices of deprivation 2004

The Indices of deprivation 2004 (ID 2004) is a deprivation index at the small area level, created by the British Department for Communities and Local Government(DCLG).

It is unusual in its inclusion of a measure of geographical access as an element of deprivation and in its direct measure of poverty (through data on benefit receipts). The ID 2004 is based on the idea of distinct dimensions of deprivation which can be recognised and measured separately. These are then combined into a single overall measure. The Index is made up of seven distinct dimensions of deprivation called Domain Indices. Whilst it is known as the ID2004, most of the data actually dates from 2001.

Communities and Local Government (previously the Office of Deputy Prime Minister) commissioned the Social Disadvantage Research Centre (SDRC) at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Oxford to update the Indices of deprivation 2004 (ID 2004) for England. Following an extensive public consultation (see Annex A), an independent academic peer review and a significant programme of work, the new Indices of Deprivation 2007 were produced in December 2007.

The new Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007 (IMD 2007) is a Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level measure of multiple deprivation, and is made up of seven LSOA level domain indices. There are also two supplementary indices (Income Deprivation Affecting Children and Income Deprivation Affecting Older People). Summary measures of the IMD 2007 are presented at local authority district level and county council level. The LSOA level Domain Indices and IMD 2007, together with the local authority district and county summaries are referred to as the Indices of Deprivation 2007 (ID 2007).(Rusty 2009)

The ID 2007 are based on the approach, structure and methodology that were used to create the previous ID 2004. The ID 2007 updates the ID 2004 using more up-to-date data. The new IMD 2007 contains seven domains which relate to income deprivation, employment deprivation, health deprivation and disability, education skills and training deprivation, barriers to housing and services, living environment deprivation, and crime.

Each Domain contains a number of indicators, totalling 37. Two supplementary indexes have been created as a subset of the Income domain. These relate to income deprivation affecting children and income deprivation affecting older people.

The Indices of deprivation 2004 are measured at the Lower Layer Super Output Area level. Super Output Areas were developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from the Census 2001 Output Areas. There are two levels, the lowest (which the Index is based upon) being smaller than wards and containing a minimum of 1,000 people and 400 households. The middle layer contains a minimum of 5,000 people and 2,000 households. Earlier proposals to introduce Upper Layer Super Output Areas were dropped due to lack of demand.

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