Chapter 3 – INTERACTIONS and Utah Geography
Chapter 3 – INTERACTIONS and Utah Geography
DRAFT webtext in: Geography of Utah, by G. Atwood, 2012
Use with professional courtesy and attribution including attribution of original sources where indicated.
LINK to printable version… it may differ a bit from this web-posted version.
CHECK THIS
Subtitle:
Utah's geography – inescapable networks of relationships among people, places, and environments
BIG CONCEPTS, meaning… these concepts provide ways to explore concepts of geography of Utah … specifically, the third of geography’s great themes… interactions. The five great themes of geography are: location, place, interaction, movement, and region. Interaction is the most encompassing of all, virtually synonymous with “webs of relationships among people, places, and environment.”
1. Interaction is the third of the great themes of geography.
2. What makes geography special? It’s spatial.
3. Interactions can be within… or beyond
4. Interactions can be correlated, or causal
EVIDENCE. Examine these images in the context of interactions.
Onton-InversionSLValley
UT-Inter-bEvid02-CliffDwelling (need a nifty image)
UT-Inter-bEvid03-NightSky-LocUTCities
UT-Inter-bEvid04-CountyBoundaries
Quotation:
“All I am saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. – Commencement address at Oberlin College, Ohio, June 1965.
LINK to a woman who made a difference: Alberta Henry, SLTribune-y090119-CelebrateBlackHistory... be aware of scholarships at UofU in her name.
CASES:
Case #1: Salt Lake Valley’s winter smog – interactions of physical geography (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere…) and human geography (demographics, economics, political science, quality of life)
Case #2: County boundaries… why they are where they are -- interactions of physical geography (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere…) and human geography (demographics, economics, political science, … sociology/religion)
Topics… Questions to Ponder…
What is the difference between INTERACTIONS and GEOGRAPHY?
Do any physical geographies NOT interact with others?
Do any human geographies NOT interact with each other?
Do any of the physical geographies not interact with human geographies?
Overarching Goal of the Chapter:
EMPOWERMENT by knowledge: recognize systems (a) have subsystems that (b) interact, and (c) interact non-linearly. When faced with a big problem, examine its smaller parts. Geography is about relationships... interactions... correlations... and causality.
Major concept:
INTERACTION is the third of the “five themes of geography” the others being (1) location, (2) place, (4) migration / movement, and (5) region,
Addendum / clarification / expansion on the “major concept”…
Geographic interactions take place in space. What makes geography special?? It’s spatial.
Specifics: by the end of this chapter … you should:
Be able to list at least a dozen of The 15 Words that summarize realms of interactions in Utah geography (and any other region’s geography)
Understand a few types of interactions in broadest sense
Understand geography’s most classic interactions
Visit the concept of BOUNDARIES
Be able to discuss the boundary of any county or any state or any country with knowledge and skills of a geographer… not necessarily precise or even accurate … but with critical thinking.
TERMS to understand with respect to INTERACTIONS
Understand these terms (a) because they indicate mastery of content, and (b) for the mid-term (use your own words) or on quizzes
Interaction
Rural
Urban
Interaction of human and physical environment
Webs of relationships among people, places and environments
Geographic thinking
Boundary
Geographic dimensions
Spatial scale
Time scales -- also called temporal scale
THEORY / CONCEPTS towards an understanding of INTERACTION and geography of UTAH
1. INTERACTION is the third of the five great themes of geography.
What is meant by “THEMES” of geography?
Think symphonies… themes… recurring themes… they link, they are memorable, and they are handles for understanding the big picture. They are rarely isolated concepts, but appear in context, for example in the context of regional geography.
Themes of geography are pervasive across the subdisciplines of geography.
Specialty areas of geography include: military geography; environmental geography; hazards geography, transportation geography, medical… …They would share similar THEMES
INTERACTION… is the most pervasive, generalized, and recurring of the five themes of geography.
When the (DRAFT Language… committee on themes of geography) identified five themes of geography, INTERACTION was the most controversial, because geography is all about interaction. The themes were in part the product of the Environmental Movement and proponents of including INTERACTION as one of the five themes wanted recognition that geography is all about environment… and their perspective prevailed. So of the debate was about disciplinary territory. What is the difference between environmental studies and geography? Other geographers wanted to change the “old school” image of geography as static… as about LOCATION of state capitols and names of PLACES.
INTERACTION should be easy for geographers of Utah to discuss, with family, in exams and in your atlas. Everything about geography is about interaction… webs of relationships. As National Geographic’s definition of geography states LINK: Geography is the science of space and place on Earth’s surface…
2. What makes geography special? It’s spatial.
EXAMPLES
Space… spatial. Geography takes place in spatial relationships.
3. Interactions happen “within” and “beyond”
EXAMPLES – Trade – Salt Lake County businesses interact with others within Utah… and beyond Utah.
UofUT-VennDiagramOfGeogExpertise
We can compare Utah to the rest of the USA… or the world.
We can compare a specific attribute of geography as it varies within Utah
We can do this qualitatively and, increasingly in time, quantitatively with spatial statistics.
What do geographers study?
GEOGRAPHY’s overarching dichotomy classifies geographers and their fields of study as: Physical or Human.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY –
Interactions within and among the subsystems of Earth systems
Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere,
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY –
Interactions within and among social and behavioral sciences.
Interactions within and beyond include interactions among individuals and groups.
Interactions include: power, money, culture, kinship, institutions, exchange;
VENN DIAGRAM… so many interactions are possible… all those physical and all those human, yikes…
At the extreme… Everything impacts everything. Everything interacts.
Geographers examine interactions in space. That’s what is special about geography. The premise is that spatial relationships matter.
Geography of Utah examines interactions within and beyond Utah… so long as they involve Utah.
4. Interactions can be correlated. They can be causal.
Inters – not a clear concept, not a clear definition
So... here's the Merriam Webster definition...
Correlation and causality... big differences... abundant potential for research... Indices of correlation… strong or weak. If strongly correlated, there’s reason to assume a causal relationship but that relationship may be indirect. Do storks really deliver babies? (a) Were the two correlated? (b) is/was there a causal relationship? (c) If correlated… could both events be related to a third, causal, factor?
INTERACTION
Function: noun
Date: 1832
1. mutual or reciprocal action or influence
CORRELATION…
Function: noun
Etymology: Medieval Latin correlation-, correlation, from Latin com- + relation-, relation relation
Date: 1561
1. the state or relation of being correlated; specifically a relation existing between phenomena or things or between mathematical or statistical variables which tend to vary, be associated, or occur together in a way not expected on the basis of chance alone
CAUSAL
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1530
1. expressing or indicating cause: causative
2. of, relating to, or constituting a cause
3. involving causation or a cause
4. arising from a cause
CASE #1 – Interactions… Salt Lake Valley Smog
Evidence – images:
Onton-SLValley-Inversion
AndersonSurfaceAndHigh
AndersonValleyInversion
Winter smog…
INTERACTIONS… geography of Utah…
(a) COMPLEX…
An example of “everything influences everything” …Salt Lake Valley and other valleys of Utah... but not all valleys of Utah’s winter inversions.
Physical (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere)
Human (politics, economics, consumer, lifestyle, health)
Human: we pollute. Combustion pollutes. Industry pollutes. Cars pollute.
How bad is it… and has it been? Utah was the first state to enact air quality regulation in cities, for smelters… date… 1910-1915 -- In the 1940s and 1950s, spring cleaning meant literally wiping the soot off walls.
Why is smog so bad in Salt Lake … and other Utah valleys?
Geosphere: shaped like a bowl due to down-dropping of valley by active faults, driven by tectonics.
Atmosphere: cold air; snow on ground (reflects energy back to sky); high pressure systems keep air in place;
Biosphere: Cache County blames the cows…with some reason
Hydrosphere: the water cycle, snow on the ground.
STEPS for a strong inversion:
Cold … it’s winter.
Cold ground (snow)
Cold air (Arctic blast or air mass from the north)
White, reflective ground (snow, and feedback loop, stays cold, doesn’t melt)
High pressure system… holds cold air in place. Cold air is denser than hot air; it naturally collects and stays low.
Keep adding pollutants… folks get sick and depressed.
WAYS to get rid of winter inversion
Warm the air… wait for Spring
Blast the cold air out with winds that gouge and carry the cold air out, circulation
Melt the snow (such as with rain or by warm temperatures)
Sent the high pressure system away. Have storms come in from the west and bye bye to inversions
LINKS to nifty websites for information about pollutants.
US and pollutants
Archived pollution data for SLC
Health alerts for SLCo
AIRNow – for national patterns, includes weather systems
My favorite weather site: blog of UofU meteorologist, Jim Steenburgh Wasatch Weather Weenies. Joy!
SUMMARY with respect to interactions… Earth systems… subsystems… these should be familiar terms now… the 5 subsystems of Earth systems. ALWAYS expect interactions among all five! Meaning, be surprised when there are not interactions… and figure out why.
CASE #2 – County boundaries… evidence of interactions among physical and human geographies of Utah
Evidence – Images:
LINK to simplified county map of Utah no names ;
LINK Utah's counties with names;
LINK to View of SLCounty-DavisCo boundary- BOWEN; used with permission
LINK to USGS topo map of SLCounty-Davis County boundary;
LINK to Google Earth image with boundary.
Interactions…. Why are Utah’s county boundaries where they are?
Think of this as a game… rules of the game are to use The 15 Words of Geog3600 LINK
Think like a geographer ... or as a governor... Brigham Young, Governor Matheson, Governor Herbert
Boundaries set limits. In geography, they set limits between physical areas. Usually they are hypothetical lines, but sometimes physical lines that separate two entities… such as two properties, two counties, two physiographic provinces. (GIS… what side is something on… is it connected (connectivity), is it contiguous (touching)… how is it bounded).
Your challenge… to give plausible explanations why Utah’s counties’ boundaries are where they are. Keep asking yourself, where would you draw the lines today? Or 150 years ago?
By definition, county lines are delineations of HUMAN geography. They are called “political” and counties are “political subdivisions.”
However, to understand the location of county boundaries… think both human and physical geographic thoughts.
JW Powell suggestions for states based on watersheds.
Map of region LINK USGS- JWPowell, region based on watershed
Map of west LINK USGS-JWPowell, detail, western USA
Detail for Utah LINK USGS-JWPowell, detail, Utah
Territory of Utah - Map showing 5 original counties (WSU/BYU/Greer-Atlas of Utah p. 163)
Map of Utah showing classification of County boundaries . It uses a 5 – class, classification scheme for Utah’s county boundaries. Boundaries divide what is within from what is without. (INTERACTIONS... within and without.) Think about interactions… physical and human geographies. Analyze Utah’s county boundaries… and draw inferences on why they were drawn where they were drawn.
ORANGE: simple geographic reference (lines of latitude or longitude)
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Example:
BROWN: Physical: approximately the ridgeline of a mountain range; the boundary of a watershed.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Example:
BLUE: Physical: a river
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Example:
YELLOW: Checkerboard – township and range, human geography - land ownership or survey
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Example:
PURPLE: arbitrary
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Example:
Move back and forth between LINK digital elevation map (DEM) of Utah (by Sterner, Fermi Lab, used with permission).
And here are county boundaries classified. LINK
FINAL SECTION OF THIS Web-text chapter… So What?
So What … is so important about INTERACTIONS to Utah’s human and physical geographies?
It might make more sense to ask what isn’t important.
Coaching… just saying an interaction is important is not sufficient for credit in this course. All interactions have some importance. What matters is your ability to describe the interaction with specificity and its consequences with specificity.
We’re only on the first part of GEOG3600-Geography of Utah, the five themes of geography. By the end of the course, you should be able to discuss interactions among each of the matrix pairs… and even tie in others. Drill deeply into these effects, use the matrix and consider causal relationships.
LIST of “The 15 Words” (three columns)
Loc
Inter
Migra
Inter
Region
Geo
Hydro
Atmo
Bio
Anthro
Econ
Demog
PoliSci
Sociol
QLife
Chapter SUMMARY
INTERACTION, the third of the five Themes of Geography.
INTERACTION is a recurrent theme of geography, specifically relationships between human geography.
INTERACTION can be within or beyond a location.
All boundaries result from interactions within physical geography realms; or related to both human and physical realms. Utah’s county boundaries can be examined as political decisions based on interactions of physical, human, and some arbitrary factors.
Self Quiz …
List at least a dozen of The 15 Words that summarize realms of interactions in Utah geography (and any other region’s geography).
Do you see the logic of the web-text (and Geog3600)?
• Part I of the course/text discusses the 5 Themes of Geography;
• Part II of the course/text discusses the 5 subsystems of Earth systems (physical geography);
• Part III of the course/text explores social and behavioral science issues of human geography.
Can you see causal relationships among the 15 words; and are there “words” with no interactions between them?
As you ponder INTERACTIONS among all 15 words, can you apply some theory to the interactions, specifically:
• Interactions based on location such as within and beyond.
• Interactions of human and physical geographies
Can you … and why don’t you… discuss the boundary of a county that you’re interested in understanding… with knowledge and skills of a geographer. Look at boundaries at changed scale: (a) at the very general scale of the classification; (b) at the scale of the State Highway Map. As you do so, embrace uncertainty. You’re practicing your skills of a geographer. You may not know the history of why the county’s boundaries are as they are… but you can discuss multiple hypotheses… natural features, simple coordinates; respect for surveyed properties; pure unadulterated raw politics.
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