TPC 1

GLOBAL
CULTURE AND
TOURISM
GEOGRAPHY

RACHEL JENNIFER Z.VELASQUEZ

Instructor
Title Page 1
Table of Contents 2
Chapter Title Page
I Introduction 3
II Continent of the World

Asia 19

Europe 29
III Continent of the World

North America 4O

South America 43
IV Continents of the World

Africa 53

Australia/Oceania 76

Antartica 98

Chapter I
Introduction
At the end of the chapter, the students should be able to:
 Meaning, Scope and contents of Geography.
 Importance of Geography in tourism,
 Climatic variations, climatic regions of world, study of maps, longitude &
latitude, international date line, Standard time and Day light saving time.
Introduction.
Geography is a field of science dedicated to the study of lands, the features,

the inhabitants, and the phenomena of earth. A literal translation would be “to

describe or write about the earth”. The first person to use the word ‘geography 'was

Eratosthenes (276-194 BC). Geography is largely the study of the interaction of all

physical and human phenomena and landscapes created by such interactions.” It is

about how, why and where human and natural activities occur and how these

activities are interconnected.

Geography is divided into three main branches:

1. Human geography

2. Physical geography

3. Regional geography.

Physical geography: It is a branch of geography which aims to understand the

physical problems and issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere,

and global flora and fauna patterns (biosphere).

Human geography: It is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of

pattern and processes that shape the human society. It encompasses the human,

political, cultural, social & economic aspects.

Regional geography: It is that branch of geography which studies the regions

of all sizes across the earth. The main aim is to understand, or define the uniqueness,

or characteristics of a particular region that consists of natural as well as human

elements.
 Tourism: The activities of a person travelling outside his or her usual

environment for less than a specified period of time and whose main purpose of travel

is other than exercise of an activity remunerated from the place visited (WTO).

Tourism Geography: Tourism geography is the study of travel and tourism,

as an industry and as a social and cultural activity. It is that branch of science which

deals with the study of travel and its impact on places. The geography of tourism is

dominated by number of key themes, which relate location, place, space, human and

cultural characteristics, and the movement of people. The geography of tourism is also

concern with the flows of tourism from generating countries to the destinations. These

can be heavily influenced by the economic and political factors, with the flows of

tourism from traditionally from developed countries to the less developed countries.

Domestic Tourism. Domestic tourism is tourism involving residents of one

country traveling only within that country. A domestic holiday is a holiday spent in

the same country; this class may overlap with staycation, a vacation spent in the same

region. This is different from inbound tourism

International Tourism.International tourism refers to tourism that crosses

national borders. Globalization has made tourism a popular global leisure activity.

Excursionist. A person who stays in a tourist destination less than 24 hours

Tourist. A person who stays in a tourist destination more than 24 hours.

Scope of Geography.

Geography has acquired the status of science that explains the arrangements of

various natural and cultural features on the earth surface. In general, the natural

phenomena like mountains, rivers, lakes etc. change slowly while the cultural
elements like buildings, roads, crops, change fast. Travelling from one place to

another you notice that the trees number and types of trees change from area to area.

All this because of continuous interaction between the environment in which we live

in and the way we use it. The study of geography is about observing such patterns.

Another aspect of geography is to understand the factors, how do social, cultural,

economic and demographic factors change our physical landscape and create new or

altered landscapes by human interventions. For example, human settlements are

transformation of forests or barren lands for living purpose by human being. As

earlier, even today geographical information about an area is available through

reports, travel diaries and gazetteers. At present maps can be drawn by using satellite

images using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools. Thus, the scope of

geography is in various disciplines, like armed forces, environment management,

water resources, disaster management, meteorology and planning and various social

sciences. Apart from that, a geographer can help in day to day life like tourism,

housing and health related activities and more. Importance of geography in tourism.

Geography is fundamental to the study of tourism, because tourism in geographical in

nature. Tourism occurs in places, it involves movement and activities between places

and it is an activity in which both place characteristics and personal self-identities are

formed, through relationships that are created among places, landscapes and people.

Physical geography provides the essential background, against which tourism places

are created and environmental impacts and concerns are major issues, that must be

considered in managing the development of tourism places.

How characteristics of the tourism system relate to geography

 Rural tourism : Focused on countryside

 Urban tourism : Focused on town & cities

  Spa tourism : Travel for health & wellness

 Sport tourism: Focused on spectators travelling to sports events.

 Eco tourism : Based on nature

 Heritage tourism: Focused on heritage cities and Heritage buildings.

Contents of Geography

A. Physical Geography: Physical geography (also known as geosystems

or physiography) is one of the two major sub-fields of geography. Physical

geography is that branch of natural science which deals with the study of

processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere,

hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built

environment, the domain of human geography. It has a number of sub-

branches which treat different kind of physical phenomena.

1. Geomorphology: Geomorphology: is the field concerned with

understanding the surface of the Earth and the processes by which it is shaped,

both at the present as well as in the past. Geomorphology as a field has several

sub-fields that deal with the specific landforms of various environments e.g.

desert geomorphology etc. Geomorphologists seek to understand why

landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform history and dynamics

and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical

experiments and numerical modelling.

2. Hydrology: Hydrology is the scientific study of the movement,

distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the

hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability.

Thus the field encompasses water in rivers, lakes, aquifers and to an extent

glaciers, in which the field examines the process and dynamics involved in
these bodies of water. Similar to most fields of physical geography it has sub-

fields that examine the specific bodies of water or their interaction with other

spheres e.g. limnology and ecohydrology.

3. Glaciology: Glaciology is the scientific study of glaciers, or more

generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology also has a

vast array of sub-fields examining the factors and processes involved in ice

sheets and glaciers e.g. snow hydrology and glacial geology.

4. Bio-geography: It is concerned with the biological phenomena in

space, especially in terms of the distribution of various kinds of floral and

faunal species. Biogeography may be subdivided into plant or floral

geography, animals or faunal geography, and human ecology.

5. Climatology: It is the study of the climate, scientifically defined as

weather conditions averaged over a long period of time. Climatology

examines both the nature of micro (local) and macro (global) climates and the

natural and anthropogenic influences on them. The field is also sub-divided

largely into the climates of various regions and the study of specific

phenomena or time periods e.g. tropical cyclone rainfall climatology and

paleoclimatology.

6. Meteorology: It is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the

atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and short term forecasting (in

contrast with climatology). Meteorological phenomena are observable weather

events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology.

Meteorology phenomena are observable weather events that illuminate, and

are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the

variables of Earth's atmosphere: temperature, air pressure, water vapour, and

the gradients and interactions of each variable, and how they change over

time.

7. Pedology:It is the study of soils in their natural environment. It is

one of two main branches of soil science, the other being edaphology.

Pedology mainly deals with paedogenesis, soil morphology, soil classification.

In physical geography pedology is largely studied due to the numerous

interactions between climate (water, air, temperature), soil life (micro-

organisms, plants, animals), the mineral materials within soils

(biogeochemical cycles) and its position and effects on the landscape such as

laterization.

8. Palaeogeography: It is the study of historical geography. The term

generally refers to the study of physical landscapes, but it can also refer to the

study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on the

study of landforms, the term paleogeomorphology is sometimes used instead.

9. Coastal geography: It is the study of the dynamic interface between

the ocean and the land, incorporating both the physical geography (i.e. coastal

geomorphology, geology and oceanography) and the human geography of the

coast. It involves an understanding of coastal weathering processes,

particularly wave action, sediment movement and weathering, and also the

ways in which humans interact with the coast. Coastal geography, although

predominantly geomorphological in its research, is not just concerned with

coastal landforms, but also the causes and influences of sea level change.

10. Oceanography: It is the branch of physical geography that studies

the Earth's oceans and seas. It covers a wide range of topics, including marine

organisms and ecosystem dynamics (biological oceanography); ocean

currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics (physical oceanography);

plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor (geological oceanography); and

fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean

and across its boundaries (chemical oceanography).

11. Environmental Geography: It is a branch of geography that

analyzes the spatialaspects of interactions between humans and the natural

world. The branch bridges the divide between human and physical geography

and thus requires an understanding of the dynamics of geology, meteorology,

hydrology, biogeography, and geomorphology, as well as the ways in which

human societies conceptualize the environment.

B. Human Geography.

Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study

of patterns and processes that shape the human society. It encompasses the

human, political, cultural,social, and economic aspects. It is further divided

into various sub-branches.

1. Cultural geography: Cultural geography is the study of cultural

products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and

places. It focuses on describing and analyzing the ways language, religion,

economy, government and other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant,

from one place to another.

2. Development geography: Development geography is a branch of

geography which refers to the standard of living and quality of life of its

human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that

affects people's lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as

perceived by the people undergoing change.In development geography,

geographers study spatial patterns in development. They try to find by what

characteristics they can measure development by looking ateconomic, political

and social factors.

3. Economic geography. Economic geography is the study of the

location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the

world. Economic geography has taken a variety of approaches to many

different subject matters, including but not limited to the location of industries,

economies of agglomeration (also known as"linkages"), transportation,

international trade, development, real estate, gentrification,and the relationship

between the environment and the economy and globalization.

4. Health geography. Health geography is the application of

geographical information,perspectives, and methods to the study of health,

disease, and health care.

5. Political geography. Political geography is a specific field of study

within the more general field of human geography that examines how people

in specific locations around the world have organized themselves into

distinctive political groups, and how they influence and interact with each

other. It is the study of how space is made into territory - that is to say, how

political communities divide the world between themselves. It can be

summarized as the interrelationships between people, state, and territory.

6. Demography. Demography is the statistical study of populations,

including of humanbeings. Demography encompasses the study of the size,

structure, and distribution ofthese populations, and spatial and/or temporal

changes in them in response to time,birth, migration, ageing, and death. Based

 on the demographic research of the earth,earth’s population up to the year

2050 and 2100 can be estimated by the demographers.

7. Religion geography

Religion geography is the study of the impact of geography, i.e.place and

space, on religious belief.Another aspect of the relationship between religion and

geography is religiousgeography, in which geographical ideas are influenced by

religion, such as early mapmaking, and the biblical geography that developed in the

16th century to identify placesfrom the Bible.Thus, geographers are less concerned

about religion, but are more sensitive to howreligion as a cultural feature affects

social, cultural, political and environmental systems.

The point of focus is not the specifics of religious beliefs and practices, but

how thesereligious beliefs and practices are internalized by adherents, and how these

processes ofinternalization influence, and is influenced by, social systems.

8. Transportation geography. Transportation geography, also transport

geography, is abranch of Economic geography that particularly investigates the

movement of andconnections between things of interest to people: people themselves,

vehicles,commodities, information.

At the most basic level, humans move and thus interact with each other by

walking, buttransportation geography typically studies more complex and regional or

globalsystems of transportation that include multiple interconnected modes like public

transit, personal cars, bicycles, freight railroads, airplanes and more.

Transportationgeography measures the result of human activity between and within

locations. Itfocuses on things such as travel time, routes chosen, and modes of

transport, cost andresource use.

 9. Tourism geography. Tourism geography is the study of travel and tourism,

as anindustry and as a social and cultural activity. Tourism geography covers a wide

range ofinterests including the environmental impact of tourism, the geographies of

tourism andleisure economies, answering tourism industry and management concerns

and thesociology of tourism and locations of tourism.

Tourism occurs in places, it involves movement and activities between places

and it isan activity in which both place characteristics and personal self-identities are

formed,through the relationships that are created among places, landscapes and

people.

Physical geography provides the essential background, against which tourism

placesare created and environmental impacts and concerns are major issues that must

beconsidered in managing the development of tourism places.

10. Urban geography. Urban geography is the sub-discipline of Geography

whichconcentrates on those parts of the Earth's surface that have a high concentration

ofbuildings and infrastructure. Predominantly towns and cities, these are

settlementswith a high population density and with the majority of economic activities

in thesecondary sector and tertiary sectors.

C. Regional Geography.

Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies the world's regions.

A regionitself is defined as a part of the Earth's surface with one or many similar

characteristicsthat make it unique from other areas.

Regional geography studies the specific unique characteristics of places

related to theirculture, economy, topography, climate, politics and environmental

factors such as their different species of flora and fauna.

 1. Macro-region: A macro-region is a geopolitical subdivision that

encompasses severaltraditionally or politically defined regions. The meaning may

vary, with the common denominator being cultural, economical, historical or social

similarity within a macroregion.

2. Micro-region: A micro-region can be defined as a territorial area that is

smaller than a state to which it belongs, but larger than a municipality. Typical

examples of such microregions are provinces, districts, departments or even mega-

cities. 3. Meso-region: A meso-region is a medium-sized region between the size of a

city or district and that of a nation.

Climatic Variation.

Climate is the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area. It is measured

by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure,

wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a

given region over long periods of time. Climate is different from weather, in that

weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region.

A region's climate is generated by the climate system, which has five components:

atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. The climate of a

location is affected by its latitude, terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies

and their currents. Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical

ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. Climatic

change: Climate change is the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that

change lasts for an extended period of time (i-e., decades to millions of years).

Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar

radiations received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human

activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change,

often referred to as “global warming”.

Types of climate variation

Climate although very slowly, keeps evolving. There are many causes behind

variation in climate. Climate variations can be categorized into two broad contexts.

 Natural Climate Variation.

 Human-induced Climate Variation.

A. Natural Climate Variation

There are several natural causes that force climate to change across

time and scale. It can be further drilled down into the following categories;

1. Natural Forcing of the Climate System.

2. Natural Variability of the Climate.

3. Natural Forcing of the Climate System.

Natural forcing is of two types.

1. External Forcing

These are essential linked to changes in the orbital parameters of the earth that

control the intensity and location of incident solar radiation, and fluctuations in solar

energy.

2. Internal Forcing

These comprise all those changes that occur within the same system itself, in

particular volcanic activity, fluctuations in ocean circulations and large-scale

changes in the marine and terrestrial biosphere or in the cryosphere. The Sun and

the Global Energy Balance. The sun is the prime source of external energy for the

earth. Every moment huge amount of energy reaches the earth from the sun. Let
 us see this from a flow chart that shows what happens to the solar radiation that

reaches the earth.

3. Radiative Forcing

At equilibrium, the average net radiation is zero. However, a change in either the

solar radiation or the infra red radiation changes the net radiation. This imbalance is

called radiative forcing. A positive radiative forcing tends to warm earth’s surface on

the average where as a negative radiative forcing tends to cool it. In either case

climate system must react to restore the balance.

4. Greenhouse Effect:

Greenhouse effect is a phenomenon whereby earth’s atmosphere traps solar

radiation caused by the presence of gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapour, and

methane that allow incoming sunlight to pass through but absorb the heat radiated

back from earth’s surface. The gases that trap heat radiated from the earth are called

greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Natural Variability of the Climate.

There are lots of natural factors that cause significant changes in the climate.

These causes can be within the earth or coming outside from the earth. Based on this ,

natural climate variability can be categorized into two groups.

1. Externally induced Climate Variability.

2. Internally induced Climate Variability.

A.Externally Induced Climate Variability

It refers to the impact of some external factor that leads to variability such as

the impact of:

 Variations in Solar radiation.

 Solar and Lunar tides.

  Internally Induced Climate Variability

It refers to internal interactions between components of the

climate system, such as the interaction between

 Ocean and Atmosphere

 Atmosphere and Biosphere.

B.Human- induced Climate Variation.

Scientists agree that humans very likely bring about changes in climate

through various activities. This can happen at an individual level or at a group level.

Each individual in today’s world plays a role, directly or indirectly, in contributing his

or her bit to climate change.

 Electric power is generated mainly by thermal power plants. These releases a

huge amount of GHGs.

 Vehicles run on petrol or diesel, both are fossil fuels. These releases a huge

amount of GHGs.

 The more people consume luxury goods, essentials, and household goods,

the more industry flourishes.

 A great deal of waste that we generate such as plastics, does not get

degraded and remains in the environment for many years, causing damage.

 The use of trees in large quantities for construction of houses leads to further

depletion of forests.

 High-yield varieties of crops require large quantities of fertilizers. More

fertilizer use leads to more emissions of N20.

1. Enhanced Greenhouse Effect: Most human activities influence the climate by

bringing about an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the

atmosphere. An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases leads to an increase

in the magnitude of the greenhouse effect. This is known as Enhanced greenhouse

effect. The enhanced greenhouse effect is a direct result of human activities through

processes such as the burning of fossil fuels, industrial operations and forest clearing

releasing carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.

Chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs are also potent greenhouse gases.

2. Land use evolution: By replacing forests with arable lands or the natural vegetation

by asphalt and concrete, humanity modifies the way in which terrestrial surface

reflects sunlight and releases heat. All these changes can also modify the regional

configuration of evaporation, streaming and rains.

3. Atmospheric aerosols: Due to its agricultural and industrial activities, humanity

adds great quantities of fine particles called aerosols to the atmosphere. Most of the

aerosols are quickly falling due to gravity and precipitations, but they do not less

influence the atmosphere radiative absorption. It is the quantity and the nature of these

particles as well as the nature of underneath surface (land or water) that determines if

this have a heating effect or not.

Latitude and Longitude

 Lines of Latitude and Longitude are the imaginary lines that encircle the earth

in either an east-west direction or in a north-south direction. Together they form a grid

which can be used to identify the locations on the earth surface. When using these

lines to find a location the coordinates are always given latitude first and then

longitude.

Latitude: Latitude is the name for a group of imaginary lines that run parallel

to the equator. The equator is the 0 degree line and splits the earth into two equal

halves, Northern and Southern hemispheres. Each hemisphere is divided into 90

degrees, from the equator to the pole. Lines of latitude get smaller as they get further

north because the distance around the earth decreases. At the poles the latitude is 90

degrees and the circular distance is 0 km, each pole being just a single point

Longitude: Lines of longitude run north-south around the planet. They begin at the

prime meridian and split the Earth into East and West hemispheres. There are 180

degrees in each hemisphere. All lines of longitude are the same length. There is only

one important line of longitude other than Prime Meridian-the International Date

Line. This is the 180 degree line in both directions.

International Date Line.

It is the imaginary line on the Earth that separates two consecutive calendar

days. The date in the eastern hemisphere, to the left of line, is always one day ahead

of the date in the western hemisphere. It has been recognized as a matter of

convenience and has no force in international law.

Day Light Saving Time.

Daylight saving time (DST) or summer time is the practice of advancing

clocks during summer months by one hour so that in the evening hours day light is

experienced later, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, users in regions
with summer time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring and

adjust them backward in the autumn to standard time. New Zealander George Hudson

proposed the modern idea of daylight saving in 1895. Germany and Austria-Hungary

organized the first implementation, starting on 30 April 1916.

Standard Time

Standard time is the synchronization of clocks within a geographical area or a

region to a single time standard, rather than using solar time or a locally chosen

meridian (longitude) to establish a local mean time standard. Historically, the concept

was established during the 19th century to aid weather forecasting and train travel.