BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY Physical geography (also known as geosystems or physiography) is one of the two major subfields of geography.

[1] Physical geography is that branch of natural sc ience which deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural enviro nment like the atmosphere, biosphere and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural o r built environment, the domain of human geography. Within the body of physical geography, the Earth is often split either into seve ral spheres or environments, the main spheres being the atmosphere, biosphere, c ryosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and pedosphere. Research in physi cal geography is often interdisciplinary and uses the systems approach. Human geography is one of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geograph y. Human geography is a branch of the social sciences that studies the world, it s people, communities, and cultures [1] with an emphasis on relations of and acr oss space and place. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in t hat it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more receptive to qualitative research methodologies. As a discipline, Human geography is particu larly diverse with respect to its methods and theoretical approaches to study (s ee below). Integrated geography is the branch of geography that describes the spatial aspec ts of interactions between humans and the natural world. It requires an understa nding of the dynamics of geology, meteorology, hydrology, biogeography, ecology, and geomorphology, as well as the ways in which human societies conceptualize t he environment. The links between cultural and physical geography were once more readily apparen t than they are today. As human experience of the world is increasingly mediated by technology, the relationships have often become obscured. Integrated geography represents a critically important set of analytical tools f or assessing the impact of human presence on the environment by measuring the re sult of human activity on natural landforms and cycles. Integrated geography is the third branch of geography, as compared to physical a nd human geography. Integrated geography concentrates on the relationship betwee n human and the surrounding world. Geomatics is a branch of geography that has emerged since the quantitative revol ution in geography in the mid 1950s. Geomatics involves the use of traditional s patial techniques used in cartography and topography and their application to co mputers. Geomatics has become a widespread field with many other disciplines, us ing techniques such as GIS and remote sensing. Geomatics has also led to a revit alization of some geography departments, especially in Northern America where th e subject had a declining status during the 1950s. Geomatics encompasses a large area of fields involved with spatial analysis, suc h as Cartography, Geographic information systems (GIS), Remote sensing, and Glob al positioning systems (GPS). Regional geography is a branch of geography which studies the regions of all siz es across the Earth. It has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand, or define the uniqueness, or character of a particular region tha t consists of natural as well as human elements. Attention is paid also to regio nalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into region s. Regional geography is also considered as a certain approach to study in geograph ical sciences (similar to quantitative or critical geographies, for more informa tion see History of geography). Related fields Urban planning, regional planning, and spatial planning: Use the science of geog raphy to assist in determining how to develop (or not develop) the land to meet particular criteria, such as safety, beauty, economic opportunities, the preserv ation of the built or natural heritage, and so on. The planning of towns, cities , and rural areas may be seen as applied geography. Regional science: In the 1950s, the regional science movement led by Walter Isar d arose to provide a more quantitative and analytical base to geographical quest

ions, in contrast to the descriptive tendencies of traditional geography program s. Regional science comprises the body of knowledge in which the spatial dimensi on plays a fundamental role, such as regional economics, resource management, lo cation theory, urban and regional planning, transport and communication, human g eography, population distribution, landscape ecology, and environmental quality. Interplanetary Sciences: While the discipline of geography is normally concerned with the Earth, the term can also be informally used to describe the study of o ther worlds, such as the planets of the Solar System and even beyond. The study of systems larger than the earth itself usually forms part of Astronomy or Cosmo logy. The study of other planets is usually called planetary science. Alternativ e terms such as Areology (the study of Mars) have been proposed, but are not wid ely used. Cartography studies the representation of the Earth's surface with abstract symb ols (map making). Although other subdisciplines of geography rely on maps for pr esenting their analyses, the actual making of maps is abstract enough to be rega rded separately. Cartography has grown from a collection of drafting techniques into an actual science. Cartographers must learn cognitive psychology and ergonomics to understand which symbols convey information about the Earth most effectively, and behavioral psy chology to induce the readers of their maps to act on the information. They must learn geodesy and fairly advanced mathematics to understand how the shape of th e Earth affects the distortion of map symbols projected onto a flat surface for viewing. It can be said, without much controversy, that cartography is the seed from which the larger field of geography grew. Most geographers will cite a chil dhood fascination with maps as an early sign they would end up in the field. Geographic information systems (GIS) deal with the storage of information about the Earth for automatic retrieval by a computer, in an accurate manner appropria te to the information's purpose. In addition to all of the other subdisciplines of geography, GIS specialists must understand computer science and database syst ems. GIS has revolutionized the field of cartography: nearly all mapmaking is no w done with the assistance of some form of GIS software. GIS also refers to the science of using GIS software and GIS techniques to represent, analyze, and pred ict the spatial relationships. In this context, GIS stands for Geographic Inform ation Science. Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information about Earth features from measurements made at a distance. Remotely sensed data comes in many forms, such as satellite imagery, aerial photography, and data obtained from hand-held sens ors. Geographers increasingly use remotely sensed data to obtain information abo ut the Earth's land surface, ocean, and atmosphere, because it: a) supplies obje ctive information at a variety of spatial scales (local to global), b) provides a synoptic view of the area of interest, c) allows access to distant and inacces sible sites, d) provides spectral information outside the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and e) facilitates studies of how features/areas chan ge over time. Remotely sensed data may be analyzed either independently of, or i n conjunction with other digital data layers (e.g., in a Geographic Information System). Quantitative methods Geostatistics deal with quantitative data analysis, specifi cally the application of statistical methodology to the exploration of geographi c phenomena. Geostatistics is used extensively in a variety of fields, including hydrology, geology, petroleum exploration, weather analysis, urban planning, lo gistics, and epidemiology. The mathematical basis for geostatistics derives from cluster analysis, linear discriminant analysis and non-parametric statistical t ests, and a variety of other subjects. Applications of geostatistics rely heavil y on geographic information systems, particularly for the interpolation (estimat e) of unmeasured points. Geographers are making notable contributions to the met hod of quantitative techniques. The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations identified as the si tes of the emergence of civilization. In Western European and Middle Eastern cul tures, it has frequently been applied to the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic ( Ubaid period, Naqada culture), especially in the Fertile Crescent (Levant and Me

sopotamia), but also extended to sites in Armenia,[1] and the Persian Plateau. O ther civilizations arose in Asia, among cultures situated along large river vall eys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent[2] and the Yellow River in China.[3] Civilizations also arose independently in Egypt, Norte Chico in pre sent-day Peru,[4] the Andes and in Mesoamerica. If writing is considered an indi cator of civilization, the earliest "cradle" to have writing was Sumer (Jemdet N asr). Scholars have defined civilization as based on agriculture and urban settlements , and as such is a consequence of the Neolithic Revolution.[5] Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed i ndependently, of which the Near Eastern Neolithic was the first. The extent to w hich there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Fert ile Crescent and those of East Asia is disputed. Scholars accept that the civili zations of Norte Chico in present-day Peru and that of Mesoamerica emerged indep endently from those in Eurasia. Mesopotamia Historically, the ancient city states of Mesopotamia in the fertile crescent are most cited by Western and Middle Eastern scholars as the cradle of civilization , as this was the area they knew best. The convergence of the Tigris and Euphrat es rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. The c ivilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-n omadic agrarian societies. Because Ubaid, Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylon civi lizations all emerged around the Tigris-Euphrates, the theory that Mesopotamia i s the cradle of civilization is widely accepted.[15] The Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer emerges in the Ubaid period (6500-3800 BC ) and Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC), culminating in the mid-3rd millennium b efore giving rise to the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC. This is often i dentified as the first empire in history. Eridu was the oldest Sumerian site, settled during the proto-civilized Ubaid per iod. Situated several miles southwest of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a con glomeration of early temple-cities, in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, with the ear liest of these settlements dating to around 5000 BC. By the 4th millennium BC in a conduit built of Nippur we find in connection with a sort of ziggurat and shrine bricks in the form of an arch. Sumerian inscriptions written on clay also appear in Nippur. By 4000 BC an ancient Elamite city of Susa, in Mesopotamia, also see ms to emerge from earlier villages. Whilst the Elamites originally had their own script, from an early age they adapted the Sumerian cuneiform script to their o wn language. The earliest recognizable cuneiform dates to no later than about 35 00 BC. Other villages that began to spring up around this time in the Ancient Ne ar East (Middle East) were greatly impacted and shifted rapidly from a proto-civ ilized to a fully civilized state (e.g. Ebla, Mari and Assur). Egypt The rise of dynastic Egypt in the Nile Valley occurred with the unification of U pper and Lower Egypt in approximately 3200 BC, and ended at around 343 BC, at th e start of the Achaemenid dynasty's control of Egypt. It is one of the three old est civilizations in the world. Anthropological and archaeological evidence both indicate that the Kubbaniya culture was a grain-grinding culture farming along the Nile before the 10th millennium BC using sickle blades. But another culture of hunters, fishers and gathering peoples using stone tools replaced them. Evide nce also indicates human habitation in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near th e Sudan border, before 8000 BC. From around 7000 BC to 3000 BC the climate of th e Sahara was much moister, offering good grazing land even in areas that are now very arid. Natural climate change after 3000 BC led to progressive arification of the region. It has been suggested that as a result of these changes, around 2 500 BC early tribes from the Sahara were forced to concentrate along the Nile ri ver where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized soc iety. However it should be borne in mind that indigenous tribes would always hav e been present in the fertile Nile Valley and may have developed complex societi es by themselves. Domesticated animals had already been imported from Asia betwe en 7500 BC and 4000 BC (see Sahara: History, Cattle period), and there is eviden

ce of pastoralism and cultivation of cereals in the East Sahara in the 7th mille nnium BC. By 6000 BC predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herdin g cattle. Symbols on Gerzean pottery, c.4th millennium BC, resemble traditional hieroglyph writing. In ancient Egypt mortar was in use by 4000 BC, and ancient E gyptians were producing ceramic faience as early as 3500 BC. There is evidence t hat ancient Egyptian explorers may have originally cleared and protected some br anches of the Silk Road.[citation needed] Medical institutions are known to have been established in Egypt since as early as circa 3000 BC. Ancient Egypt gains credit for the tallest ancient pyramids and early forms of surgery, mathematics, and barge transport. It is now recognized that the pre-Dynastic Egyptian states were part of a string of inter-related cultures along the Nile Valley as far south as Sudan. Some of these (notably Ta-Seti in what became Nubia and the city of pre-Kerma) had monar chies and urban development by 3000b.c. and thus represent the earliest black Af rican civilizations. Pre-Kerma became the basis of the first Kushite empire (Ker ma, c.2500-1500 bc). China The history of China is told in traditional historical records that refer as far back as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemen ted by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations. Turtle shells with markings reminiscen t of ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to ar ound 1500 BC. The Yellow River was irrigated around 2205 BC, reputedly by an Emp eror named Yu the Great, starting the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists disagree whether or not there is archaeological evidence to support the existenc e of the Xia Dynasty, with some suggesting that the Bronze Age society, the Erli tou culture, was the site of this ancient, first recorded dynasty of China. The earliest archaeologically verifiable dynasty in recorded Chinese history, the Sh ang Dynasty, emerged around 1750 BC. The Shang Dynasty is attributed for bronze artifacts and oracle bones, which were turtle shells or cattle scapula on which are written the first recorded Chinese characters and found in the Huang He vall ey in Yin, a capital of the Shang Dynasty. The oldest pre-civilized Neolithic cultures found in China to date are the Pengt oushan, the Jiahu, and the Peiligang, all dated to about 7000 BC. Pengtoushan ha s been difficult to date and has a date variance from 9000 BC to 5500 BC, but it was at this site that remains of domesticated rice dated at about 7000 BC were found. At Jiahu, some of the earliest evidence of rice cultivation was found. An other notable discovery at Jiahu was playable tonal flutes, dated around 7000 BC to 6600 BC. Peiligang was one of the earliest cultures in China to make pottery . Both Jiahu and Peiligang developed millet farming, animal husbandry, storage a nd redistribution of crops. Evidence also indicates specialized craftsmanship an d administrators in these Neolithic cultures (see History of China: Prehistoric times). China, Taiwan, and countries linked to Chinese cultural and political history The early history of China is complicated by the lack of a written language duri ng this period coupled with the existence of documents from later time periods a ttempting to describe events that occurred several centuries before. The problem in some sense stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history. By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6,000-5,000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individu al characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazin g." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confi rmed to be written Chinese.[16][17] Later Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture around 2500 BC. Archaeological sites such as Sanxingdui and Er litou show evidence of a Bronze Age civilization in China. The earliest bronze k nife was found at Majiayao in Gansu and Qinhai province dated 3000 BC. Chinese civilization originated with city-states in the Yellow River valley. 221

BC is the commonly accepted year when China became culturally and politically u nified under a large centralized empire, the Qin Dynasty, founded by Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic sy stems that enabled the Emperor of China to control the large territory from the center. Greece The oldest man-made structure is found within a prehistoric cave in central Gree ce, according to the Greek culture ministry. The structure is a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave, near Kalambaka, on the north edge of the Thessalian plain. It was constructed 23,000 years ago, probab ly as a barrier to cold winds.[18] In Crete recent findings show that the ancient people of Greece had "the most an cient sign of early navigation worldwide". Archaeological experts from Greece di scovered along the southern coast of the Greek island of Crete rough axes and ot her tools, which indicate according to some that men of Crete navigated across o pen waters as far back as between 130,000 and 700,000 years ago[19] The Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese, in the southeastern Argolid, was occupied from the Palaeolithic circa 20,000 BCE (and possibly earlier) through the Mesol ithic and Neolithic periods, being abandoned about 3000 BCE (Middle Neolithic). It is one of the very few settlements in the world that shows continuous human o ccupation for more than 20,000 years.[20] It also contains some of the earliest evidence for agriculture in Greece. The first inhabitants were probably hunter g atherers, but from around 11,000 BCE almonds, pistachios, bitter vetch, and lent ils all appear at the same time,[21] while wild oats[disambiguation needed] and wild barley appear from 10,500 BCE, while from 7,300 BCE peas and wild pears als o appear.[20] The Neolithic Civilization (6800-3300 B.C.) Neolithic civilization is the long e ra, the main characteristics of which are farming, stock-breeding, permanent ins tallation and the extensive use of stone. From the stage of the nomadic hunter-g atherer (Paleolithic Era) man entered the stage of farmer-husbandman and dominat ed his natural environment. This Neolithic "revolution" is affected in ancient G reece at the beginning of the 7th millennium BC . The Neolithic civilization las ted more than three thousand years. The Neolithic settlements extended all over Greece, with the greatest concentration in the plain of Thessaly, where the two most important settlements are located, Sesklo and Dimini. The arrangement of th e dwellings of the settlement, with their streets and squares, constitute the fi rst architectural and town-planning forms on European ground.[22] The first settlements, which predate the 6th millennium BC, are known as proto-S esklo (main group) and pre-Sesklo (secondary groups with differentiated characte ristics) and they show an advanced agriculture and a very early use of pottery t hat rivals in age those of the Near East, in an area geographically close to the Petralona cave and the Archanthropus living environment.[23] the settlements of Sesklo 6850 BC Dimini 4800 BC and Dispilio 5600 BC is one of the most important sites for our knowledge of this period in Greece, Sesklo was at its peak during the Middle Neolithic (5800-5300 BC) when it occupied an area of approximately 1 00,000 square metres, the settlement's 500-800 dwellings were densely arranged, with narrow streets and squares running between them, surrounded by large retain ing walls.[24] .[25] The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island o f Crete and flourished from approximately the 2700 BC to the 1500 BC.[26] It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the Briti sh archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to it as "the first link in the European chain."[27] The early inhabitants of Crete settled as early as 128,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic age.[28][29] in 5000 BC the first sign s of advanced agriculture appeared, marking the beginning of the civilization. The Mycenaean Greeks invaded Crete in 1500 BC and adopted much of the Minoan cul ture they found on Crete.[30] The Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenae an civilization on Crete was revealed to the modern world by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, when he purchased and then began excavating a site at Knossus. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC th

e Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early fo rm of Greek. The Mycenaean era script is called Linear B. Indian subcontinent The earliest-known farming cultures in the South Asia emerged in Indian subconti nent (present day Pakistan) in the hills of Balochistan, on the border between m odern-day Pakistan and Iran. These semi-nomadic peoples domesticated wheat, barl ey, sheep, goat and cattle. Pottery was in use by the 6th millennium BC. The old est granary yet found in this region was the Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley. Their settlement consisted of mud buildings that housed four internal subdivisio ns. Burials included elaborate goods such as baskets, stone and bone tools, bead s, bangles, pendants and occasionally animal sacrifices. Figurines and ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sandstone and polished copper have been found. By the 4th millennium BC, Technologies included stone and copp er drills, updraft kilns, large pit kilns and copper melting crucibles. Button s eals included geometric designs. By 4000 BC, a pre-Harappan culture emerged, with trade networks including lapis lazuli and other raw materials. Urban centers during this phase spanned what is now Pakistan and western India. The Harappan phase is known to have comprised se veral large cities, including Harappa (3300 BC), Dholavira (2900 BC), Mohenjo-Da ro (2500 BC), Lothal (2400 BC), and Rakhigarhi, and more than 1,000 towns and vi llages, often of relatively small size. The cities were perhaps originally about a mile square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests p olitical centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternative capitals. Or it may be that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, whi ch is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods.[31] Th e southern region of the civilization in Kathiawar and beyond appears to be of l ater origin than the major Indus sites. Villagers also grew numerous other crops , including peas, sesame seed, dates, and cotton. The Indus valley civilization is credited for a regular and consistent use of decimal fractions in a uniform s ystem of ancient weights and measures.[32][33] Furthermore, the streets were lai d out in grid patterns along with the development of sewage and water systems. T his civilization of planned cities came to an end around 1700 BC either through external invasion and perhaps due to drying of rivers flowing from the Himalayas to the Arabian sea and geological/climatic changes in the Indus valley civiliza tion area which resulted in the formation of the Thar desert. As a result, the c ities were abandoned and populations reduced and people moved to the more fertil e Ganges Yamuna river area. Much remains unknown as the Indus Valley script remains un-deciphered.