1.4.2: Geography as a Spatial Science

Key Questions in Geographic Inquiry 

The key question facing most sciences is "how" and thus focus on the process whereby something comes about regardless of time or place. Geography is described as a spatial science because it focuses on "where" things are and why they occur there. Geographers seek to answer all or more than one of four basic questions when studying our environment. These relate to location, place, spatial pattern, and spatial interaction. Let's look at how a physical geographer answers these questions about a desert.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Location of the Sonoran Desert. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Courtesy USGS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

 Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows a simplified map of the Baja California region along the western coast of Mexico.

The land area is shaded in light gray, and the Pacific Ocean is shown on the left. Two regions on the map are labeled:

• “Mojave” appears toward the upper left area.
• “Sonoran” appears across a larger portion of the peninsula and adjacent mainland, marked with diagonal lines to distinguish it from surrounding areas.

The boundaries of the regions are outlined, but not sharply defined, indicating approximate areas. State or political boundaries are also lightly drawn.

Location:

Location is defined as "the position in space" of something. Latitude and longitude is a convenient way to locate something's position. As shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) the Sonoran Desert is located at a latitude and longitude of 33°40'N, 114°15'W. This defines the Sonoran Desert's absolute location. It actually covers an area of 311,000 square kilometers (120,000 sq mi) between 25° to 33° North and longitude 105° to 118° West. We can also define the Sonoran Desert in relation to a known location, called its relative location. "The Sonoran Desert wraps around the northern end of the Gulf of California, from northeastern Baja California through southeastern California and southwestern Arizona to western Sonora." (Wikipedia)

Place:

 Geographers describe place as the human and natural phenomena which uniquely describe a location. A geographer may want to know how the Sonoran Desert compares to the Sahara desert. To answer this question, a physical geographer will collect data to compare their temperatures and precipitation, and contrast the vegetation, soils and fauna found there.

Spatial Pattern: 

Geographers are especially interested in the arrangement or patterns of Earth phenomena. We might want to know - "What is the distribution of deserts on the Earth?". By examining a map of world climates, Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) establishes that we can find deserts in the dry interiors of the subtropics and midlatitudes. Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) is a world map showing the distribution of non polar arid lands across different continents, based on a classification from 1953 by Meigs. The map highlights two categories: arid regions and extremely arid regions. These zones are outlined and labeled with the names of major deserts or desert systems. In North America, several arid regions are shown including the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts. Moving southward into South America, two large desert systems are marked: the Peruvian and the Patagonian deserts, each extending along significant stretches of the continent. Across Africa, some of the world’s largest deserts appear. The Sahara spans a vast portion of the continent, with the Kalahari and Namib deserts located further south. The Somali–Chalbi desert is also noted near the Horn of Africa. In Eurasia,  the Western desert region encompasses parts of the Middle East, while deserts such as the Syrian, Arabian, Lut, Thar, and Taklamakan are spread across Southwest and Central Asia. The Gobi desert is represented further east. In Australia, two desert systems are indicated: the Great Sandy Desert and the Simpson Desert. The map includes a scale showing distances in miles and kilometers, and it marks the extent of each arid and extremely arid landmass in relation to the continents.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Distribution of Non-Polar Deserts. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Courtesy USGS).

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) shows a world map highlighting the distribution of non-polar arid lands (deserts) across different continents.

The map uses color shading to distinguish levels of dryness. Darker orange and red tones represent extremely arid regions, while lighter orange and tan tones represent arid regions. A legend in the lower-left corner explains these categories and includes a scale in miles and kilometers.

Desert regions are labeled across the globe:

• In North America, deserts include the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
• In South America, deserts include the Peruvian and Patagonian deserts along the western and southern parts of the continent.
• In Africa, the Sahara spans northern Africa, while the Kalahari and Namib deserts appear in the south, and the Somali–Chalbi region appears in the east.
• In Asia and the Middle East, deserts include the Arabian, Syrian, Thar, Lut, Taklamakan, and Gobi, as well as the Western Desert region.
• In Australia, deserts include the Great Sandy and Simpson deserts.

Most of these desert regions are located in subtropical and midlatitude zones, often forming broad bands across continents.

Spatial Interaction:

 Finally, geographers are interested in how elements of the Earth system interact with one another to create geographic patterns. A geographer might ask - "How do mountains interact with weather systems to affect the distribution of deserts?" By looking at maps of mountain systems, wind and precipitation patterns and, maps of climate we find that mountains oriented perpendicular to the flow of wind create moist conditions on the windward side and dry conditions on the leeward side. The dry leeward side is described as being in the "rain shadow". In many parts of the world deserts, like the Sonoran Desert of the United States is found in the rain shadow.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): The Sonoran Desert near Maricopa, Arizona. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Courtesy Wikimedia Commons).

Fundamentally, geographers are concerned with where something is at, why it's there, and how it relates to things around it. They address this through defining where their object of inquiry is located, what the place is like, uncovering its distributional pattern, and understanding how it interacts with its environment. Our interest in understanding the geography of Earth goes back centuries and will continue to intrigue us far into the future.