GEOGRAPHY FORM ONE Topic 1: CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY

Topic 1: CONCEPT OF GEOGRAPHY

The word geography can be divided into two parts, ‘geo’ and ‘graphy’. Geo comes from the Greek word ‘ge’ which means the earth and graphy comes from ‘graphein’ which means to describe. Therefore geography describes the earth. Geography is the study of physical features of the earth and human activities as it relates to these. Or Geography is the study of physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as affected by these including social and economic activities industries, land use, distribution of population and resources. Or Is the science of distributions and is concerned with spatial variations in any physical or cultural features.

BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY
There are three main branches of geography namely;
 (a) Physical geography
 (b) Practical geography
 (c) Human and economic geography

 A. Physical geography
 Is concerned with land formation processes, and pattern in natural environment such as atmosphere. Also is the branch of geography that studies all physical features e.g mountains, rift valley

 B. Practical geography
Is the branch of geography concerned with field study of photograph interpretation, map work, statistics and research.

 C. Human and Economic geography or Regional geography.
 It deals withal activities of human on the earth’s surface, which includes mining, agriculture, transportation, settlement etc.

 Importance of studying geography
 i. It helps u to understand basic physical system that affects everyday life e.g water cycles, wind and ocean current.
 ii. To gain skills of observing, measuring, recording and interpreting phenomena
 iii. To understand interaction between our country and other countries and share idea of solving problems.
iv. To acquire skills for combating environment problems in order to conserve and manage the environment in the sustainable way.
 v. To develop awareness and knowledge about natural resources (Land, natural forests, mineral deposits, water etc) wild animals climatic regions and other natural resources.
 vi. It provide base for specialization career for example cartographer, climatology, geologist etc.
 vii. It helps to learn on how other countries in the world solve different problems like fire outbreak diseases, environmental problems etc.
viii. To gain the knowledge of employment opportunities.