Geography

Maps, GIS, climate classification, and spatial analysis

What is geography?

Geography is the study of places — the physical features of Earth's surface, and how people and the natural environment interact and shape each other across those places. It's generally divided into physical geography (landforms, climate, ecosystems) and human geography (population, cities, culture, and economic activity).

Mapping the world

Maps are one of geography's most fundamental tools: a way of representing the three-dimensional surface of a round Earth on a flat, two-dimensional page. Because Earth is a sphere, every map projection involves some unavoidable distortion — stretching or compressing certain areas, distances, or shapes — and different map projections are designed to minimize different kinds of distortion depending on their intended use.

Landforms and physical geography

Physical geography studies the shape of the land itself: mountains, plains, valleys, rivers, and coastlines, along with the natural processes (many covered in the Geology article) that create and reshape them over time. It also studies climate zones and ecosystems, and how they vary from place to place based largely on latitude, elevation, and distance from the ocean.

Human geography

Human geography studies how people are distributed across the planet and why: where cities grow and why, how populations move and settle over time, how cultures and economies vary from region to region, and how human activity in turn reshapes the physical landscape — through agriculture, urbanization, and resource use.

Why geography matters

Geography helps explain why cities, industries, and populations are located where they are, supports urban planning and disaster preparedness, and provides essential context for understanding global patterns in trade, migration, and environmental change.