In
geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (
physical geography), human impact characteristics (
human geography), and the interaction of humanity and the environment (
environmental geography). Geographic regions and sub-regions are mostly described by their imprecisely defined, and sometimes transitory boundaries, except in human geography, where
jurisdiction areas such as national borders are defined in law.
Apart from the
global continental regions, there are also
hydrospheric and
atmospheric
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
regions that cover the
oceans, and discrete
climates above the
land and
water masses of the planet. The
land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as
plains and features.
As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the many branches of geography, each of which can describe areas in regional terms. For example, ecoregion is a term used in
environmental geography, cultural region in
cultural geography, bioregion in
biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
, and so on. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called
regional geography
Regional geography is a major branch of geography. It focuses on the interaction of different cultural and natural geofactors in a specific land or landscape, while its counterpart, systematic geography, concentrates on a specific geofactor at the ...
. Regions are an area or division, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries.
In the fields of
physical geography,
ecology,
biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
,
zoogeography, and
environmental geography, regions tend to be based on natural features such as
ecosystems or
biotope
A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term "habitat", which is more commonly used in English-speaking countrie ...
s,
biomes,
drainage basins,
natural regions,
mountain ranges,
soil type
A soil type is a taxonomic unit in soil science. All soils that share a certain set of well-defined properties form a distinctive soil type. Soil type is a technical term of soil classification, the science that deals with the systematic categoriz ...
s. Where
human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are described by the discipline of
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
.
Globalization
Global regions distinguishable from space, and are therefore clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and
water. However, they have been generally recognized as such much earlier by terrestrial
cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into the largest of land regions, known as
continents and the largest of water regions known as
oceans. There are also significant regions that do not belong to either classification, such as
archipelago regions that are
littoral regions, or
earthquake regions that are defined in
geology.
Continental regions
Continental regions are usually based on broad experiences in human history and attempt to reduce very large areas to more manageable
regionalization for the purpose of the study. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries. The oceanic division into maritime regions is used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the
compass.
Some continental regions are defined by the major continental feature of their identity, such as the
Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
, or the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
, which both occupy a significant percentage of their respective continental land area.
To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to define large areas of the continents. For the most part, the images of the world are derived as much from academic studies, from all types of media, or from personal experience of global
exploration. They are a matter of collective human knowledge of their own planet and are attempts to better understand their environments.
Regional geography
Regional geography
Regional geography is a major branch of geography. It focuses on the interaction of different cultural and natural geofactors in a specific land or landscape, while its counterpart, systematic geography, concentrates on a specific geofactor at the ...
is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes 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, which consists of natural as well as human elements. Attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space
delimitation into regions.
Regional geography is also considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences (similar to
quantitative or
critical geographies; for more information, see
history of geography).
Human geography
Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with various discrete environments. It encompasses
human,
political,
cultural
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
,
social, and
economic aspects among others that are often clearly delineated. While the major focus of human geography is not the physical landscape of the Earth (see
physical geography), it is hardly possible to discuss human geography without referring to the physical landscape on which human activities are being played out, and
environmental geography is emerging as a link between the two. Regions of human geography can be divided into many broad categories:
Historical regions
The field of
historical geography involves the study of human history as it relates to places and
regions, or the study of how places and regions have changed over time.
D. W. Meinig, a historical geographer of America, describes many historical regions in his book ''The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History''. For example, in identifying European "source regions" in early American colonization efforts, he defines and describes the ''Northwest European Atlantic Protestant Region'', which includes sub-regions such as the "Western Channel Community", which itself is made of sub-regions such as the ''English
West Country'' of
Cornwall,
Devon,
Somerset, and
Dorset.
In describing historic regions of America, Meinig writes of "The Great Fishery" off the coast of Newfoundland and New England, an oceanic region that includes the
Grand Banks. He rejects regions traditionally used in describing American history, like
New France, "West Indies", the
Middle Colonies, and the individual colonies themselves (
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryland ...
, for example). Instead he writes of "discrete colonization areas", which may be named after colonies but rarely adhere strictly to political boundaries. Among other historic regions of this type, he writes about "Greater New England" and its major sub-regions of "Plymouth", "New Haven shores" (including parts of Long Island), "Rhode Island" (or "Narragansett Bay"), "the Piscataqua", "Massachusetts Bay", "Connecticut Valley", and to a lesser degree, regions in the sphere of influence of Greater New England, "Acadia" (Nova Scotia), "Newfoundland and The Fishery/The Banks".
Other examples of historical regions are Iroquoia,
Ohio Country,
Illinois Country, and
Rupert's Land.
In
Russia, historical regions include
Siberia and the
Russian North, as well as the
Ural Mountains. These regions had an identity that developed from the early modern period and led to
Siberian regionalism.
Tourism region
A tourism region is a geographical region that has been designated by a governmental organization or
tourism bureau as having common cultural or environmental characteristics. These regions are often named after a geographical, former, or current administrative region or may have a name created for
tourism purposes. The names often evoke certain positive qualities of the area and suggest a coherent tourism experience to visitors. Countries, states, provinces, and other administrative regions are often carved up into tourism regions to facilitate attracting visitors.
Some of the more famous tourism regions based on historical or current administrative regions include
Tuscany in Italy and
Yucatán in Mexico. Famous examples of regions created by a government or tourism bureau include the
United Kingdom's
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
and
California's Wine Country.
great plains region
Natural resource regions
Natural resources often occur in distinct regions. Natural resource regions can be a topic of physical geography or environmental geography, but also have a strong element of human geography and economic geography. A coal region, for example, is a physical or geomorphological region, but its development and exploitation can make it into an economic and a cultural region. Examples of natural resource regions are the
Rumaila Field, the oil field that lies along the border or Iraq and Kuwait and played a role in the
Gulf War; the
Coal Region of Pennsylvania, which is a historical region as well as a cultural, physical, and natural resource region; the
South Wales Coalfield, which like Pennsylvania's coal region is a historical, cultural, and natural region; the
Kuznetsk Basin, a similarly important coal mining region in Russia;
Kryvbas, the economic and iron ore mining region of Ukraine; and the
James Bay Project, a large region of Quebec where one of the largest hydroelectric systems in the world has been developed.
Religious regions
Sometimes a region associated with a religion is given a name, like
Christendom, a term with medieval and renaissance connotations of Christianity as a sort of social and political
polity
A polity is an identifiable Politics, political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relation, social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize ...
. The term
Muslim world is sometimes used to refer to the region of the world where Islam is dominant. These broad terms are very vague when used to describe regions.
Within some religions there are clearly defined regions. The
Roman Catholic Church, the
Church of England, the
Eastern Orthodox Church, and others, define ecclesiastical regions with names such as
diocese,
eparchy,
ecclesiastical provinces, and
parish.
For example, the United States is divided into 32 Roman Catholic
ecclesiastical provinces. The
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...
is organized into 33 geographic ''districts'', which are subdivided into ''circuits'' (the
Atlantic District (LCMS), for example).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses regions similar to dioceses and parishes, but uses terms like
ward and
stake
Stake may refer to:
Entertainment
* '' Stake: Fortune Fighters'', a 2003 video game
* ''The Stake'', a 1915 silent short film
* "The Stake", a 1977 song by The Steve Miller Band from '' Book of Dreams''
* ''Stakes'' (miniseries), a Cartoon Netw ...
.
Political regions
In the field of
political geography
Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, po ...
, regions tend to be based on political units such as
sovereign states; subnational units such as administrative regions,
provinces,
states (in the United States),
counties,
townships,
territories, etc.; and multinational groupings, including formally defined units such as the
European Union, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and
NATO, as well as informally defined regions such as the
Third World,
Western Europe, and the Middle East.
Administrative regions
The word "region" is taken from the
Latin ''regio'' (derived from ''regere'', 'to rule'), and a number of countries have borrowed the term as the formal name for a type of subnational entity (e.g., the
''región'', used in
Chile). In English, the word is also used as the conventional translation for equivalent terms in other languages (e.g., the
''область'' (''
oblast''), used in Russia alongside a broader term ''регион'').
The following countries use the term "region" (or its
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
) as the name of a type of subnational administrative unit:
*
Belgium (in French, ''région''; in German, ''Region''; the
Dutch term ''gewest'' is often mistakenly translated as "regio")
*
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
(', effective from 2002)
*
Chile (''región'')
*
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
(''région'')
*
Denmark (effective from 2007)
*
England (not the United Kingdom as a whole)
*
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
*
France (''région'')
*
Ghana
*
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
(''région'')
*
Guinea-Bissau (''região'')
*
Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
*
Hungary (''régió'')
*
Italy (''regione'')
*
Madagascar (''région'')
*
Mali (''région'')
*
Malta (''reġjun'')
*
Namibia
*
New Zealand
*
Peru (''región'')
*
Portugal (''região'')
*
Philippines (''rehiyon'')
*
Senegal (''région'')
*
Tanzania
*
Thailand
*
Togo (''région'')
*
Trinidad and Tobago (''Regional Corporation'')
The Canadian
province of
Québec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
also uses the "administrative region" (''région administrative'').
Scotland had
local government regions from 1975 to 1996.
In Spain the official name of the
autonomous community of
Murcia is ''Región de Murcia''. Also, some single-province autonomous communities such as
Madrid use the term ''región'' interchangeably with ''comunidad autónoma''.
Two
län
Län (Swedish, ), lääni (Finnish, ) and len (Norwegian, ) refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland and Norway. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010. In Norway, the term was in use betw ...
(counties) in Sweden are officially called 'regions':
Skåne
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne C ...
and
Västra Götaland, and there is currently a controversial proposal to divide the rest of Sweden into large
regions, replacing the current counties.
The government of the
Philippines uses the term "region" (in
Filipino, ''rehiyon'') when it's necessary to group provinces, the primary administrative subdivision of the country. This is also the case in
Brazil, which groups its primary administrative divisions (''estados''; "states") into ''grandes regiões'' (
greater regions) for statistical purposes, while Russia uses ''экономические районы'' (
economic regions) in a similar way, as does
Romania and
Venezuela.
The
government of Singapore
The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise ...
makes use of the term "
region" for its own administrative purposes.
The following countries use an administrative subdivision conventionally referred to as a region in English:
*
Bulgaria, which uses the ''област'' (''oblast'')
*
Greece, which uses the ''Περιφέρεια'' (''periferia'')
*
Russia, which uses the ''область'' (''oblast), and for some regions the
''край'' (''
krai'')
*
Ukraine, which uses the ''область'' (''oblast)
*
Slovakia (''kraj'')
China has five 自治区 (''zìzhìqū'') and two 特別行政區 (or 特别行政区; ''tèbiéxíngzhèngqū''), which are translated as "
autonomous region" and "
special administrative region", respectively.
Local administrative regions
There are many relatively small regions based on local government agencies such as districts, agencies, or regions. In general, they are all regions in the general sense of being bounded spatial units. Examples include electoral districts such as
Washington's 6th congressional district and
Tennessee's 1st congressional district; school districts such as
Granite School District
The Granite School District spreads across central Salt Lake County, Utah, serving West Valley City, Millcreek, Taylorsville, South Salt Lake, and Holladay; Kearns and Magna Townships; and parts of West Jordan, Murray and Cottonwood Heights. ...
and
Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...
; economic districts such as the
Reedy Creek Improvement District; metropolitan areas such as the
Seattle metropolitan area, and metropolitan districts such as the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, the
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, the
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
of
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
, as well as other local districts like the
York Rural Sanitary District, the
Delaware River Port Authority, the
Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District, and
C-TRAN.
Traditional or informal regions
The traditional territorial divisions of some countries are also commonly rendered in English as "regions". These informal divisions do not form the basis of the modern administrative divisions of these countries, but still define and delimit local regional identity and sense of belonging. Examples are:
* England
*
Finland
*
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
*
Korea
*
Norway (''landsdeler'')
*
Romania
*
Slovakia
*
United States
Functional regions
Functional regions are usually understood to be the areas organised by the horizontal functional relations (flows, interactions) that are maximised within a region and minimised across its borders so that the principles of internal cohesiveness and external separation regarding spatial interactions are met (see, for instance, Farmer and Fotheringham, 2011; Klapka, Halas, 2016; Smart, 1974). A functional region is not an abstract spatial concept, but to a certain extent it can be regarded as a reflection of the spatial behaviour of individuals in a geographic space.
The functional region is conceived as a general concept while its inner structure, inner spatial flows, and interactions need not necessarily show any regular pattern, only selfcontainment. The concept of self-containment remains the only crucial defining characteristic of a functional region. Nodal regions, functional urban regions, daily urban systems, local labour-market areas (LLMAs), or travel-to-work areas (TTWAs) are considered to be special instances of a general functional region that need to fulfil some specific conditions regarding, for instance, the character of the region-organising interaction or the presence of urban cores, (Halas et al., 2015
).
Military regions
In military usage, a region is shorthand for the name of a military
formation larger than an
Army Group
An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled by ...
and smaller than an
Army Theater or simply Theater. The full name of the military formation is Army Region. The size of an Army Region can vary widely but is generally somewhere between about 1 million and 3 million soldiers. Two or more Army Regions could make up an Army Theater. An Army Region is typically commanded by a full
General (US four stars), a
Field Marshal
Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...
, or
General of the Army (US five stars), or
Generalissimo (Soviet Union); and in the
US Armed Forces an
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
(typically four stars) may also command a region. Due to the large size of this formation, its use is rarely employed. Some of the very few examples of an Army Region are each of the Eastern, Western, and southern (mostly in Italy) fronts in Europe during
World War II. The military map unit symbol for this echelon of formation (see
Military organization
Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation ...
and
APP-6A) is identified with six Xs.
Media geography
Media geography is a spatio-temporal understanding, brought through different gadgets of media, nowadays, media became inevitable at different proportions and everyone supposed to consumed at different gravity. The spatial attributes are studied with the help of media outputs in shape of images which are contested in nature and pattern as well where politics is inseparable. Media geography is giving spatial understanding of mediated image.
See also
*
Autonomous region
*
Committee of the Regions
*
Continent
*
Continental fragment
*
Euroregion
In European politics, the term Euroregion usually refers to a transnational co-operation structure between two (or more) contiguous territories located in different European countries. Euroregions represent a specific type of cross-border region. ...
*
Field (geography)
*
Latin names of regions
*
Military district
*
Regional district
*
Regionalism (disambiguation)
*
Regional municipality
A regional municipality (or region) is a type of Municipal government in Canada, Canadian municipal government similar to and at the same municipality, municipal local government, government level as a county, although the specific structure an ...
*
Subcontinent
*
Submerged continents
A submerged continent or a sunken continent is a region of continental crust, extensive in size but mainly undersea. The terminology is used by some paleogeologists and geographers in reference to some landmasses (none of which are as large as a ...
*
Subregion
*
Supercontinent
*
United Nations geoscheme
Notes
References
* Bailey, Robert G. (1996) ''Ecosystem Geography''. New York: Springer-Verlag.
*
Meinig, D.W. (1986). ''The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 1: Atlantic America, 1492-1800''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Moinuddin Shekh. (2017) " Mediascape and the State: A Geographical Interpretation of Image Politics in Uttar Pradesh, India. Netherland, Springer.
* Smith-Peter, Susan (2018) ''Imagining Russian Regions: Subnational Identity and Civil Society in Nineteenth-Century Russia''. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
External links
Map and descriptions of hydrologic unit regions of the United States*
tp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NCGC/products/watershed/hu-standards.pdf Federal Standards for Delineation of Hydrologic Unit BoundariesPhysiographic regions of the United States
{{Authority control
Geography
Geography terminology
Regional geography