Johannes Gabriel Granö (14 March 1882 – 23 February 1956) was a Finnish

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, chiefly remembered as a professor of three universities and an explorer of Siberia and Mongolia. He is also noted for his pioneering studies on landscape geography, and his book ''Pure Geography''. Granö was a professor in universities of

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, and

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

. Granö studied in Helsinki University, starting 1900 in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

but changing his major subject to geography. His minor subjects were biology and geology. As a young student he spent his vacations in Siberia, where his father worked as the priest for the Finnish population in

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

1901–1913. Granö took notes of the environment and his first scientific publication, published 1905 in " Fennia" was about the Finnish colonies in Siberia. Granö received stipends from the Fenno-Ugrian Society and carried out three exploration trips to northern Mongolia, the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

, and the

Sayan Mountains The Sayan Mountains (, ; ) are a mountain range in southern Siberia spanning southeastern Russia (Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva and Khakassia) and northern Mongolia. Before the rapid expansion of the Tsardom of Russia, the mou ...

in 1906, 1907, and 1909. His research focused gradually on the effects of the ice age in the morphology of the mountains. Granö became a professor at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

in 1919. He founded the department and organised teaching in

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

. In 1923 he was invited back to Helsinki University to be a professor and the editor of ''Atlas of Finland''. He was soon asked to move to Turku where they had founded a Finnish university. There he even had time for his own research. He was chancellor of the

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

from 1945 to 1955. Granö developed the concept of "pure geography" as the unique subject of geographical research. He created a working methodology to define and classify landscapes, not only based on geomorphology but also taking into account bodies of water, vegetation and human impact. As the research object of his "pure geography" he had human perception, which was unique in geography those days. Granö published a lot of his works in German, and thus he was in his lifetime best known in German-speaking areas. Only during First World War he published something in French. In 1990's however, his main work ''Pure geography'' was translated in English. This was because his ideas on human perception a starting point of geographical research introduced in ''Pure geography'' were known to have influenced the emergence of

humanistic geography Critical geography is theoretically informed geographical scholarship that promotes social justice, liberation, and leftist politics. Critical geography is also used as an umbrella term for Marxist, feminist, postmodern, posts ...

and

behavioral geography Behavioral geography is an approach to human geography that examines human behavior by separating it into different parts. In addition, behavioral geography is an ideology/approach in human geography that makes use of the methods and assumptions ...

in the 1960s and 1970s. Photographs taken by Granö in connection with his fieldwork in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, among colonies of Finnish settlers in Siberia, on the steppes of Western Siberia and in Mongolia, particularly with the purpose of studying the inhabitants of these areas, have been donated to the Finnish Literature Society and a selection of them was featured in an exhibition in Helsinki City Art Museum in 2002.

Notable publications

* ''Pure Geography'', 1929, translation in English 1997 * ''Altai I-II'', 1919–1921, with photographs by the author, republished in 1993. Translations in Swedish and Russian. * ''Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Eiszeit in der nordwestlichen Mongolei und einigen ihrer südsibirischen Grenzgebirge'' (doctors thesis 1910) * ''Die Nordwest-Mongolei'' (in "Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde", 1912) * ''Morphologische Forschungen im östlichen Altai'' (in "Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde", 1914) * ''Les formes du relief dans l'Altai russe et leur genése'' (in " Fennia" 1917) * ''Die landschaftlischen Einheiten Estlands'' (1922) * ''Reine Geographie'' (1929, Finnish ''Puhdas maantiede'' 1930, English ''Pure geography'' 1997) * ''Die geographischen Gebiete Finnlands'' (1931) * ''Mongolische Landschaften und Örtlichkeiten'' (1941) * ''Das Formengebäude des nord-östlischen Altai'' (1945)

Awards and honours

Asteroid 1451 Granö was named after Granö. The co-operation centre of the University of Turku and the University of Tartu is called named ''Granö Centre'' after J. G. Granö, former Rector of Turku University and Professor of Geography at the University of Tartu.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grano, Johannes Gabriel 1882 births 1956 deaths Finnish geographers Academic staff of the University of Tartu Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Academic staff of the University of Turku People from Lapua Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class Rectors of the University of Turku Chancellors of the University of Turku 20th-century geographers