Technical Geography

Technical geography is one of three main branches of geography and involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, and understand spatial information. The other two branches, human geography and physical geography, can usually apply the concepts and techniques of technical geography. However, a technical geographer may be more concerned with the spatial and technological concepts than the nature of the data. Thus, the spatial data types a technical geographer employs may vary widely, including human and physical geography topics, with the common thread being the techniques and philosophies employed. Within the branch of technical geography are the major and overlapping subbranches of geographic information science, geomatics, and geoinformatics. Technical geography is a product of geography's quantitative revolution."The ‘Quantitative Revolution’", GG3012(NS) Lecture 4, University of Aberdeen, 2011, webpag
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History

While many techniques in technical geography date back to the origins of cartography, surveying, and remote sensing, it wasn't until the quantitative revolution in geography of the 1950s and 1960s that technical geography began to differentiate into its own branch. Before this, the techniques and methods of handling spatial information were primarily focused on supporting human or physical geography, rather then a subject of study itself. In the years before the quantitative revolution, geography was generally fragmented, and many United States universities were eliminating geography departments around the country. To address this, geographers began to debate the merits of more scientific and methods-based approaches to the discipline. While this approach was heavily debated among geographers, geography departments at universities across the country began to teach a more scientific approach to geography.

Coinciding with the quantitative revolution was the emergence of early computers. The interdisciplinary nature of geography forces geographers to look at developments in other fields, and geographers tend to observe and adapt technological innovations from other disciplines rather than developing unique technologies to conduct geographic studies. Computers were no exception. More than a decade after the first computers were developed, Waldo Tobler published the first paper detailing the use of computers in the map-making process titled "Automation and Cartography" in 1959. While novel in terms of application, the process detailed by Tobler did not allow for storing or analyzing of geographic data. As computer technology progressed and better hardware became available, geographers rapidly adopted the technology to create maps. In 1960, Roger Tomlinson created the first true geographic information system, which allowed for storing and analysis of spatial data within a computer. These tools revolutionized the discipline of geography. In 1985, Mark Monmonier speculated that computer cartography facilitated by GIS would largely replace traditional pen and paper cartography.

With the emergence of GIS, researchers rapidly began to explore methods to use the technology for a variety of geographic problems. This lead some geographers to declare the study of these methods their own science within geography.

Along with computers and GIS, new spatial data sources emerged during the quantitative revolution. Remote sensing technology rapidly advanced during the Cold War. As the technology became available to the general public, geographers were soon overwhelmed with large volumes of satellite and aerial images. New techniques were required to store, process, analyze, and use this new data source, birthing remote sensing scientists.

In 1978 the United States military launched the first satellites that would enable the modern Global Positioning System, and the system's full capability was made available to the general public in 2000. This facilitated a level of rapid acquisition of spatial coordinates that previously would have been prohibitively expensive. Geographers began studying methods and applications for this data.

As these new technologies and methods are widely applicable to various disciplines, concern grew among geographers that these other non-geographers in other disciplines might become better at using them than geographers. In 2008, Ionel Haidu stated:

Technical geography emerges to correct the historical trend in geography of adapting rather than developing new methods, technologies, and techniques for conducting geographic research by encouraging trained geographers to pursue this line of inquiry.

Sub-branches

File:The Cartographic Process.png, Cartography
File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 2715 Christianity Anglican Persons.svg, Digital mapping
File:Worldwind.png, Geoinformatics
File:Fig 4.4.png, Geographic information science
File:Geoservices server with apps.png, Geographic information systems
File:Euclidean Voronoi diagram.svg, Geostatistics
File:Survey instruments-2.png, Geomatics
File:gislayers.jpg, Geovisualization
File:GPS-IIR.jpg, Global Positioning System
File:Meridian convergence and spehrical excess.png, Geodesy
File:World map of submarine cables.png, Internet GIS
File:MapAlgebra.png, Map algebra
Image:Alpha2000.jpg, Photogrammetry
File:Remote Sensing Illustration.jpg, Remote Sensing
File:Example_krig.png, Spatial analysis
File:Sample of time geographical description.png, Time geography
File:Smartphone with navigation map app.jpg, Web mapping

Laws of geography

The concept of laws in geography is a product of the quantitative revolution and their emergence is highly influential in technical geography. In general, like the concept of technical geography, some geographers argue against the idea that laws in geography are necessary or even valid. These criticisms have been addressed by Tobler and others. The discipline of geography is unlikely to settle the matter anytime soon. Several laws have been proposed, and Tobler's first law of geography is the most widely accepted in geography. The first law of geography, and its relation to spatial autocorrelation, is highly influential in the development of technical geography. Some have argued that geographic laws do not need to be numbered. The existence of a first invites a second, and many have proposed themselves as that. It has also been proposed that Tobler's first law of geography should be moved to the second and replaced with another. A few of the proposed laws of geography are below:

* Tobler's first law of geography: "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant"
* Tobler's second law of geography: "the phenomenon external to a geographic area of interest affects what goes on inside."
* Arbia's law of geography: "Everything is related to everything else, but things observed at a coarse spatial resolution are more related than things observed at a finer resolution."
* Uncertainty principle: "that the geographic world is infinitely complex and that any representation must therefore contain elements of uncertainty, that many definitions used in acquiring geographic data contain elements of vagueness, and that it is impossible to measure location on the Earth's surface exactly."

Controversy and criticism

Publications

*''Applied Geography''
* ''The Professional Geographer''
* '' Geographical Bulletin''
* '' Geographia Technica'' – journal focused exclusively on technical geography
* '' Remote Sensing of Environment''
* ''Annals of the American Association of Geographers''
*'' Journal of Maps''

Influential geographers

*Anne Kelly Knowles (Born 1957) – influential in the use of GIS and geographic methods in History.
* Dana Tomlin – developer of map algebra
*Cynthia Brewer – cartographic theorist that created the Apache 2.0 licensed web application ColorBrewer
*Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) – a cartographer who produced the Mercator projection
*Michael DeMers (born 1951) – geographer that wrote numerous books contributing to geographic information systems
*Mark Monmonier (born 1943) – cartographic theorist that wrote numerous books contributing to geographic information systems
*Michael Frank Goodchild (born 1944) – GIS scholar and winner of the RGS founder's medal in 2003
*Roger Tomlinson (1933–2014) – the primary originator of modern geographic information systems
*Waldo Tobler (1930–2018) – coined the first and second law of geography

See also

*Areography (geography of Mars)
*Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography
*Earth system science
* Environmental science
*Environmental studies
* Geomorphology
*Neogeography
* Planetary science
*Remote sensing
*Internet GIS

References

{{Geography topics, state=uncollapsed