Integrated Geography: Perspectives from Environmental and Regional Studies

Abstract

The environment is a common research subject of physical and human geography, serving as a bridge toward the integration of these two sub-disciplines within geography. In order to study the interaction between human and physical geographical processes and the complex earth landscape it generates, incorporating the concept of region and corresponding research methods can be a possible direction to simplify the complexity of the problem. I argue that the division and analysis of regions should be based on geographical processes, emphasizing the discovery of chain reactions within these processes. Although there is a degree of subjectivity in the division of region among geographers, a good regional delineation should uncover more important and objective facts, reveal deeper truths, and therefore gain higher recognition. The unity of physical and human geography is evident in the cognitions and actions that human societies take regarding the interactions between physical and human geographical processes, which the comprehensive study of geography should able to explore, analyze, organize, and interpret.

Keywords

• geographic environment
• regional geography
• geographic processes
• integrated geography
• physical geography
• human geography