Exploring the world through geography

What is your favourite place? Is it a city you particularly like or would like to travel to? Or is it a wider region or country? Is it near or far? What's there? How do you travel there?

Geography is part of your everyday life, even if you may not often think about it. You use geographical information about places and regions every day, even though you may not always notice it yourself. Every day we encounter news about events in different places, and yet our knowledge of many of the world’s regions, countries and peoples is scarce. Learning geography gives you the knowledge to identify places and regions in your local area and around the world, to find the right route to places and regions that are important to you, and to make sensible decisions for the development of your home environment, your country and the world.

All areas, places and destinations have a geographical location. The exact absolute location of a place is represented by coordinates, which divide the world into latitudes and longitudes. Each location is different, and coordinates help you find exactly where you are. The distance between the point of departure and the point of arrival can be measured in terms of distance or time (in kilometres or in minutes, for example).

The relative location of a place describes whether it is near or far from where you are now. The relative location always depends on the observer and the place in question. For example, for many people living in Helsinki, Lapland seems to be very far away. On the other hand, a Chinese person flying to Europe via Helsinki might think to visit Lapland because they feel it is so close.

Geography is the key to understanding the world and its different regions and places. A spatial and regional perspective is important in geography. Places are physical locations that are meaningful to you or to some person or activity. For example, your home environment is a place, as is the city where your favourite sports team plays. Regions are geographically larger entities. The places within a region share similarities and are different from those outside the region. An example of a region is a province, or in some cases a country, or the European Union in relation to other global economic regions.

A place or a region can mean different things to people. For example, Kenya is home to nearly 50 million people, while most Europeans think of it as a distant country in Africa.

What is special about geography compared to other disciplines? Geography looks at the world as a changing and culturally diverse environment. Geography helps us to understand the world and its diversity. Geography focuses on both natural and human-made places, regions and environments.

As a science, geography studies, observes and demonstrates how nature and humans interact with each other. As a result, geography paints a picture of an environment that consists of both the natural world and the human activity that takes place within that world. By immersing yourself in geography, you will be able to observe your everyday environment, follow and reflect on current world events, describe the spatial phenomena, structures and interactions of nature and human activity, and find ways to influence the development of your home environment, your country and the world.

In geography, we study where different kinds of natural environments and human activities are located and where human interactions with nature take place. This allows us to divide the world and its parts into economic, political, cultural and natural regions.

A region is an area that has certain characteristics. A region is delimited in terms of the different areas that surround it. We can also use existing territorial divisions, such as the division of the world into continents and countries, or the division of countries into provinces, municipalities and districts. Territories can also be shaped by people's cultural circles, economic interactions or perceptions about the world and their place in it. Regions formed by natural phenomena rarely coincide perfectly with administrative regions such as states or municipalities. On the other hand, certain natural features, such as rivers and mountain ranges, often form boundaries between different states.

As a result of regional analysis, we know what kinds of areas and smaller places make up the Earth and its regions. We understand the current state of development of the environment, the changes that occur in the environment and the resources needed for its sustainable development. We will identify where development is progressing well and where the most challenging areas and places are. An in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of regions helps us to understand phenomena near and far.

The table below shows the welfare indices for three different countries. What can you conclude about the differences between the countries?

Geography can be divided into two main fields: regional geography and general geography. Regional geography studies a wide range of specific areas, such as countries, and the location and spatial occurrence of their natural and human features.

Human geography studies how human activity and society evolve spatially. It addresses issues such as the economy, populations, cities and land use planning. Research topics may relate to residential and working environments in cities or how the global economy and politics affect regional development. Research in human geography helps us to better understand regional development and provides tools for sustainable development of regions. Human geography draws on the expertise of many disciplines. These include urban planning, which studies the planning of built environments, economics, which studies economic development, and political science, which studies politics.

Natural geography and human geography are often connected. For example, we can study the effects of volcanic eruptions on affected villages, towns and communities. The effects of anthropogenic global warming on human activities can also be examined. For example, research has shown that the Alps receive less snowfall each year than they did before. As a result, people interested in skiing and winter tourism are heading to northern Europe more often than they did before. At the same time, the melting ice around the North Pole will allow freight shipping to the north of Siberia and North America via the Northwest and Northeast Passages. This will speed up trade between the continents.