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The human being by himself cannot encompass the entire dimension of his environment at a given moment, that is, our sight can only capture a reduced perimeter. In order to be able to explore the planet's surface, it has been necessary to develop models and graphical representations. Thanks to geographic resources and the advancement of technological resources, a broad development has been achieved that allows us to know the earth's surface in more detail.
If you want to know the definition of geographic resources, what is an imaginary circle in geography or what are the imaginary points and circles of the Earth, some examples of geographic resources, among more details, continue reading this interesting article by Green Ecologist in which we talk about what are geographic resources, what are they for and examples of these.
What are geographic resources
When you talk about geographic resources we refer to all those techniques, information, equipment and materials that allow represent and describe the land surface. Thus, there are many technological resources for geographic analysis out there today and most have evolved a lot since they were invented.
If you are very interested in this topic, we recommend that you also know what are the branches of geography and what each one studies with this other article by Ecologist Verde.
What are geographic resources for?
The geographic resources or geographic elements, are used by humans to know what the surface of the planet is like and do an analysis of it. The objective of geographic resources is to be able to build theoretical approximations or models that represent as accurately as possible the physical reality of the surface of planet Earth.
We encourage you to read these other posts with curiosities about the Characteristics of planet Earth that make life possible and How planet Earth was formed.
What are the geographic resources
There are many geographic resources that human beings have developed for the colonization and exploration of terrestrial spaces. These are some examples of geographic resources:
Blueprints
In cartographic a plane is a geographic representation of small extensions of an area or territory. An example of a plan can be one that represents a city, which would be called an urban plan. In them large scales of up to 1: 10,000 are used, since the representations are meticulous, and to make them the earth's curvature is not taken into account. The symbology used is simple, focusing on the most important elements.
Sketch
The sketches are drawings or general diagrams for a primary two-dimensional graphic representation, that is, they do not have a defined scale and are made freehand and only represent the most important characteristics of the study area, they do not go into detail. In conclusion, it is a preliminary geographical representation, for a geographical work that will later be strictly defined in distances, proportions, etc.
Maps
Maps represent the surface of the Earth, or just a part of it, in a two-dimensional way on a flat surface following a certain scale. In them, the curvature of planet Earth is compensated using cartographic projections that adjust the proportions of the water and land masses found in a curved space to two dimensions. On maps it is common to find other geographic resources such as imaginary points, lines, and circles. There is a great variety of maps depending on which one wants to represent, for example, the physical map is one that represents the geology of a terrain.
Geographical coordinates
Geographic coordinates are a reference system that allows you to locate any point on the Earth's surface in the vertical (altitude) and horizontal (latitude and longitude) plane. For this, a reference network has been developed with both horizontal and vertical lines. Know what are the imaginary lines of the Earth called? The vertical ones are called meridians and the horizontal ones parallel.
Meridians and longitude
The reference line of a meridian is the one that passes through Greenwich, called Greenwich Meridian. To form a meridian, a line is drawn that goes from the center of the Earth to the Greenwich meridian or also called the 0 meridian, and then another line has to be drawn that will go to a point parallel to the previous point located to the right or left. from the meridian 0. An angle is formed which will be the distance between the meridian and the Greenwich meridian.
Parallels and latitude
You'd know what name has the most important parallel? Actually, there are five; the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle. Parallels are measured by drawing the distance between a point and the equator, the point must start from the center of the earth, and a second line is also drawn to another point that goes south or north, being parallel to the point of the equator. As a result, an angle between both lines must be obtained that is equal to the distance in degrees between that parallel and the equator. In addition to geographic resources, there are those resources that are geographic resource support teams. These equipments are used by the geographer to obtain the data to be able to carry out terrestrial representations.
Aerial photography
They are photographs taken from airplanes (now also from drones). It is a great tool for geography because it allows the design of very detailed maps, which are very close to the reality of the area that has been studied.
GPS and satellites
This system is based on a set of satellites that are orbiting the planet Earth. These are connected to portable GPS equipment found on the earth's surface. At least 3 satellites are needed to have the coordinates. Satellites are also geographic resources that, apart from giving a higher resolution of the earth's surface, serve to provide data on temperature, atmospheric pressure, etc., thanks to the sensors they contain.
Compass
It is an instrument that serves to orient oneself and in it the four are represented Geographical coordinates main (north, south, east and west). The compass contains a magnetized needle that points to the Earth's magnetic north. The operation is based on terrestrial magnetism, when the needle points to the magnetic south, this corresponds to the geographical north.
Dream
The sonar (SONAR or Sound Navigation And Ranging) is a sound wave system used to detect submerged objects. Therefore, sonar is a geographic resource that is useful for represent the ocean floor.
Geographic information systems (GIS)
A GIS is a system that is used to collect, manage and analyze large masses of geographic data and, in addition, it is used to make very precise geographic representations.
If you want to read more articles similar to Geographic resources: what they are, what they are for and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Other environment.
