Importance Of Geography, Meaning, Scope

Hi, welcome to this blog on the introduction and Importance Of Geography.

Table Of Contents

1. Define Geography
2. Describe the scope of geography
3. State and discuss the value or importance of geography
4. Revision Questions

Definition of Geography

Definition: The word geography is coined from two Greek words: geo, meaning the Earth and graph, meaning to describe. So, geography can simply be defined as the description of the Earth.

However, geography is more than mere description of the Earth. Hence, it is better defined as the study of people, their activities, places and physical things within the earth.

Geographic deals with the study of different people in different locations of the Earth including their activities like agriculture, mining, fishing, trading, manufacturing and construction. It also involves the study of places like USA, China, Nigeria, Kano, South Africa and Ghana. Above all, geography also deals with the study of physical things within the earth such as rocks, mountains and plains, oceans, rivers, climate, vegetation, soils, atmosphere.

Scope of Geography

Geography is a social science subject which deals with the study of man and his activities within his environment. In other words, geography ideas are real, practical and easy to understand because they are relevant to our everyday life experiences.

Geography touches many other disciplines such as:

• Government
• History
• Agricultural science
• Economics

It is a subject which cuts across many other field of human study.

Value or Importance of Geography

Geography is very important because of the following reasons:

1. To study the Way of Life of other people: It enables us to study the Way of Life of other people in other parts of the world. Without geography, it would have been difficult to know the existence and Way of Life of The Americans, Britains, the Brazilians and the Japanese.
2. To study the physical environment around us: It enables us to study physical things around us such as soil, vegetation, climate, rivers, oceans and mountains.
3. To know the importance of the physical features around us: It enables us to know the importance of the physical features around us and how they can be harnessed for human use. For example the climate of an area enables us to know the type of crops to grow; vegetation provides timber for us; rivers help in transportation, generation of electricity and also provides fish for food.
4. To understand other areas of other subjects: It enables us to understand other areas of other subjects like vegetation and agriculture, ecology and food chain in biology, population, Industries and trade in economics.
5. To choose a professional career: It enables us to choose a career from which we can earn a living and contribute to the economic development of our country. Careers like land surveying, and regional planning, estate Management, military studies, aviation, architecture will not be possible to study in higher institutions of learning without the knowledge of geography.
6. To study the social environment around us: Geography helps us to study the social environment around us. Such social environment are schools, churches, markets and mosque.
7. It aids in internal and external trade: Geography has helped us to know the resources of other regions or countries, and this has assisted us to determine both internal and external trade.
8. International relationship: Geography in relation to other subjects like government, commerce and economics has assisted many countries, to have bilateral international relations with other countries of the world.

Revision Questions

1. Define geography.
2. (a) Discuss the scope of geography (b) name five professional careers that geography can offer to people.
3. State and explain eight value or importance of geography to man
4. (a) State four countries that can be studied through geography. (b) name five physical and five social cultural features that can be studied through geography.