When we think of the word "geography," we usually think of the physical features of the land. However, this is partially correct. Geography also has to deal with the changes we have made to the land throughout the years. Geography is defined as the science dealing with the areal differentiation of the earth's surface, as shown in the character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world of such elements as climate, elevation soil, vegetation, population, land us, industries, or states, and of the unit areas formed by the complex of these individual elements
Geography has five basic themes: Location, Place, Human-Environmental Interaction, Movement, and Region.
Location
There are two types of location: Absolute and Relative
Absolute location provides a definite reference to locate a place. The reference could be latitude and longitude, a street address, or even the township and range system
Relative location describes a place with respect to its environment an its connection to other places. For example, New York is Northeast to Boston, MA.
Place Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.
Physical characteristics include a description such things as the mountains, rivers, beaches, topography (the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area), and animal and plant life of a place.
Human characteristics include the human-designed cultural features of a place, from land use and architecture to forms of livelihood and religion to food and folk ways to transportation and communication networks.
Human-Environmental Interactions This theme considers how humans adapt to and modify the environment. Humans shape the landscape through their interaction with the land, and can have positive and negative consequences on the environment.
Movement Humans move around, a lot! Not only do we move, but ideas, fads, goods, resources and communication travel distances as well. This theme studies movement and migration across the planet.
Region Region divides the world into manageable units for geographic study. Regions have some sort of characteristic that unifies the areas. Regions can either be formal, functional or vernacular.
Formal regions are designated by official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties and countries. For the most part, they are clearlyindicated and publicly known.
Functional regions are defined by their functions, such as city-region or drainage basin. For example, the New York metropolitan area is a functional region.
Vernacular regions have no formal boundaries but, are understood in our mental maps of the world. "The South", "The Midwest" and the "Middle East" are all examples of vernacular regions.