methods of research in geography

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Research Methods in Geography

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Ulrich Best

Rebecca Lave

Curious about critical physical geography? This is the place to start. This introduction to the Handbook of Critical Physical Geography provides an accessible overview of the core tenets of CPG research, as well as CPG methods and epistemology.

Fran Martin

International authors present their work on research in geography education for pupils aged 4-12 yrs. includes sections on teaching, learning and teacher education. The book outline and chapter 1 is provided below. A PDF of the complete work is available on request.

chairani octavia

Geografický časopis, 71, 4, 341-361

René Matlovič , Ján Oťaheľ

Critical approaches, integration of research and relevance of geography The article examines considerations about the challenge of "critical physical geogra-phy" which spurs the cooperation of physical and human geographers in search of the solution to problems stemming from climate and environmental changes. The challenge is associated with the adoption of geographical results in social practice and the consecutive acquisition of finances for research and education. In this context, the aim of the article is to draw attention to the integrating developmental conceptions in the geographical cognition in Slovakia and their continual relevance for scientific tendencies , political and social interests. Application of modern technologies (Geographical Information Systems and remote sensing) and databases about landscape (Copernicus Programme) is reflected in the participation of geographers in important national and international projects. These activities have also led to the development of methodology of scientific research and the modernisation of the educational process.

Archie Simpson

Foster Opoku

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed at exploring the perceptions of geography among Ghanaian senior high school students. A total of 48 students comprising 24 males and 24 females were selected from two different public senior high schools in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana to participate in the study. Data were obtained using in-depth interview and results were processed and presented using the thematic analysis approach with reference to the research objectives. Results from the study revealed that more than half of the students interviewed had positive perception of geography in terms of its relevance to people in the society. Regarding the definition and scope of geography, the overwhelming majority of the student respondents perceived geography as a description of the physical environment such as rivers, rocks, the universe, weather and climates, formation of landforms, among others. Others also perceived geography as the drawing of maps to show earth’s features. Inter...

Ignacio Uber

Jamie Gillen , Robert Wasson

Alan Backler

An Introduction to Scientific Research Methods in Geography and Environmental Studies

Daniel Montello - University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Paul Sutton - University of Denver, Colorado
Description

This revised, updated, and extended Second Edition of An Introduction to Scientific Research Methods in Geography and Environmental Studies provides a broad and integrative introduction to the conduct and interpretation of scientific research in geography. It explains both, the conceptual and the technical aspects of research, as well as all phases of the research process. The text continues to be inclusive: combining approaches in physical geography, human geography, and techniques (such as GIS, cartography, and remote sensing). As in the previous edition, the authors use a framework - of a natural and social scientific approach - common to all subjects in geography.

In this edition new material is included on "Computational Modeling", as well as more information about GPS and map projections, as well as an expanded chapter on Scientific Communication to present more guidance on writing a literature review. Each chapter has a short case study of actual research projects in order to demonstrate the breadth of approaches taken in scientific research in geography. Fully updated, including references and further readings, the text includes links to relevant web sites.

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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Montello and Sutton is one of the best texts I've used in seminars on research methodology. The text offers a clear balance of quantitative vs. qualitative and physical vs. human which I've found particularly valuable. The chapters on research ethics, scientific communication, information technologies and data visualization are excellent. Unlike many recent surveys and anthologies of geographic methodologies, Montello and Sutton provide a comprehensive and integrated overview which will continue to be of value across the entire discipline Kenneth E. Foote Department of Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder

This second edition of An Introduction to Scientific Research Methods in Geography and Environmental Studies now ranks itself in the category of “books with experience”, that is, it can be situated among these few noted books that have probably been used in many classes through the years. While advanced undergraduates in geography and natural sciences would obviously benefit from this reading at the condition of being combined with other related titles, other students in the broader field of environmental studies might also learn from the authors’ interdisciplinary approach.

Handbook for students doing geographical research

This book is a good handbook for geography students planning and carrying their own research projects. I would recommend this book as supplementary reading for methodology courses at university level geography teaching.

Unfortunately, differences and improvements from the first edition are not significant. Authors have only organized chapters to new order and they have corrected some minor errors. Authors have also added a new feature (Project examples). That might be useful for geography students so that they can get a clear picture of applicability of single research method.

This book and its topics are important for geography course dealing with research methodology and own research projects, but improvements for the first edition are not big enough. Therefore, we are continuing to use the first edition instead of the new second edition.

An Introduction to Scientific Research Methods in Geography is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, because the authors provide a comprehensive overview of different types of research methods used in geography. The book provides an excellent overview on research methods, such as data collection, experimental and non-experimental research design, statistical data analysis and data display. A really useful textbook.

I found Montello and Sutton to be a good choice for introducing master's students to the issues in research design that all researchers face, regardless of whether they are biological, physical, and social scientists. The goal of my course is to make students aware of the questions they need to ask and the range of options available to them in designing their research, not to make them expert in any particular method or approach. This text works better than any others I found for achieving that goal with a multi-/interdisciplinary course.

Very comprehensive approach to environmental research methods.

A comprehensive book for students with useful elements for environmental archaeology.

This is a student-friendly book, which provides a comprehensive overview of the methods and approaches in Geographical research.

Useful for public service related research topics - Public service geographic and environmental projects

Scientific Research Methods in Geography and Environmental Studies covers a broad range of subjects that undergraduates in the discipline should be familiar and comfortable with upon graduation. From chapters on the scientific method and fundamental research concepts, to experimental design, sampling and statistical analysis, the text offers an excellent introduction to the key concepts of geographical research. The content is applicable for students at the beginning of their studies right through to planning and conducting dissertations. The book has also been of particular support in designing my level 1 and 2 tutorials which cover similar ground to several of the chapters.

Preview this book

Sample materials & chapters, for instructors, select a purchasing option, related products.

Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for Science and Society (1997)

Chapter: 4 geography's techniques, 4— geography's techniques.

This chapter provides a brief discussion of contributions made by geographers to the development of techniques for observation, display, and analysis of geographic data. With respect to observation, the chapter addresses two extremes on the geographic scales of observation: local fieldwork and remote sensing. With respect to the display and analysis of data, the chapter examines cartography, visualization, geographic information systems (GISs), and spatial statistics.

The techniques that geographers use in their work are not developed in a vacuum. They are developed to address specific problems and, thus, reflect the focus of the discipline at particular times. These techniques reflect the conscious decisions of geographers about the kinds of information that are important to collect; the spatial scales at which information should be collected, compiled, analyzed, and displayed; data sampling strategies and experimental designs; data representation; and methods for data analysis. As theoretical paradigms change, so do the techniques for empirical research. Thus, advancement of the discipline goes hand in hand with the development of new and improved techniques for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information. Sidebars 4.1 and 4.2 illustrate the close relationship between advancement of the discipline and technique development.

The variety of perspectives in geography and a recognition of how different world views and experiences influence theoretical work (see Chapter 3 ) help geographers remain conscious of the influence of theory on technique development (and the reverse). The current popularity of GISs, for example, both reflects and reinforces the influence of spatial analytic theories in the discipline. There

is a lively debate about whether the popularity of GISs is hindering the development of other theoretical approaches, such as social theory, that require different techniques for empirical analysis.

This chapter illustrates some of the ways in which geographers have made substantial contributions to empirical scientific techniques through their methodological research. Some of these techniques were developed by other disciplines for other purposes and were adapted by geographers to meet the special challenges posed by the study of spatial and temporal aspects of phenomena, processes, and events. Some of the techniques developed by geographers have found widespread use in other disciplines and in the public and private sectors generally. Perhaps the best current examples are GISs that store, manipulate, and display geographically referenced information. The potential of GISs to handle large quantities of spatially related information fills an important need in research, education, and applied work in the public and private sectors. The geographic information system, in addition to being a stimulus for theoretical research in spatial representation (see

Chapter 3 ), is a major topic of techniques-related research in geography and it is one of the principal topics of specialization within the field, currently demanded by students and employers alike.

The focus of this chapter on techniques for empirical analysis should not be taken to mean that methodological contributions in geography have been restricted to observation and hypothesis testing. For the past 20 years the discipline has been a fertile field of theoretical research, particularly in conceptualizing and modeling geographic processes. In many ways these theoretical developments have given the discipline its secure intellectual foundation.

Observation

Observation of phenomena and events is central to geography's concern for accurately representing the complexity of the real world. The traditional and still widely practiced method of observation is through direct "on-the-ground" contact between geographer and subject through field observation and exploration. Fieldwork is particularly effective for making observations at micro- to mesoscales, as typified, for example, by the study of single watersheds or cities.

Fieldwork is an intensive endeavor. It can require substantial investments of human and financial resources, particularly if carried out over extended periods of time.

The intensive nature of fieldwork makes it impractical for macroscale observations of the Earth's surface. Such observations are best made by using remote sensing techniques that utilize air- or spaceborne platforms and sensors. The development of these techniques, and especially the collection of remote sensing data, have often been led by geographers.

Field Observation/Exploration

The principal laboratory for geographic investigation is the field. Indeed, Sayer (1993) has argued that the intensive, comparative case-study research enabled by field observation is central to understanding the variations between places that geographers specialize in studying. Many of geography's most compelling questions center around changes in the physical and built landscape. Addressing those questions usually requires field observation and spatial sampling. Geographers interested in social patterns and processes also use archival research, interviewing and surveying techniques, and participant observation methods that are associated with the social sciences more generally.

Fieldwork allows geographers to make direct observations in places where local data are missing or unreliable and to check the validity of existing secondary sources such as census statistics. While the increased availability of remote sensing imagery would seem to reduce the need for fieldwork in some research, in truth it makes such work even more important because accurate interpretation of imagery depends on detailed knowledge of the actual patterns on the ground. To decide, for example, which areas on a forested scene represent healthy old-growth forest as opposed to disease-infested old-growth or young secondary forest, researchers need field data on the composition and distribution of different forest stands so that they can assess how such stands are ''seen" by remote sensors.

Fieldwork may also be needed to test the validity of interpretations (e.g., a vegetation map) that others have made based on remote sensing imagery—just as it is necessary to test the validity of other secondary data sources, digital or otherwise. The wide availability of digitized secondary datasets (not just interpreted imagery but also census data and other information) makes it easy for students and researchers to download information and perform their own analyses. Unfortunately, such datasets frequently do not include detailed descriptions of the origins and reliability of the information. In cases where these "meta-data" are missing, the digital datasets may only be useful if the researcher is able to assess their reliability through fieldwork. In a digital age, when it seems so easy to collect observations "automatically" from space or secondhand from online datasets, fieldwork becomes more, rather than less, important to good scholarship.

The contributions of geography to the practice of field research derive from the discipline's emphasis on location and synthesis. As noted in Chapter 3 , geographers are concerned with distributions and spatial patterns of phenomena. In these connections they have contributed to our understanding of distributions and patterns through the development of innovative field mapping techniques. To geographers, field maps are more than orientation aids. They are a tool to record and to uncover relationships among observations. Geographers have developed field mapping techniques to shed light on everything from spatial cognition to the origin and diffusion of cultural traits. With the explosion of GISs, global positioning systems (GPSs), and related technologies, geographers are at the forefront in automating the compilation, manipulation, and analysis of field observations (see Figure 4.2 ).

The field geographer's interest in distributions and spatial patterns is part of a larger concern with synthesis: how and why particular phenomena come together in specific places to create distinctive environments. This concern leads geographers in the field to observe and study a wide range of physical and social phenomena. Research on land reform, for example, might involve soil sampling as well as interviews with affected individuals.

The enduring importance of fieldwork in geography extends beyond research to pedagogy. At a time when new ways are being sought to promote environmental and cultural awareness through education, geographic fieldwork offers a unique and valuable perspective. Field excursions are incorporated routinely into many geography courses. They are designed to teach students about the environment in which they live and to encourage them to be inquisitive about the processes that shape landscapes and cultures. Fieldwork thus provides both a tool for the acquisition of knowledge and a means of promoting awareness and appreciation of culture and the environment.

Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is defined here as the detection and recording of electromagnetic radiation signals from the Earth's surface and atmosphere using sensors placed aboard aircraft and satellites. These signals are usually recorded in digital form, where each "digit" denotes one piece of information about an average property of a small area of the Earth.

Geographers have been using remote sensing data since they first became available about 30 years ago. Geographers who study the Earth's climate, for example, use satellites to collect data on atmospheric conditions for monitoring and predicting change. Remotely sensed data also are very useful in creating and updating maps of physical, biological, and cultural features at the Earth's surface. The ability of certain sensor systems to "see" through cloud cover, and their unrestricted access to all portions of the Earth, provide information that may not be available from other sources.

This photograph shows a GPS (mounted on the rider's back) being used to record positional data while traversing remote highlands of the Dominican Republic for a research project on Quaternary paleoclimatology and biogeography. Data were subsequently entered into a GIS to map trail routes and geomorphic features under study.

Geographers have played important roles in efforts to use satellite data for taking inventory of and monitoring land cover, both regionally and globally. For instance, a joint U.S. Geological Survey (EROS Data Center)/Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies project recently demonstrated a method using multisource data that successfully characterized 159 land cover classes for the United States (see Plate 11 ). The acquisition of global land cover data has been recognized as a top priority by the National Research Council and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (e.g., Townshend, 1992; NRC, 1994).

Geographers have also played key roles in the collection and processing of remotely sensed data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastwatch Change Analysis Project, a joint state and federal program designed to monitor environmental changes in coastal wetlands, uplands, and submerged habitats. Klemas et al. (1993), for example, developed a coastal land cover classification system for use with satellite imagery. The system is compatible with existing coastal mapping programs and databases and with GIS. Dobson and co-workers (Dobson and Bright, 1991; Dobson et al., 1993) have conducted prototype studies in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and have helped develop a protocol for mapping locations, characteristics, and changes in coastal zone habitats. Jensen and co-workers (Jensen et al., 1993a, b) have used remote sensing data to predict the effect of sea-level changes on coastal wetlands (see Plate 3 ).

Scale is a fundamental issue for collection of data by remote methods. In this context, scale can refer to the spatial, spectral, radiometric, or temporal characteristics of sensor systems, all of which—singly and in combination—affect the quality and usefulness of the collected data. Geographers have made valuable contributions in understanding the spatial- and temporal-scale dependence of geographic data and in determining optimal measurement scales for remotely gathered data.

Geographers are also involved in developing new technologies for integrating, analyzing, and visualizing multiresolution satellite data in integrated geographic information systems. The integration and visualization of satellite imagery with other types of data hold enormous potential for researchers, resource managers, and decision makers as they strive to inventory, understand, and manage the Earth's human and natural environment.

Sampling and Choice of Observations

An important component of much geographic research is estimation of the values of variables through sampling. Evaluating the efficacy of sampling designs is an important topic of research in geography and an important aspect of applying geography's techniques.

Traditionally, sample collection in geography utilized sampling designs borrowed from classical statistics, but for many geographic data, classical sampling

designs may not produce representative samples. Random samples are not necessarily representative samples because of the way processes can vary in time and space. For spatially referenced data there is no consistent relationship between the number of observations and their representativeness. Quite commonly, other information is available that permits the differential weighting of sample observations. Such Bayesian weighting schemes, for example, are becoming especially important in interpreting the geographic patterns of disease distributions. The "samples" of observed diseases are hypothesized to be drawn from known processes, and the interest is in observing differences between observed and expected patterns of disease given the geographic distribution of conditions known to affect the likelihood of the disease being present in a population (Langford, 1994). Generating samples from known processes, computing the reference distribution and finding the relationship of an observed sample estimate to it, is often accomplished using Monte Carlo simulation methods (Openshaw et al., 1987, 1988).

Many samples of geographic data are taken from datasets designed for other purposes (e.g., from the census). This resampling of samples confounds classical statistical probability assessments and hypothesis testing. A number of geographers have begun to move away from classical statistical approaches toward more flexible approaches that incorporate geographic understanding. The move from "direct" to "indirect" estimation techniques that rely on knowledge from related observations to estimate the conditions of small areas illustrates this change. In qualitative approaches in human geography, formal sampling designs are often questioned, since space is not conceived of as an empty space whose content is to be captured through systematic samples—but, rather, as a differentiated space with meanings attached to areas that change across space in noncontinuous ways. In qualitative analyses a contrast is made between time, which is seen as one-dimensional and unidirectional, and space, which is seen as multidimensional and ordered in many different ways. For the qualitative geographer, who is often cultivating the middle ground between the universality of science and the particularity of history, interpreting the meaning of change in space becomes the goal and purposive sampling the tool for this end.

An example of a new approach to sampling design and evaluation is the ongoing effort to assess global climate and climatic change from weather station measurements. Rain gauge networks provide spatial samples of the continually varying global precipitation field. Their spatial distributions are neither random by design nor demonstrably random in effect (see Figure 4.3 ); nevertheless, the nodes of these sampling networks (the rain gauge locations) are arguably the best representations of historical precipitation variability. Standard statistical approaches are inadequate for assessing precipitation variability from such samples for the reasons mentioned above. In their place, computer-intensive, nonparametric methods of evaluating the rain gauge networks and, in turn, the precipita-

Spatial distribution of precipitation stations in the National Center for Atmospheric Research's World Surface Climatology for (a) 1900, (b) 1930, and (c) 1960. Station locations are denoted by closed circles.

Source: Willmott et al. (1994).

tion fields that they represent have proven useful, when informed by climatological understanding.

Display and Analysis

The traditional tool in geography for the display of spatially referenced information is the map. Cartography is a subdiscipline traditionally concerned with formalized procedures for making maps. To many, the term map connotes a fixed, two-dimensional paper product containing point, line, and area data. During the past generation, however, advances in data collection, storage, analysis, and display have greatly expanded this traditional view. The "modern" map is a dynamic and multidimensional product that exists in digital form. The advent of such maps has opened up new fields of research and application for geographic investigation.

Any geographer educated 25 years ago who returned to the discipline today would be impressed by the methods geographers now use to record and process spatial information (Laurini and Thomas, 1992). The changes extend beyond the development of GISs to new techniques for geographic visualization and spatial statistical analysis, which provide for an increasingly complex and contextual understanding of the world. This same observer would also be impressed by the problems that remain to be solved. For example, a substantial methodology now exists for statistical analysis of spatial data, but it has not yet been integrated into GISs. Indeed, as a platform for the investigation of scientific questions, GISs are still in their infancy. Many geographers believe that a large dividend would come from integrating GISs as information science with visualization techniques and spatial analysis methods.

The following subsections provide a brief review of some of the substantive methodological contributions of the discipline to display and analysis techniques. These include cartography, GISs, geographic visualization, and spatial statistics.

Cartography

The traditional close association between geography and maps is appropriate given the discipline's concern with space and place. The symbiotic link between geographers and maps has ensured the persistence of cartography as a subdiscipline of geography within most academic settings.

The field of cartography has changed enormously during the past three decades, primarily because of the widespread availability of computers. Computers have made possible new forms of symbolization, such as dynamic (i.e., animated) maps, customized maps for individual users, and interactive maps. They have also made possible new methods for scientific visualization and spatial data analysis.

Geographic cartographers have made especially valuable contributions to

the development of automated mapping systems. Their research on map reading processes, map production techniques, cartographic generalization, and cartographic design has facilitated the automation and formalization of what had been an intuitive manual procedure. With generalization, for example, a conceptual model has been devised that separates the subjective and holistic approaches of traditional cartography into discrete subcomponents that have been successfully incorporated into digital mapping software (McMaster and Shea, 1992). Cartographers have also worked to prevent the inadvertent misuse of computer mapping systems and maps by developing expert systems for map production.

Some of the most interesting and potentially useful research conducted by geographers today is in the realm of dynamic or animated cartography. Animation enables the visualization of changes in phenomena across space, through time, and in attributes of the phenomena themselves (see Sidebar 4.3 ). One of the earliest animated maps of the microcomputer era showed the spread of AIDS at the county level in Pennsylvania (Gould, 1989). This animation was used to highlight the initial concentrations and spatial diffusion of the disease more effectively than a sequence of static maps. The intention of this dramatic portrayal was to inform and educate health care researchers and the general population. The cartographic techniques developed in this research subsequently led to inclusion of a series of animated maps in one of the best-selling CD-ROM encyclopedias.

Geographers have led the way in research on another new cartographic format: electronic atlases and atlases on CD-ROMs. In a recent project undertaken jointly by Florida State University, the Florida Department of Education, and IBM, an atlas of Florida was published on a CD-ROM and distributed to all schools in the state ("Atlas of Florida," 1994; see Figure 4.5 ). This format permits the inclusion of multimedia material that could not be accommodated by traditional printed text: audio, video, animation, or a multitude of photographs and other graphics. Electronic atlases and related geographic programs are already proving to be effective in educational settings, especially at the kindergarten through grade 12 levels. The newly released "ExplOregon: A Geographic Tour of Oregon" (a 1995 multimedia CD-ROM developed by William Loy with Digital Chisel software by Pierian Spring Software) is changing the way that the geography of Oregon is taught and learned in schools throughout the state. As national standards for geography education are developed, educational aids such as electronic atlases will become indispensable.

Geographic Information Systems

Geographic information systems were defined in 1992 by the U.S. Geological Survey as "computer system[s] capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information" (USGS, 1992). Such systems, in fact, have power, utility, and importance far beyond this definition, both within and beyond the field of geography. Their most valuable potential capability,

which sets them apart from computer mapping systems, is the ability to perform spatial analyses to address research and application questions.

Fundamental to the successful propagation of GISs is the development of methods for representing and coding spatial data (see Sidebar 4.4 ). GISs can be used to perform an extensive variety of spatial operations and analyses on properly coded data. At the most elementary level are computations of distances, areas, centroids, gradients, and volumes. More complex operations that add spatial

Choropleth map from the "Atlas of Florida" CD-ROM showing arrests for drug sales and possession by county for 1989. By clicking on the graph icon at the lower left of the screen, the user can display an animated bar graph that depicts changes over time in drug-related crimes and enforcement.

Source: "Atlas of Florida" (1994).

referencing to a basic calculation are also possible—for example, going beyond questions about the total length of a city's sewer lines to questions about the total length of sewer lines in a given area in a particular city and what proportion of this length is more than 50 years old. GISs are also capable of more complicated operations such as (1) calculating new spatial datasets based on attributes of existing data—for example, calculating slopes from elevations; (2) comparing two or more spatial datasets based on user-specified criteria—for example, identifying toxic waste sites that are situated on permeable soil; (3) delimiting areas that possess certain characteristics defined by the user—for example, delimiting locations of commercially zoned land within 2 miles of an interstate highway; and (4) modeling the possible outcomes of alternative processes and policies—for example, determining the impact of flooding along the Mississippi River given the presence or absence of levees (see Plate 10 ).

GISs are being used to facilitate a variety of management and planning decisions in both the public and the private sectors. For instance, in Wake County, North Carolina, potential sites for schools, libraries, and other facilities have been determined by identifying adequately sized parcels of vacant land and providing information about utilities, topography, and demographic characteris-

tics of the local population. By incorporating population data from the 1990 census into their GIS, Wake County planners can generate population projections, vacancy rate estimates, and growth rates in demands for services (Juhl, 1994).

Plate 4 provides a further illustration of the capabilities of GISs to integrate data from diverse sources to create products for planners and policy makers. The figure shows a map of a portion of Columbia, South Carolina, that was created by combining 1990 census block-level data on racial composition with the county assessor's parcel-level data on land use. Proportional pie graphs provide a visualization of the varying levels of racial integration within blocks. This type of display would be especially useful for political reapportionment.

Another challenge in which GISs have found use is in monitoring natural resources. For example, GISs are being used to assess the impact of water releases from the Glen Canyon Dam on water flow in the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (Powers et al., 1994). Researchers constructed databases that contain spatial coordinates of the study area and ''layers" of information about the canyon's vegetation, surficial geology, and hydrology. These three characteristics are being monitored and analyzed to determine trends through time in riparian vegetation growth, habitat, and "events" such as channel scouring and channel constriction.

In addition, GISs have a growing role in international policy and planning associated with human welfare. One particularly compelling example, cutting

across the issues outlined in Chapter 2 , involves the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan (FAP) of the International Council for Scientific Unions-International Geographical Union (ICSU-IGU). FAP is a major international research and policy development effort designed to provide flood warning, coordinate assistance efforts during flood events, and develop long-term flood mitigation plans. The project brings geographers in Bangladesh together with an international team of experts (coordinated by the IGU) to build a knowledge and technology base at the University of Dhaka. A particularly important component of the project involves rapid field mapping by local technicians using handheld GPS monitors integrated with pen computers. Data are gathered and fed directly into the GIS to allow for updated mapping and integration with remotely sensed images.

Although GISs are being utilized at ever-increasing rates, their full potential remains to be realized. Geographers have an intrinsic interest in GISs from at least three perspectives: (1) as users of GISs for research and applications; (2) as contributors to the development of GIS methods, theories, and applications; and (3) as educators. The interest in GISs as an education tool is becoming increasingly important because their applications are growing rapidly and their impacts promise to be powerful. Geographers will be responsible for preparing future generations of GIS users and must provide them with strong backgrounds in understanding geographic processes and patterns, spatial analysis, and spatial visualization techniques.

To the end user of a GIS, its operation can be a deceptively simple "black box" that generates answers to queries at the press of a few keys. There is an inherent danger in this apparent simplicity, however, in that users can easily and unknowingly misuse the power of GISs to produce irrelevant or erroneous solutions (Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, 1995). Users need considerable background knowledge of the subject matter to which GISs are being applied, as well as an understanding of the analytical operations available on the systems, in order to know what questions to ask, the relevant variables to invoke, and how to recognize nonsensical procedures and answers.

An outgrowth of GISs (linked to geographic visualization and spatial statistics—both discussed separately below) is the development of geographic information analysis (GIA) tools. Such tools typically use an existing GIS as a base (or rely on data structures originally designed to support GIS) to which numerical analysis and sophisticated visual display methods are linked. Among the more successful early GIA tools was the Geographical Analysis Machine (GAM), the goal of which was to generate an automated answer to the question of "where" to look for patterns by initially looking everywhere (Openshaw et al., 1987). GAM is part of a larger effort to develop a "computational human geography," an approach to human geography that builds on the massive databases of social and economic data being generated together with inductive approaches to arriving at useful generalizations. Application of the original GAM resulted in successful

identification of clusters of leukemia cases. The method was, however, limited by its use of brute force (nonefficient) methods.

In a recent extension of GAM, Openshaw (1995) has implemented a space-time-attribute analysis machine (STAM) linked directly to GIS. The goal of STAM is to determine a set of GIS operators that, when applied to a database query, will identify cases that form a statistically unusual pattern. In its most recent implementation STAM incorporates the use of "genetic" algorithms (i.e., algorithms that adapt to their environment, for example, by defining the appropriate spatial scale and resolution for a particular problem context).

Another significant development in GIA is the incorporation of object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts to extract the data needed for an analysis from a GIS, solve spatial analytic problems, and subsequently link the solutions back to the GIS for display of results and further analysis. One example of this approach involves development of custom routing software for use by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in decision making related to food aid transport in southern Africa (Ralston, 1994). Southern Africa imports large quantities of food grains, and the state of the economy dictates that much of this is in the form of food aid. The software developed for USAID is based on an OOP approach linked to the commercial GIS, ArcInfo. The combination provides a flexible tool for prepositioning food in storage facilities, setting prices for acquisition of more carrying capacity, determining where to add more storage, making distribution decisions, choosing best modes and routes for transport, and determining the location and cost of bottlenecks. The OOP approach was found to be particularly useful in quickly adapting the decision model to deal with changes in obstacles to distribution.

Geographic Visualization

Geographic visualization (GVis) can be defined as "the use of concrete visual representations . . . to make spatial contexts and problems visible, so as to engage the most powerful human information processing abilities, those associated with vision" (MacEachren et al., 1992, p. 101). The dramatic increase in volume of georeferenced data being collected and generated today is exceeding our capacity to analyze and digest it. Using the power of human vision to recognize patterns and synthesize spatial information increases the capacity of geographic researchers to cope with this data volume. For example, a simple 48 × 48 matrix of fiscal transfers for the United States generates 2,256 pieces of information for each time period considered. Such information can be concisely summarized in a simple yet effective visualization (e.g., see Figure 4.6 ).

GVis combines display with analysis capabilities to enable the search for patterns and relationships; the identification of anomalies; the analysis of directions and flows; the delineation of regions; and the integration of local, regional, and global information (see Figure 4.6 ). The development of flexible GVis tools

Estimated trajectories of fiscal transfers via federal accounts for 1975 (Tobler, 1981). The flow pattern has been estimated from a rather coarse 61 × 95 finite difference mesh, having an approximate resolution of 400 km. The flow lines depict the theoretical paths of fiscal transfers computed from the potential field obtained as the solution of Poisson's equation. This simple but effective visual depiction dramatically illustrates the general direction of flow and also depicts partitioning into flow regions quite clearly. The resolution upon which it was based, which was partly a function of computational power in 1981, does not support identification of particular origins and destinations.

is an important topic of geographic research because such tools are essential to fully exploit the information "content" of georeferenced data. Geography as a discipline is involved with GVis in three ways: development, application, and assessment of the implications of its use.

The most active topics of GVis research are exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and the application of multimedia to spatial analysis, education, and policy decisions. Research on ESDA includes work on extending classical statistics to deal with spatial data, as described later in this chapter. Research in this field also includes the development of new data transformation and symbolization techniques and the development of computer interfaces to allow interactive analysis of spatial data (see Sidebar 4.5 ).

In the field of multimedia research, cartographers are developing techniques and computer interfaces that allow animation to be used as a tool for spatial pattern recognition. Multimedia tools are also being developed to link maps, graphics, text, and data to understand the complexities of geographic processes in

problems involving human-environment interactions. GVis concepts also provide structure for the design of multimedia tools for interactive learning. Multimedia visualization technology is important in the context of digital geographic libraries. A particularly innovative development in this context is the first comprehensive collection of Native American maps (Andrews and Tilton, 1993). The library contains high-resolution images of original maps stored at a variety of resolutions and accessible through a comprehensive cross-referenced indexing tool that takes advantage of the nonlinear structure inherent in hypermedia applications. 1

Geographers are exploiting the dynamic capabilities of GVis—its abilities to directly manipulate model parameters or map elements or its capacity for animation—to analyze complex spatial processes. As noted in Sidebar 4.3 , for example, animation has been used to understand tree species migration across North America and to compare it with predictions from climate models.

Beyond its role in exploratory research, interactive GVis is rapidly evolving as a tool in policy formulation. A good example is Shiffer's (1993) multimedia environment, which was developed to allow participants at public meetings concerned with airport siting to hear the noise that would be generated at specified locations in relation to the proposed facility.

GVis and scientific visualization in general represent a shift away from strict quantitative analysis to increased reliance on qualitative sensory perception. Particularly when used with modeling and simulation, GVis has important ramifications for geography and the rest of science. These include fundamental issues of how research questions are framed and even what constitutes a problem worthy of investigation. As geographers move away from the use of fixed maps and avail themselves of the multiple perspectives permissible with GVis, they must come to grips with how the "truth" of the representations generated can be judged—and even what truth is. There is a growing need to address such issues as truth in representation, particularly in relation to the use of GVis and GISs in public policy applications.

Spatial Statistics

The analysis of geographically referenced information poses statistical challenges not faced in most other disciplines. First, observations are not always scalar numbers, such as points on a map. They may be multidimensional, consisting of lines, areas, and volumes. Second, the observations may be spatially or spatiotemporally covariant—that is, the values of observations made in one location may depend on the values of observations from other locations or from the same

location at different times. This violates a key assumption central to much statistical theory—that observations are mutually independent.

Attempts to deal with these challenges have stimulated the development of a new subfield of statistics. Although this work began in ecology and biostatistics and has lately attracted the interest of statisticians, many of these developments were pioneered by geographers. For example, geographers have developed methods for estimating the degree and nature of spatial autocovariance in point, line, and area data. They have also addressed such complicating features as periodicity or waves in spatial patterns. Geographers have also played an important role in developing multivariate statistical analysis methods to deal with the spatial and temporal autocovariance of much spatially referenced data.

Spatial data pose special problems that are subjects for research by geographers. Because geographic data often fail to meet distributional assumptions necessary for classical statistical procedures, geographers have been at the center of attempts to develop distribution-free methods for estimating statistical relationships among variables. They also have been involved in the development of methods for estimating prior probability distributions, either through Monte Carlo simulations that generate reference distributions unique to each locality or by developing Bayesian methods that allow investigators to incorporate knowledge of known relationships in statistical investigations.

Methods for evaluating data for spatial dependencies have received recent attention from geographers (e.g., Getis and Ord, 1992). Such measures are used both to identify spatial patterns in data and to allow analysts to understand spatial relationships in their data so that appropriate analytical techniques can be chosen. When measures of spatial dependency are applied to real world datasets of the magnitude needed to address the societal problems identified in Chapter 2 , spatial dependency measures can become intractable. One promising solution to the dilemma is the application of massively parallel processing methods (Armstrong and Marciano, 1995).

Recent research in GISs aims to develop "data models" that facilitate the routine analysis of spatial dependence, spatial heterogeneity and spatially referenced diagnosis of regression models. These spatial data models are used to prepare data in the special forms needed to efficiently accomplish these spatial analysis methods. The intent is to bring the same level of enabling technology to spatial analysis that spreadsheets and statistical packages have brought to statistical analysis (Anselin et al., 1993).

Research in spatial statistics is believed by many to be in its infancy because many research questions are likely to yield to computational approaches. There are enormous complexities in the analysis of spatially referenced data that require additional research. For instance, research is needed to understand the scale dependence of statistical methods and sampling designs. This work is necessary to understand why different aggregations of spatially referenced observations give statistical results that vary dramatically and unpredictably from one spatial

specification to another (e.g., Tobler, 1969). Research is also needed to understand how to separate environmental effects from other geographic variations in health research—how, for instance, to separate environmental factors that cause cancer from the density of susceptible populations when searching for cancer clusters. This last example illustrates the importance of research in addressing important public policy questions.

Conclusions

Current trends in geography's techniques suggest a future in which researchers, students, business people, and public policy makers will explore a world of shared spatial data from their desktops. They will request analyses from a rich menu of options, select the geographic area and spatial scale of analysis, and display their results in multimedia formats that are unanticipated today.

In developing GIS-GVis tools of the future, developers need to think more broadly about the context of the problems and the knowledge and skill levels of users. The users of tomorrow are likely to be a far broader group than at present—in background, perspectives, and skills. Indeed, many will be novices by today's standards, and they will rely on the embedded knowledge of experts in their use of these tools.

The users of the future will also bring different world views and theoretical perspectives to these tools. They will challenge the adequacy of current techniques for analyzing and understanding geographic phenomena, posing challenges that must be taken up by developers when designing next-generation tools and theories.

As political, economic, and environmental issues increasingly spread across the globe, the science of geography is being rediscovered by scientists, policymakers, and educators alike. Geography has been made a core subject in U.S. schools, and scientists from a variety of disciplines are using analytical tools originally developed by geographers.

Rediscovering Geography presents a broad overview of geography's renewed importance in a changing world. Through discussions and highlighted case studies, this book illustrates geography's impact on international trade, environmental change, population growth, information infrastructure, the condition of cities, the spread of AIDS, and much more.

The committee examines some of the more significant tools for data collection, storage, analysis, and display, with examples of major contributions made by geographers.

Rediscovering Geography provides a blueprint for the future of the discipline, recommending how to strengthen its intellectual and institutional foundation and meet the demand for geographic expertise among professionals and the public.

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2 Geographic Tools & Methods

What is geography anyway.

Beware: geography is NOT the same as geology. These are related disciplines for sure, but there is a very important distinction between the two and we don’t have to look far to learn what that is (hint: Greek roots! Yep, locate them in your brain).

Geography : geo + graph y = to write the world

Geology : geo + logy = to study the world

In one sense, geography can certainly be understood as the study of the world, however, first and foremost, the discipline is about writing the world.

What does it mean to “write the world”? It means to chart the land, the sea, and the sky; to describe the natural and socio-cultural processes and systems of which humans and animals are part; to represent the world.

How can we “write the world”? Geographers can write travel journals and observations about people and place; measure distance between physical features; map place at the local, regional, and international scales.

Branches of Geography

Geography as an academic discipline and practice can be divided into a few main branches, namely: human geography , physical geography , human-environment geography , and Geoinformation Science (GIScience) , sometimes called Mapping Sciences.

Geographic Tools & Methods

Scientific research is oriented around gathering data and producing useful knowledge. Data and methods can be qualitative, quantitative, or a mix of the two. Qualitative data and methods rely on information derived from words; quantitative data and methods rely on information derived from numbers.

In terms of geography, data collection methods such as observation, surveys, and interviews tend to be more qualitative, whereas specimen sampling, mapping, and remote sensing tend to be more quantitative. However, there is a fair deal of overlap between the two genres of data and research methods, so don’t get too bogged down trying to differentiate the two.

Let’s take a closer look at some key geographic tools and methods. Remember, regardless of the method, geographers rely on a spatial perspective to answer “ What is where, why there, and why care? ” (Gritzner, 2000) in order to produce useful geographic knowledge.

Mapping is a way to “write the world” and therefore is a kind of representation. The art and science of creating maps is known as cartography . With cartographic representation, especially with trying to represent a 3-D earth on a 2-D surface, comes distortion. This distortion actually shapes our geographical knowledge of the world and affects our perceptions of place. For instance, if you’ve ever played the board-game Risk where Greenland looked huge compared to Africa, or grew up with a map of the United States that placed Hawai` i just off the coast of California, you know what I’m talking about.

Learn more about map projections and distortions in the video below.

Labeling maps and adding toponyms (names of places) is also a representative practice, and reminds us of the power involved in the act of representing.

Check out the image below for a map of Hawai` i from 1901 commissioned by the Hawaii Territory Survey, after the end of the Hawaiian Kingdom and soon after American occupation began. You’ll see the labels “no vegetation, waste land” towards the center. The map shows Mauna Kea, an inactive volcano on the Big Island.

These labels assign meaning to the area mapped here from the mapmaker’s perspective, but do not necessarily reflect the meaning the land has for others. For instance, Mauna Kea is a sacred and culturally significant site quite the opposite of waste land for many Hawaiians, particularly Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners. This example underscores the power that comes in mapping and naming and how it can equally highlight and obscure features and meaning of places.

Colonial era maps often used used label terra nullius , a Latin term meaning nobody’s land or empty land. Maps with this label played a role in justifying colonialism, as colonizers used the supposed-reality, as marked on a reliable map, that land was unoccupied and therefore up for grabs. Labels like this ignore and silence the presence of indigenous people and meanings of land help by non-mapmakers.

Maps have power. Historically, maps were created for and by those with political power. Maps were used to demarcate and claim ownership of land; a means of showing everyone that one has planted their proverbial flag to claim possession. As such, maps have an air of authority and being “official” and “true.” But all maps are made for specific purposes, and can have both accidental and purposeful lies included. The accidental, small white lies of a map have to do most often with the creation of a representation and generalization . Maps have scale , and will show a larger geographic area than the size of the paper they are printed upon. Because the map is not at a 1:1 scale as the world, objects must be simplified or generalized in order to not be overly cluttered by the infinite complexity of the world. What is shown, and just as importantly not shown, are choices made by the cartographer. A map might show the locations of important socioeconomic features, like schools and mines, but not show features like landfills or prisons.

Two broad categories of maps exist. General reference (or general purpose) maps are those that show important physical or cultural features in an area. Thematic maps are those that shows information about a particular topic. Thematic maps use qualitative and quantitative data to show spatial patterns. Several types of thematic maps exist, differentiated in how thematic data is displayed. Choropleth , isoline , dot density , and proportional / graduated symbols are all examples of thematic maps.

Examples of thematic maps

The following maps show four types of thematic maps using the same data.

(Data from Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; maps by author)

GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems and is foundational to Geoinformation Science (GIScience). What is it? It’s a technically advanced way of making in-depth maps by layering together data. Imagine a double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but instead of the traditional ingredients, the layers are:

groundcover
above-ground electrical lines
infrastructure

Now smash all those layers together like a good sandwich and you have replicated in a very rudimentary way how GIS creates a composite view of place.

Remote Sensing

When you cannot be in a particular place and collect data on the ground, you can collect it from above ground by using remote sensing technologies. Remote sensing refers to collecting data from afar. This is typically achieved through cameras, videos, and sensors attached to aircraft including airplanes, satellites, and drones.

Remote sensing provides a wonderful way to gather information about the Earth’s surface and allows us to track landscape change over time.

Exercise: Identifying Landscape Change

Peruse the before and after landscape changes profiled in these USGS Earthshots cards .

Learn more about what geoinformation technologies can do in practice in the video below.

Qualitative analysis of interviews, surveys, and texts

This is human geography, after all, so we definitely don’t want to forget that people themselves have a lot to teach us about the world and their words, stories, and experiences certainly help geographers answer “W hat is where, why there, and why care? ” (Gritzner, 2000).

What might a geographer use?

Interviews where a researcher asks either a set of closed (yes/no, etc) or open-ended (no answer choices given) questions
Surveys where a researcher sends a questionnaire to a set of people to learn about their experience or perception of the phenomenon being studied
Texts where a researcher may review old maps and documents in an archive, environmental impact statements outlining the existing natural and cultural resources of an area, etc.

The data collected is qualitative in nature, meaning it is based around words. Once the stories and experiences of place-based research questions are gathered, the researcher will analyze them by categorizing the data across all sources into themes and even quantify the relative presence of the themes in comparison to each other.

To build upon the example above of a map that coded indigenous land as terra nullius, you can imagine how talking to indigenous people about their own perceptions of that place and the values and meanings that the land has for them, would significantly add to our overall geographical knowledge and understanding of the world. It would also have implications for policies on how to manage the land.

to write the world

to study the world

branch of geography

branch of geography that studies relationships between humans and environment

branch of geography that uses computer programs to represent various geographical processes

relies on words

relies on numbers

way of representing the word

art and science of creating maps

names of places

a Latin term meaning nobody's land or empty land

sweeping, not entirely specific

ratio of distance on map to distance on ground

maps are those that show important physical or cultural features in an area

shows information about a particular topic

shows values through color/tint/shading existing political/administrative units. Commonly values are classed together to reduce the complexity of color or symbol.

shows values through connecting lines of equality. The layer of data is a surface; akin to terrain or elevation. This example adds colors between the lines.

shows counts of phenomenon as represented by dots. Dots represent 1 or more units, and where dots cluster there are more of the phenomenon.

shows values in areal units through differently sized symbols. Proportional symbols size symbols proportional to value, while graduated symbols create classes of values.

collecting data from afar

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An Introduction to Scientific Research Methods in Geography and Environmental Studies

Daniel Montello - University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Paul Sutton - University of Denver, Colorado
Description
Author(s) / Editor(s)

Handbook for students doing geographical research

Very comprehensive approach to environmental research methods.

A comprehensive book for students with useful elements for environmental archaeology.

This is a student-friendly book, which provides a comprehensive overview of the methods and approaches in Geographical research.

Useful for public service related research topics - Public service geographic and environmental projects

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Sample materials & chapters, daniel r. montello.

Daniel Montello is Professor of Geography at the University of California, CA. More About Author

Paul Sutton

I grew up in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California (Laurel Canyon) during the 1960's. The movie 'Soylent Green' and the chest pain I experienced with deep breaths during smog alerts had a significant impact on me and my nascent perception of the Human-Environment-Sustainability problematic. I later moved to Santa Barbara during my High School years and was deeply influenced by the works of Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich, and Garrett Hardin. Needless to say my early childhood experiences primed me to be significantly influenced by apocalyptic movies and neo-malthusian jeremiads.... More About Author

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Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography

Qualitative research is the collection of information about human behaviour and perception. It is about focusing in depth to find out why and how certain activities and events occur.

In research we aim to be rigorous in the scientific processes, which means aiming to be thorough, exhaustive and accurate. This requires ensuring that a study is replicable, by being transparent about the steps that were taken to obtain the findings that are presented. It also means being able to justify why you took each step in your research. Triangulation is a technique used to instill rigour. Triangulation is the use of multiple research methods for data collection to reveal insight about a specific topic.

Key Considerations

Positionality: Who you are, where you are, and how you ask your questions will influence the responses you elicit from participants in your study.

Reflexivity: This is a process of considering your own positionality and the effects that your positionality will have on your research. It entails throughly considering the benefits and drawbacks of your positionality, and how this in turn can benefit or hinder your research.

S ample: A sample is a set of data. In the case of qualitative data methods covered in this section, your sample is composed of those who are taking part in your study. The number of people who participate will be your sample size. When you reach a point of saturation, it means that you are starting to collect the same ideas over and over from your sample.

Interview: An interview is a method of inquiry in which you ask your participants a set of questions. It can be semi-structured or and structured and can use different mediums (e.g., phone, email, in-person). A semi-structured interview is one in which you have an idea about the types of questions you ask but the order and way you ask the question may vary. A structured interview is a specified set of questions that is asked in the same order using the same words during each interview.

Focus group: This is a method in which you have a heterogeneous population come together in one room to discuss a certain topic of interest. Typically a facilitator organizes the focus group and will guide the conversation to keep the topic of conversation on track. The strength of this method is the opportunity for free flow of conversation; comments tend to stimulate new ideas and discussion topics. The challenge associated with this method is that it is possible for a few assertive people to dominate the conversation.

Participant observation: This refers to when a researcher embeds him- or herself in the research context by becoming an active participant.

S urvey: This method uses a set of written questions that the participants then answer directly on paper or online.

Oral history: This is the process of gathering and listening to people tell their stories and share knowledge. Traditionally oral histories were passed down through generations, building the knowledge bases of communities. Oral histories are often recorded so that both the information, as well as the voices and character of the story telling, can be preserved.

Participatory mapping: Sometimes called sketch mapping, this is asking a set of questions and having the participants draw how they view the world in a map form. It is typically done using a piece of paper, but could be done using digital free drawing applications.

Journaling: When a researcher or a participant documents his or her thoughts feelings or ideas on a topic on a regular basis, it is referred to as journaling. Journaling is a free-flow writing exercise.

Content analysis: This method collects content in multimedia formats from the media, policy documents and other outlets and then codes the material for common themes and ideas.

Qualitative data analysis: Qualitative data is collected via the methods described above and then is often transcribed and thematically coded. This means a researcher will read the transcript to identify common themes. There are multiple strategies to code qualitative data, either by formulating codes prior to collection it and reading transcripts, or by the researcher identifying common themes that emerge from the data.

Obtaining informed consent: Ethically, researchers are required to inform the participants of what data they are collecting, why, and how the data will be used and shared. Depending on the study, researchers may wish to maintain anonymity of the participants; however, in some studies they may wish to have their real names be used.

Further resources

Iain Hay (2000) Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography

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Commission on Research Methods in Geography

International Geographical Union Union Géographique Internationale

The Commission on Research Methods in Geography of the International Geographic Union is an active group of geographers that was established in 2020 to promote an international dialogue on research methods as a vital tool for advancing geographic knowledge and research practices across different regions, countries and traditions. The Commission seeks to facilitate a critical and constructive dialogue about established and emerging geographical concepts, approaches and research methods.

Facilitating the development and sharing of knowledge, theories and research methods in Geography
Providing an inclusive platform for academic and scientific exchange on research methods in Geography for the international community
Encouraging publication of peer-reviewed research

Our activities

Organizing international workshops and meetings across all continents
Compiling and sharing resources on research methodologies in geography
Sharing regular updates on the activities of the Commission and its members
Developing and distributing online educational materials on research methods in geography
Collaborating with other IGU Commissions and relevant organizations to reflect on and share innovative methods and support the conduct of high-quality research

Become a Corresponding Member of IGU’s Commission on Research Methods in Geography. Stay up to date on activities, meetings, conferences, and newsletters via email, and be a part of a community of Geographers sharing research methods and practices across the globe.

To join, please complete the form below. There is no membership fee and undergraduate and graduate students are very welcome.

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What the data says about abortion in the u.s..

Pew Research Center has conducted many surveys about abortion over the years, providing a lens into Americans’ views on whether the procedure should be legal, among a host of other questions.

In a Center survey conducted nearly a year after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion , 62% of U.S. adults said the practice should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Another survey conducted a few months before the decision showed that relatively few Americans take an absolutist view on the issue .

Find answers to common questions about abortion in America, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, which have tracked these patterns for several decades:

How many abortions are there in the U.S. each year?

How has the number of abortions in the u.s. changed over time, what is the abortion rate among women in the u.s. how has it changed over time, what are the most common types of abortion, how many abortion providers are there in the u.s., and how has that number changed, what percentage of abortions are for women who live in a different state from the abortion provider, what are the demographics of women who have had abortions, when during pregnancy do most abortions occur, how often are there medical complications from abortion.

This compilation of data on abortion in the United States draws mainly from two sources: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, both of which have regularly compiled national abortion data for approximately half a century, and which collect their data in different ways.

The CDC data that is highlighted in this post comes from the agency’s “abortion surveillance” reports, which have been published annually since 1974 (and which have included data from 1969). Its figures from 1973 through 1996 include data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and New York City – 52 “reporting areas” in all. Since 1997, the CDC’s totals have lacked data from some states (most notably California) for the years that those states did not report data to the agency. The four reporting areas that did not submit data to the CDC in 2021 – California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey – accounted for approximately 25% of all legal induced abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to Guttmacher’s data. Most states, though, do have data in the reports, and the figures for the vast majority of them came from each state’s central health agency, while for some states, the figures came from hospitals and other medical facilities.

Discussion of CDC abortion data involving women’s state of residence, marital status, race, ethnicity, age, abortion history and the number of previous live births excludes the low share of abortions where that information was not supplied. Read the methodology for the CDC’s latest abortion surveillance report , which includes data from 2021, for more details. Previous reports can be found at stacks.cdc.gov by entering “abortion surveillance” into the search box.

For the numbers of deaths caused by induced abortions in 1963 and 1965, this analysis looks at reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. In computing those figures, we excluded abortions listed in the report under the categories “spontaneous or unspecified” or as “other.” (“Spontaneous abortion” is another way of referring to miscarriages.)

Guttmacher data in this post comes from national surveys of abortion providers that Guttmacher has conducted 19 times since 1973. Guttmacher compiles its figures after contacting every known provider of abortions – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, and it provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond to its inquiries. (In 2020, the last year for which it has released data on the number of abortions in the U.S., it used estimates for 12% of abortions.) For most of the 2000s, Guttmacher has conducted these national surveys every three years, each time getting abortion data for the prior two years. For each interim year, Guttmacher has calculated estimates based on trends from its own figures and from other data.

The latest full summary of Guttmacher data came in the institute’s report titled “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2020.” It includes figures for 2020 and 2019 and estimates for 2018. The report includes a methods section.

In addition, this post uses data from StatPearls, an online health care resource, on complications from abortion.

An exact answer is hard to come by. The CDC and the Guttmacher Institute have each tried to measure this for around half a century, but they use different methods and publish different figures.

The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2021. It found there were 625,978 abortions in the District of Columbia and the 46 states with available data that year, up from 597,355 in those states and D.C. in 2020. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 607,720.

The last year for which Guttmacher reported a yearly national total was 2020. It said there were 930,160 abortions that year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 916,460 in 2019.

How the CDC gets its data: It compiles figures that are voluntarily reported by states’ central health agencies, including separate figures for New York City and the District of Columbia. Its latest totals do not include figures from California, Maryland, New Hampshire or New Jersey, which did not report data to the CDC. ( Read the methodology from the latest CDC report .)
How Guttmacher gets its data: It compiles its figures after contacting every known abortion provider – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, then provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond. Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s in part because they include data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 states. ( Read the institute’s latest full report and methodology .)

While the Guttmacher Institute supports abortion rights, its empirical data on abortions in the U.S. has been widely cited by groups and publications across the political spectrum, including by a number of those that disagree with its positions .

These estimates from Guttmacher and the CDC are results of multiyear efforts to collect data on abortion across the U.S. Last year, Guttmacher also began publishing less precise estimates every few months , based on a much smaller sample of providers.

The figures reported by these organizations include only legal induced abortions conducted by clinics, hospitals or physicians’ offices, or those that make use of abortion pills dispensed from certified facilities such as clinics or physicians’ offices. They do not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained outside of clinical settings .

(Back to top)

A line chart showing the changing number of legal abortions in the U.S. since the 1970s.

The annual number of U.S. abortions rose for years after Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure in 1973, reaching its highest levels around the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. Since then, abortions have generally decreased at what a CDC analysis called “a slow yet steady pace.”

Guttmacher says the number of abortions occurring in the U.S. in 2020 was 40% lower than it was in 1991. According to the CDC, the number was 36% lower in 2021 than in 1991, looking just at the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported both of those years.

(The corresponding line graph shows the long-term trend in the number of legal abortions reported by both organizations. To allow for consistent comparisons over time, the CDC figures in the chart have been adjusted to ensure that the same states are counted from one year to the next. Using that approach, the CDC figure for 2021 is 622,108 legal abortions.)

There have been occasional breaks in this long-term pattern of decline – during the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, and then again in the late 2010s. The CDC reported modest 1% and 2% increases in abortions in 2018 and 2019, and then, after a 2% decrease in 2020, a 5% increase in 2021. Guttmacher reported an 8% increase over the three-year period from 2017 to 2020.

As noted above, these figures do not include abortions that use pills obtained outside of clinical settings.

Guttmacher says that in 2020 there were 14.4 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Its data shows that the rate of abortions among women has generally been declining in the U.S. since 1981, when it reported there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age range.

The CDC says that in 2021, there were 11.6 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. (That figure excludes data from California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.) Like Guttmacher’s data, the CDC’s figures also suggest a general decline in the abortion rate over time. In 1980, when the CDC reported on all 50 states and D.C., it said there were 25 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

That said, both Guttmacher and the CDC say there were slight increases in the rate of abortions during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Guttmacher says the abortion rate per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 rose from 13.5 in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020. The CDC says it rose from 11.2 per 1,000 in 2017 to 11.4 in 2019, before falling back to 11.1 in 2020 and then rising again to 11.6 in 2021. (The CDC’s figures for those years exclude data from California, D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.)

The CDC broadly divides abortions into two categories: surgical abortions and medication abortions, which involve pills. Since the Food and Drug Administration first approved abortion pills in 2000, their use has increased over time as a share of abortions nationally, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. now involve pills, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. The CDC says 56% of U.S. abortions in 2021 involved pills, up from 53% in 2020 and 44% in 2019. Its figures for 2021 include the District of Columbia and 44 states that provided this data; its figures for 2020 include D.C. and 44 states (though not all of the same states as in 2021), and its figures for 2019 include D.C. and 45 states.

Guttmacher, which measures this every three years, says 53% of U.S. abortions involved pills in 2020, up from 39% in 2017.

Two pills commonly used together for medication abortions are mifepristone, which, taken first, blocks hormones that support a pregnancy, and misoprostol, which then causes the uterus to empty. According to the FDA, medication abortions are safe until 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Surgical abortions conducted during the first trimester of pregnancy typically use a suction process, while the relatively few surgical abortions that occur during the second trimester of a pregnancy typically use a process called dilation and evacuation, according to the UCLA School of Medicine.

In 2020, there were 1,603 facilities in the U.S. that provided abortions, according to Guttmacher . This included 807 clinics, 530 hospitals and 266 physicians’ offices.

A horizontal stacked bar chart showing the total number of abortion providers down since 1982.

While clinics make up half of the facilities that provide abortions, they are the sites where the vast majority (96%) of abortions are administered, either through procedures or the distribution of pills, according to Guttmacher’s 2020 data. (This includes 54% of abortions that are administered at specialized abortion clinics and 43% at nonspecialized clinics.) Hospitals made up 33% of the facilities that provided abortions in 2020 but accounted for only 3% of abortions that year, while just 1% of abortions were conducted by physicians’ offices.

Looking just at clinics – that is, the total number of specialized abortion clinics and nonspecialized clinics in the U.S. – Guttmacher found the total virtually unchanged between 2017 (808 clinics) and 2020 (807 clinics). However, there were regional differences. In the Midwest, the number of clinics that provide abortions increased by 11% during those years, and in the West by 6%. The number of clinics decreased during those years by 9% in the Northeast and 3% in the South.

The total number of abortion providers has declined dramatically since the 1980s. In 1982, according to Guttmacher, there were 2,908 facilities providing abortions in the U.S., including 789 clinics, 1,405 hospitals and 714 physicians’ offices.

The CDC does not track the number of abortion providers.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that provided abortion and residency information to the CDC in 2021, 10.9% of all abortions were performed on women known to live outside the state where the abortion occurred – slightly higher than the percentage in 2020 (9.7%). That year, D.C. and 46 states (though not the same ones as in 2021) reported abortion and residency data. (The total number of abortions used in these calculations included figures for women with both known and unknown residential status.)

The share of reported abortions performed on women outside their state of residence was much higher before the 1973 Roe decision that stopped states from banning abortion. In 1972, 41% of all abortions in D.C. and the 20 states that provided this information to the CDC that year were performed on women outside their state of residence. In 1973, the corresponding figure was 21% in the District of Columbia and the 41 states that provided this information, and in 1974 it was 11% in D.C. and the 43 states that provided data.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported age data to the CDC in 2021, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women ages 40 to 44 accounted for about 4%.

The vast majority of women who had abortions in 2021 were unmarried (87%), while married women accounted for 13%, according to the CDC , which had data on this from 37 states.

A pie chart showing that, in 2021, majority of abortions were for women who had never had one before.

In the District of Columbia, New York City (but not the rest of New York) and the 31 states that reported racial and ethnic data on abortion to the CDC , 42% of all women who had abortions in 2021 were non-Hispanic Black, while 30% were non-Hispanic White, 22% were Hispanic and 6% were of other races.

Looking at abortion rates among those ages 15 to 44, there were 28.6 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic Black women in 2021; 12.3 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women; 6.4 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic White women; and 9.2 abortions per 1,000 women of other races, the CDC reported from those same 31 states, D.C. and New York City.

For 57% of U.S. women who had induced abortions in 2021, it was the first time they had ever had one, according to the CDC. For nearly a quarter (24%), it was their second abortion. For 11% of women who had an abortion that year, it was their third, and for 8% it was their fourth or more. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

A bar chart showing that most U.S. abortions in 2021 were for women who had previously given birth.

Nearly four-in-ten women who had abortions in 2021 (39%) had no previous live births at the time they had an abortion, according to the CDC . Almost a quarter (24%) of women who had abortions in 2021 had one previous live birth, 20% had two previous live births, 10% had three, and 7% had four or more previous live births. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2021, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation, according to the CDC . An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and about 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

About 2% of all abortions in the U.S. involve some type of complication for the woman , according to an article in StatPearls, an online health care resource. “Most complications are considered minor such as pain, bleeding, infection and post-anesthesia complications,” according to the article.

The CDC calculates case-fatality rates for women from induced abortions – that is, how many women die from abortion-related complications, for every 100,000 legal abortions that occur in the U.S . The rate was lowest during the most recent period examined by the agency (2013 to 2020), when there were 0.45 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. The case-fatality rate reported by the CDC was highest during the first period examined by the agency (1973 to 1977), when it was 2.09 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. During the five-year periods in between, the figure ranged from 0.52 (from 1993 to 1997) to 0.78 (from 1978 to 1982).

The CDC calculates death rates by five-year and seven-year periods because of year-to-year fluctuation in the numbers and due to the relatively low number of women who die from legal induced abortions.

In 2020, the last year for which the CDC has information , six women in the U.S. died due to complications from induced abortions. Four women died in this way in 2019, two in 2018, and three in 2017. (These deaths all followed legal abortions.) Since 1990, the annual number of deaths among women due to legal induced abortion has ranged from two to 12.

The annual number of reported deaths from induced abortions (legal and illegal) tended to be higher in the 1980s, when it ranged from nine to 16, and from 1972 to 1979, when it ranged from 13 to 63. One driver of the decline was the drop in deaths from illegal abortions. There were 39 deaths from illegal abortions in 1972, the last full year before Roe v. Wade. The total fell to 19 in 1973 and to single digits or zero every year after that. (The number of deaths from legal abortions has also declined since then, though with some slight variation over time.)

The number of deaths from induced abortions was considerably higher in the 1960s than afterward. For instance, there were 119 deaths from induced abortions in 1963 and 99 in 1965 , according to reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is a division of Health and Human Services.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published May 27, 2022, and first updated June 24, 2022.

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Development Outlook of Communication Geography: Trends, Meta-Tasks, New Networks

Published: 22 March 2024
Volume 44 , pages 297–305, ( 2023 )

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V. I. Blanutsa 1

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The article generalizes the global experience of research on communication geography with the goal to identify future directions of study of the spatial and temporal deployment and functioning of telecommunications networks. An original algorithm of semantic search for publications in bibliographic databases has returned about 400 articles on communication geography published in 1981–2020 in scientific journals worldwide. An analysis of these publications shows that six types of communications: fiber-optic, mobile, telephone, postal, telegraph, and satellite—have been studied within infrastructural, statistical, impact, streaming, and optimization directions of communication geography. Trends are identified using the methods of the moving average and bi-proportional indices. Linear extrapolation of trends in the number of publications by type of communications and by research directions suggests that in the future preference will be given to geographical study of fiber-optic and mobile networks within infrastructural and statistical approaches with the objective to optimize the line-nodal structure. Based on a comparative analysis of unsolved problems, it is established that the priority in future research should be given to the following meta-tasks: transferring the experience of geographical study of a given type of communications to other types; using big data of telecom operators for geographical analysis of the functioning of networks; transitioning from descriptive to constructive communication geography; identifying geographical patterns for deployment of telecommunication networks, and developing the concept of a territory telecommunications complex. The following research objects are identified as promising: machine-to-machine information exchange networks, 6G mobile communication networks, and multifunctional networks.

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Blanutsa, V.I. Development Outlook of Communication Geography: Trends, Meta-Tasks, New Networks. Geogr. Nat. Resour. 44 , 297–305 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1875372823040054

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