We explain what a geographic region is, its characteristics and detailed examples. Also, other types of regions.
What is a geographic region?
When we talk about a geographic region, we mean a specific area of the planet that exhibits related geographic features such as the relief, climate, vegetation, fauna, hydrography, human presence, etc. In some contexts it can be a synonym for natural region.
However, what a geographic region is and what it is not is a matter of debate, and responds to the classification needs of geographers, which are not always the same. In fact, the boundaries of a geographic region are conventional and depend on the criteria used, which changes over time.
Thus, a geographic region can obey a specific object of study, and for the purposes of geographic analysis it would be a synonym for “region.” In no case, however, should it be confused with landscape.
See also: Geographic space
Characteristics of geographic regions
The geographical regions are characterized by:
- It is the organization of the earth's surface into areas that exhibit more or less homogeneous characteristics or similar, and that therefore can be managed as a geographical unit.
- Its limits vary depending on the elements taken into account: natural, human, economic, etc. and are decided by convention.
- Allows a more agile and faster geographic approach to the surface of our planet, discarding irrelevant sectors and focusing on the desired ones.
- It should not be confused with “landscape” or “area”
They can be of three types, depending on the nature of their limits:
- Formal. When its limits are instituted in some official document, agreement or treaty, or some type of political entity administers them.
- Functional. When they cover a focal point and other peripheral points that depend on it, as is the case of a large city and its satellite cities.
- Vernacular. When they are united by an imaginary border, drawn according to more or less homogeneous, changing, if not subjective, criteria.
Examples of geographic regions
It is not difficult to give examples of geographical regions, defined more or less strictly. To name just a few:
- The Andean region This is known as the South American countries in whose territory the most significant part of the Andes mountain range is located, especially in cases where this implies the presence of the pre-Columbian Quechua or Inca culture, such as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile. and Argentina.
- The Middle East or Middle East This geographical region encompasses the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and the Eastern Mediterranean, which are mostly Arabic-speaking and Islamic, although with notable exceptions. They are located between Asia, Africa and Europe.
- The Mesoamerican region It can be spoken in these terms to refer to the territorial area that was formerly covered by the cultures of the Mesoamerican civilization, which emerged between the 15th and 12th centuries BC. C. and which covers present-day Mexico (the southern half), Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and the western regions of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Other types of regions
Geographic regions can be organized according to various criteria, as we have just seen, depending on the specific element we decide to focus on. We have, like this:
- Natural regions. When we choose to look at the natural conformation of the land: relief, hydrography, vegetation, climate, etc.
- Economic regions. If we look at the type of productive activities and the availability of resources for them that predominate in a portion of the earth's surface.
- Political regions. If we look at the way in which human societies are organized ethnically, culturally or ideologically.
Continue with: Geomorphology
References
- “Region” in Wikipedia.
- “Concept of region” at the University of La Plata (Argentina).
- “The Region as a geographical category” (book) by José Manuel Mateo Rodríguez and Manuel Bollo Manent at the Environmental Geography Research Center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
- “The uses of the category region in Argentine geographical thought” by Alejandro Benedetti in Scripta Nova, Electronic Journal of Geography and Social Sciences.
- “Region (geography)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
