The roots of environmental geography can be traced back to the philosophies of ancient Greek thinkers who believed that the environment determines human behavior and activities.
During the 19th century, German geographers played a pivotal role in shaping the environmental focus within geography:
With advancements in science and technology and the rise of environmental issues, geography evolved to form a specific branch termed as Environmental Geography.
A. N. Strahler in 1977, discussed this concept in his book Geography and Man’s Environment, highlighting the intrinsic relationship between humans and the land as the foundation of geography.
Environmental geography studies the spatial interactions between humans and the natural world. It encompasses a systematic examination of environmental components and how they vary spatially across Earth’s surface.
This discipline is multidisciplinary, intersecting with life sciences, ecological sciences, physical sciences, chemical sciences, and humanities such as economics, sociology, and public administration.
Environmental geography emphasizes spatial attributes and uses analytical tools to assess human impact on natural systems. It integrates the study of biotic and abiotic components of the environment across the lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere.
The subject prepares students for diverse careers such as:
Students gain interdisciplinary competencies across natural and social sciences along with spatial and analytical methodologies.
Environmental geography revolves around three major components:
Environment includes both biotic and abiotic elements that surround and influence life. It affects human behavior and activities, while humans also shape the environment through interaction and modification.
The environment is the sum total of physical, biological, and cultural systems existing at a given time and space. It includes natural and human-made surroundings where organisms live and evolve.
Key components include the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, soil, water, air, organisms, and solar energy. The interaction among these forms the dynamic essence of environmental systems.
Individuals and the environment are inherently interrelated and mutually complementary.
The physical environment is the product of complex natural processes that include mountains, rivers, oceans, atmosphere, landforms, climate, weather patterns, and biological diversity.
It includes all elements that occur independently of human influence and is also referred to as the natural environment. Geography often studies this as the physical foundation of human existence.
Examples include mountains, plains, deserts, storms, cyclones, climate, seasons, and natural biological elements like plants and animals.
Human beings adapt to nature by creating their own environment, termed as the social or human-made environment.
This environment includes culture, language, social institutions, health, economic status, and more. It is created by humans to adjust and control natural surroundings and enhance their quality of life.
This is the technologically modified physical environment crafted by humans. It includes:
These modifications result from human knowledge, technology, and capital, forming the tangible aspects of our civilization.
The inner environment is the socio-cultural system that defines human heritage and identity. It consists of:
The inner and outer environments are intricately blended and shape our understanding of the social environment. For example, cultivated land becomes property and is even worshipped in many cultures, such as by Hindus. Homes represent not just structures, but family institutions.
Environmental geographers possess a comprehensive understanding of natural systems and their functioning. They recognize that humans are the most dominant force of change among all living organisms on Earth.
It is impossible to fully address environmental issues without considering both natural physical processes and human influences such as demographic expansion, cultural shifts, and economic pressures.
Environmental geography exists at the crossroads of multiple academic disciplines. Geographers engage with both the natural sciences and the humanities to understand environmental challenges holistically.
Geography, by its integrative nature, unifies divergent and converging fields of study, making it uniquely capable of analyzing the human-environment interface.
Through their training, geographers study the Earth as the habitat of humans, focusing on the spatial and functional aspects of this relationship.
Geographers utilize spatial analytical techniques to examine variations in environmental conditions and human interactions across different regions. These methods allow for detailed understanding of local and global environmental patterns.
Geographers' ability to synthesize knowledge across environmental, social, cultural, and economic domains makes them pivotal contributors to environmental studies.
Their focus on areal differentiation—how physical and human phenomena vary across space—forms the backbone of environmental geography as a discipline.