2. What is the nature of a spatial relationship? How do geographers study these relationships?

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---How Geographers Study these Relationships---

It is difficult to list all these relationships and still be able to find connections between them. For an example, if I were to list all of the people who lived in Houston but simultaneously list all of the products they produce, the beliefs that they accept, the food that they eat... It would be very hard to make heads or tails of anything. Since geographers study these relationships, they have found an easier way to organize their data. They use maps. Maps can show anything from the climate in an area to how much money that area spends on average annually. Using these maps, geographers can find connections between, for an example, the topography of a place and what is produced there. Let's use China as an example. [1] As you can see here, most of China's main cities lie on the east coast. Now, let's look at a topographical map of China.[2] As you can see, plateaus, mountains, countless rivers, some basins, and even a few deserts make up most of China's topography. Now let's interlay the two and see what happens.[3] Using this data geographer can infer that many of China's cities lie on major rivers, as this would help greatly with sea trade. Much more can be inferred from these maps, like which elevations most Chinese cities lie in. Overall, maps make it much easier for geographers to make connections between the different spacial relationships of a place.

By Brianna Baskin