Geography Education

If we accept that controversial dams will continue to be built for economic benefit, how can we limit their damage on the environment?

"Of all the ways we have engineered Earth in the Anthropocene, the Age of Man, surely nothing rivals our audacious planetary-wide re-plumbing of the world's waterways. But is our control of Earth's arteries causing dangerous clots?"  The human-environmental interaction theme of geography is as readily apparent in this issue as any.  

See a photo of Iguazu Falls in South America and download free wallpaper from National Geographic.

Beautiful image!  South America's equivalent to the Niagara Falls is a place that students should see.

Displayed is a map originally produced by Derek Watkins.  This map is a fantastic combination of physical and cultural geography.  While most flowing bodies of water will be called rivers or streams, the lesser used terms (brook, fork, bayou, run, arroyo, etc.) show a striking regionalization of toponym regions.  What do these patterns indicate?  Why are in those toponyms found in those particular places? 

"October 28, 2011—The White Salmon River in Washington state is flowing again as the nearly 100-year-old Condit Dam was disabled with explosives Wednesday. The reservoir draining took about 2 hours.  Further demolition is scheduled in 2012."

Don't have a water table to demonstate fluvial geomorphology?  This Time Lapse video demonstates deposition and erosion powerfully.  This is also a useful discussion started for human and environmental interactions.  

Nearly a week after Hurricane Irene drenched New England with rainfall in late August 2011, the Connecticut River was spewing muddy sediment into Long Island Sound and wrecking the region's farmland just before harvest.

The effects of the flooding in Vermont and New Hampshire graphically manifested on the downstream parts of the watershed.  Good image for showing fluvial deposition and stream load.   

This interactive map documents where 443 million people around the world get there water (although the United States data is by far the most extensive).  Most people can't answer this question.  A recent poll by The Nature Conservancy discoverd that 77% of Americans (not on private well water) don't know where their water comes from, they just drink it.  This link has videos, infographics and suggestions to promote cleaner water.  This is also a fabulous example of an embedded map using ArcGIS Online to share geospatial data with a wider audience.  

Tags: GIS, water, fluvial, environment, ESRI, pollution, development, consumption, resources, mapping, environment depend, cartography, geospatial. 

This is a great set of images that show coastal processes for a geomorphology or physical geography class.  Pictured above is Palm Bay, Australia, which also happens to show fluvial processes as well.  

This infographic is stunning in its artistry and presentation of how mountains and rivers "stack up" next to each other (Good to point out that the rivers were "straightened" for comparative purposes).  The image comes from the General Atlas of the World, which was published in 1854.  It contained upwards of seventy maps, reproduced from the steel engravings of noteworthy cartographers Sidney Hall and William Hughes.  For the legend and more about this map see: http://io9.com/5855100/gorgeous-victorian-infographic-shows-earths-mountains-and-rivers-as-we-knew-them-over-150-years-ago

This is a fabulous archive of some truly beautiful images of earth systems.  This image of Rio Bermejo in Paraguay was described as "the river that looks like a signature."