GIS applications in Human Geography

Abstract

Human geography is the branch of geography concerned with how and why people organize themselves across space and interact with their environments. Human geographers conduct their research that underpins the subfields of human geography in many social arenas. These subfields range from the geography of religion and regional geographies to political geography and mountain geography, and more. As the largest branch of geography, much research in human geography has been produced that makes use of a geographical information system (GIS). A GIS is a computer program that stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data. Work by human geographers who incorporate GIS into their research tends to fall into one of two categories. First, there is the work that uses GIS as a straightforward tool of spatial analysis, spatial modeling, and geo-visualization. The topics of these research projects span all the subfields of human geography. Second, there is the work that examines the theoretical and philosophical significance of GIS within human geography. Informed from the critical perspectives of feminism, queer studies, Marxism, and others, these studies typically situate GIS within the discipline at fundamental levels of epistemology and ontology. This approach to studying GIS within human geography shifts the focus away from the output of a research project and toward the process of research itself. This article contains sample works from some of the most vibrant subfields of human geography in which GIS is being adopted to increase our knowledge of the human organization of space and human-environment interactions: Urban Geography, Hazards Geography, and Historical Geography. This review also includes sections that summarize key works from Critical GIS, Qualitative GIS, and Public Participation GIS that provide additional vantage points from which to appreciate the multifaceted application of GIS across human geography.