Scope of Quantification in Geography.pptx

Scope of Quantification in Geography.pptx

1. Scope of Quantification in Geography

2. Introduction Quantitative Revolution in geography began in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, it reached its culmination in the period from 1957 to 1960 and is now over. In the third quarter (1950’s) of the 20 th century the raw material with which the geographers deal became primarily more of the quantitative nature and less merely qualitative. This gradual but steady change in emphasis engendered a modification of the intellectual approach to the subject. This was quantitative revolution which brought abrupt changes in geographical methods and concepts.

3. Advancements made by coming generations in different fields may at times be in terms of factual knowledge. At other times however, they reflect a changing approach to the subject at large, such as this present conscious and deliberate attempt to provide a more quantitative approach to the geographer’s problems. The traditional geography was qualitative now it became quantitative. Earlier it was descriptive now it included explanation also . In all branches of the subject this tendency has to develop. Climatological investigations have traditionally and necessarily been concerned with numerical data.

4. 1. Economic geography, too, has for long utilized quantitative data as prime source of information, although explanatory studies have tended to rest more on subjective judgments than would in many cases seem desirable. 2. Geomorphology , population studies and various other aspects of human geography , amongst many branches of the subject, have also increasingly turned to more precise numerical data, over the recent past. All in the attempt to render a more accurate and objective assessment of the geography of particular areas or problems.

5. 3. Moreover, as geographers increasingly co-operate with scientists from other disciplines or engage in the practical fields of planning, the need to present both data and conclusions in sound quantitative terms becomes even more pressing.

6. Limitations Quantifications is just a means towards a goal. In human geography, we cannot quantify many aspects of human behaviour, therefore the application of quantification can only be in those fields in which we have reliable data. Quantification can be brought in geography only with strong mathematical background. Traditionally geography has been descriptive. The primary goal of geography is description. But quantification is a means-not everything in geography e.g. in landforms – description is of utmost importance. But all description is subjective.

7. The question was: The phenomena with which geography deals, quantification is very difficult to be applied-Inadequacy of quantification partial quantification- e.g. Fertility pattern of Chandigarh/Attitude of married females and males/ Green revolution in Punjab irrigation as a means to be evaluated but there will be hundreds of other things which cannot be identified e.g. changing behaviour of the farmers. Therefore, quantification has a very limited scope in geography it should not be given undue importance.

8. Answer: Not to total geography. Applicable to Systematic geography Not to understand the complex phenomena We are trying to build up the total reality, the object is to apply quantification in different branches for building generalizations. It is not a ‘new’ geography in the sense that is alters the nature of the discipline itself; but only in that it offers new techniques for the solution of old problems as well as new ones- techniques which has brought a new rigour into geographical thinking and have made possible the exploration of new fields.

9. Four Dimensions of any Discipline Conceptualization Methodology Information Application

10. Four Methodologies in Geography Field work Cartography Photogrammetric, photo interpretation and remote sensing Quantitative analysis

11. Role of quantification Precise (gives precision) Objective & comprehensive Quantitatively, the theories built are hypotheses only. Testing are done quantitatively-as a result of which we get theory building/model building.

12. How does quantification help in theory building? Hypothesis is a logical statement of relationships between two, phenomena or a set of phenomena. For theory - Testing is needed. Testing is possible only through quantification. Quantification is therefore indispensable to theory building. We study relationships quantitatively. Sometimes we discover patterns-relationships. Relationships between development and a number of factors we can correlate them-we cannot correlate them. Not all of them are correlated-some are related the results are wonderful.

13. We should be very careful about the implications and techniques-we should be capable of interpreting it. Right kind of technique. Where to use standard deviation. Where to use median-mode. Should be capable of interpreting things explanations are very important.

14. Definition The application and adaption of statistical and mathematical techniques to the study of geographical problem is known as quantitative analysis in geography.

15. Significance Quantitative analysis is of immense significance in several ways: It enables a geographer to think precisely and rigorously and checks him from making impression tic statements. It offers quantitative results that facilitate objective comparisons between various geographical distributions. It draws attentions to relationship between geographical phenomena unlikely to be noticed by intuitive inspection. It helps in formation of valid generalization and the theories. It may be added that quantification in geography is merely a means towards the understanding of geographic reality. It is not an end in itself as some people tend to believe.

16. Although its antecedents can be traced for back, the quantities revolution in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s; it reached its culmination in the period from 1957 to 1960, and is now over. Ackerman remarks that the use of explanatory models and regression, correlation, variance and co-variance analysis may be expected to be increasingly more prevent in the field. In the need for and value of these methods geography does not differ from other social sciences. By far the greatest struggle for the acceptance of quantitative methods has been in human and economic geography.

17. Opposition of Quantification The opposition to the quantitative revolution can be grouped in to five broad classes: There were those who thought that the whole idea was a bad one and that quantification would mislead geography in a wrong and fruitless direction. To argue that geographers should not use statistical methods comes close to defining geography in terms of one research tool- namely the map. Statistical techniques are suitable for some kinds of geography, but not all geography, because there are certain things that cannot be measured. This may be true for some variables.

18. 4. Although quantitative techniques are suitable and their application to geography techniques problems is desirable, they are nevertheless being incorrectly applied; ends are confused with means; quantitative analysis has failed on occasion to distinguish the significant from the trivial. The alleged discoveries of the quantifiers are not very novel and so on. 5. Another criticism is in the ad hominem that quantification is all right but quantifiers are not. They are perky suffer from overenthusiasm, vaulting ambition or just plain arrogance.

19. Consequences of the Revolution Quantitative revolution was inspired by a genuine need to make geography more scientific and by a concern to develop a body of theory. Dissatisfaction with ideographic (concerned with unique and particular) geography lies at the root of the quantitative revolution. Nomothetic is concerned with universal and general.

20. The development of theoretical, model-building geography is likely to be the major consequence of the quantitative revolution. Theory provides the sieve through which myriads (very great number of) of facts are sorted, and without it the facts remain a meaningless jumble. Theory provides the measure against which exceptional and unusual events can be recognized. In a world without theory there are no exceptions; everything is unique. This is why theory is so important.

21. It is not certain that the early quantifiers were consciously motivated to develop theory, but it is now clear to geographers that quantification is inextricably intertwined with theory. The quantification of theory, the use of mathematics to express relationship, can be supported on the man ground. First, it is more rigorous. Second, and more important, it is a considerable aid in the avoidance of self-deception.

22. Conclusion Quantitative techniques are a most appropriate method for the development of theory in geography. The quantitative era will last as long as its methods can be shown to be aiding in the development of theory, and there can be no end to the need for more and better theory. It follows that any branch of geography claiming to be scientific has need for the development of theory, and any branch of geography that need for theory has need for quantitative techniques.

23. Reference Berry, B.J.L. and Marble, D.F. eds , Spatial analysis: a reader in statistical geography, Prentice-Hall, 1968. Burton, I. “The quantitative revolution”, Canadian Geographer, 7, 151, 1963. Zamir Alvi , Statistical Geography : Methods and Applications. Rawat Publications, 2016. Hammond R. and P. McCullagh , Quantitative Techniques in Geography: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, 1974.