The notion of risk provides a means of evaluating the eventuality of a danger or peril, or a break in the balance in the interactions between nature and societies. Risk only exists if human groups and their territorial settlements could potentially be affected by the destruction that would follow upon a catastrophe. The degree of […]
Attempts to provide a general and universal definition of a mountain either become bogged down in vagueness (a mass rising above the surrounding lands) or run into multiple exceptions (high plateaux, island volcanism) whenever slope and altitude are considered separately. Definitions of an administrative type emphasise limits (thresholds) (the French ‘Mountain’ law of 1985 stipulating […]
The concept of polarisation covers two distinct acceptations in Geography: A classical acceptation synonym of concentration of matter and energy. Polarisation is the attraction exerted by a place on a more or less extended and heterogeneous space that is in a situation of dependency with respect to this centre. Space is compared to a magnetic […]
In common language, situation of an object on the Earth surface is the same as its position. In everyday use, both terms: situation and position, are used indiscriminately. They refer to reference points conventionally designated by means of an explicit reference system, namely geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude). In geographical discourse, situation defines a relative location […]
In contemporary sciences, attention paid to complexity comes from the lacks of the classical analytical approach in explaining reality. Complexity postulates that it is impossible to describe, without reductionism, some phenomena that cannot be broken down and that the Whole cannot be reduced to elementary units. The notion of complexity is used at two different […]
“Metropolisation” is a notion built through extension of the term “metropolis” (etymologically: the mother-city) in order to designate a process of qualitative transformation, both functional and morphologic, of very large cities. Compared to the classical concentration process represented by cities in general, metropolisation is characterised by an increase of weight of the largest cities in […]
The word structure comes from Latin struere which means to build, to arrange, and contains the notion of an organised thing. Spatial structures exist, because geographical space is not constituted by a set of unique places, occupying random locations. The successive choices of actors and, more broadly, the answers given by societies to the issue […]
To talk about nomothetism (from Greek nomos: law) refers to the methodology adopted in geographical reasoning. Inspired by the standard explanatory model acknowledged by experimental sciences, spatial analysis uses an approach of the hypothetico-deductive type. It consists in questioning reality, starting from hypotheses, and using explicitly formulated spatial theories and models. These tools are confronted […]
The word “structure” comes from Latin struere which means to build, to arrange, and contains the notion of an organised thing. Spatial structures exist, because geographical space is not constituted by a set of unique places, occupying random locations. The successive choices of actors and, more broadly, the answers given by societies to the issue […]