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Preface

Purpose and organization of the book

This book introduces undergraduate university students and AP human geography high school students to the essential concepts and theories of human geography. While many people think of place-name memorizing geography bees when they sign up for a geography class, in reality it is a subject that helps us understand the organization of human society and its impact on our planet. Each chapter focuses on a key area of human geography, covering essential concepts, and is illustrated with real-world data and examples.

Although many human geography textbooks also cover essential concepts, this one leverages the power of Esri’s ArcGIS^® Online, a browser-based geographic information system with interactive maps and data. Unlike most geography textbooks, with static map figures printed in the book, most map figures in this book include a link that enables students and teachers to further explore data, allowing them to examine places of interest in more detail. A student or instructor can view a map in the textbook on, say, level of development, and then open the ArcGIS Online link and click on individual countries to see how life expectancy, education, and income each contribute to its development ranking.

Each chapter also includes ArcGIS Online exercises, posted in the Esri Press group of the Learn ArcGIS organization, where students can apply geographic concepts to real-world map data. Students will interact with and run spatial analysis on datasets from global organizations such as the United Nations and World Bank, national agencies such as the US Census Bureau and Environmental Protection Agency, and private companies such as Esri^®. In many cases, exercises are designed so that students can focus on data within their own city or neighborhood, making analysis more directly related to the place in which they live.

Instructors can use these exercises in a variety of ways. In classrooms with computers, exercises can be completed during class hours, with discussions of questions done in small groups or with the entire class. In other cases, instructors can assign the exercises as homework and discuss results later during class time. The wide range of maps included in the exercises also allows instructors to customize their own exercises.

ArcGIS Online accounts

If you have an existing ArcGIS Online account, you can use it to complete the exercises for this book. If you need a new ArcGIS Online account, it’s recommended that you sign up for a free Learn GIS organizational account here: http://learngis.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html. Some instructors may choose to add students to their campus organizational accounts, where they can set credit limits, add and remove students, and set other parameters. Instructors should contact their campus ArcGIS Online administrator for assistance.

Go to the book resource page at esri.com/Human-Geography for links to access the exercises and data.