Other Key Spatial Analysis Terms Flashcards
What are the five key spatial analysis terms that interest geographers?
- Spatial interaction
- Accessibility
- Diffusion
- Distance
- Space
What is spatial interaction?
A spatial interaction is a realized movement of people, freight or information between an origin and a destination. An indication of interdependence between different geographic locations or areas.
What does spatial interaction cover?
Spatial interactions cover a wide variety of movements such as journeys to work, migrations, tourism, the usage of public facilities, the transmission of information or capital, the market areas of retailing activities, international trade and freight distribution.
What does spatial interaction require us to think about?
- complementarity
- Transferability
- Intervening opportunities.
What is complementarity?
- An expression of mutual dependency
- Demand/Deficit vs. Supply/Surplus
- Economies of scale
- In order for trade to take place, there has to be a surplus of a desired product in one area and a shortage or demand for that same product in another area
What is transferability?
- The capacity for a good to be transported (In some cases, it is simply not feasible to transport certain goods (or people) a great distance because the transportation costs are too high (or it simply takes too long) in comparison to the price of the product)
- The logic of exchange (friction of distance)
- Time-Space Compression
- Transport costs
What is intervening opportunities?
- Alternatives for the flow of goods, people, information
- A closer complementary alternative
- Do you trade with multiple sources or just the closest?
What is accessibility?
- the opportunity for contact or interaction from a given point or location, in relation to other locations
- How easy or difficult is it to overcome the “friction of distance” or put another way, how easy or difficult is it to surmount the barrier of time and space separation of places?
Distance
Connectivity (all the tangible and intangible ways in which places are connected [telephone lines, street and road systems, pipes and sewers, radio, tv broadcasts, etc.)
Economic, cultural, social factors
- Keep in mind that distance isolated North America from Europe until the development of ships (and aircraft)
- The automobile made more parts of the city accessible (no longer just a walking city)
What are the critical choke points in terms of world trade?
- The Strait of Malacca: located between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, links the Indian
- Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. Malacca is the shortest sea route between Arabian Gulf suppliers and the Asian markets—notably China, -Japan, South Korea, and the Pacific Rim.
- The Strait of Hormuz: Located between Oman and Iran, the -Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.For a large area of the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz is the only sea passage to the open ocean.
- Bab el Mandeb: The Strait of Bab el-Mandab is a chokepoint between the horn of Africa and the Middle East, and a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean
- The Turkish Straits: The Bosporus and Dardanelles (Hellespont) divide Asia from Europe. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles links the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas
- Suez Canal: The Suez Canal is located in Egypt, and connects the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea
- Panama Canal: The Panama Canal is an important route connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
What is the history of the Turkish straights?
- The reasons that drove Athens to seek empire sprang from its commerce in the most basic of commodities – grain
- The obsession with the modern West with the control of vital sea lanes (and maritime choke points) derives from Greece’s particular agricultural and geographic configurations (Greece needed to feed itself with imported barley and wheat)
- Poor soil, a convoluted coastline = a community of trade
- Colonized Sicily to take advantage of the rich volcanic soil around Mt. Etna
- But it was the vast and rich hinterlands of the Black Sea’s northern shore that held the most promise
-The Black sea was “Granary to Athens”
Athens vs. Sparta (Peloponnesian War)
-The idea of “Blockade Shipping”
What is the history of Bab el Mandab?
- Arabia Felix (“fortunate Arabia or happy Arabia”) vs. the Arabia Deserta
- The difference between a rare patch of moist climate and a hot dry climate
- Commodity = Incense (frankincese, myrrh, and rarer exotic aromatics)
- Before the arrival of silk and pepper in the West – incense was the premier luxury item
- Transported by camel to the Fertile Crescent and -Mediterranean basin
-Why the land route?
Gate of Grief/Sorrow
-Located on the Gulf of Aden at the south of the Arabian Peninsula and bordering the Arabian and Red Seas, this region once played a central role in an ancient “global economy” that extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean.
What would be the benefit of building a bridge (Bridge of Horns) from Djibouti to Yemen?
- The bridge could carry vehicles, trains, natural gas and water
- There would be a safer route between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa region as the waterway between them is highly dangerous due to Somali pirates.
- Connect the African Muslims to the Arabian Gulf Muslims.
If the Bridge of Horns does not happen than what could happen?
Maybe a land and sea bridge to connect Saudi Arabia and Egypt
Why is the Straight of Malacca strategically significant?
- More than 60,000 ships pass through the Strait of Malacca each year (3X Panama, 2X Suez)
- 1/3 of the world’s trade
What’s tricky about the Straight of Malacca?
Pirates!
