CONTENT STATEMENT
Criteria are used to organize regions and as the criteria change, the identified regions change (e.g., types of economic activities, ethnic groups, natural vegetation).
CONTENT ELABORATION
Regions are spatial concepts with boundaries and characteristics determined by the application of sets of specific criteria. These regions help observers organize the complexities of the Earth’s surface based on physical and human characteristics.
There are three basic types of regions:
- Formal – a region characterized by a common human property (e.g., shared language, shared political identity) or by a common physical property (e.g., climate, vegetation);
- Functional – a region organized around a focal point and linked to surrounding areas via transportation systems, communication systems or economic functionalities (e.g., Antwerp, Belgium is a focal point for diamond trading, Tokyo, Japan is a focal point for stock trading); and
- Perceptual – a region based upon people’s shared identifications and attitudes about an area (e.g., the Bible Belt, New England).
The same area can be categorized as part of multiple regions and regional types depending on which set of criteria are applied. For example, Cleveland can be viewed as part of the Great Lakes Region (a formal region based upon drainage patterns), as a center for financial and health care sectors (a functional region based on economic activities) and as part of the Rust Belt (a perceptual region based on the decline of manufacturing industries related to iron and steel from Pennsylvania through the Midwest).
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING
Examine select regions to categorize the types of regions and determine the criteria used to determine each region.