Fondamenti di geografia - ENG

FUNDAMENTALS OF GEOGRAPHY

Prof. Gianfranco Spinelli

Course Code: E0072
Subject code: M-GGR/02
8 ECTS – 64 hours
Location: Novara


Educational aims

The course aims to provide basic geographical knowledge, methodological and content-related, in preparation for the analysis and interpretation of spatial organization of tourism, as well as the conditions and effects of tourism development at different scale levels. In particular, it provides the essential principles of the systemic approach and the main theoretical and practical criteria to analyze and represent the Earth surface - and the regions in which it is articulated - as a product of human activity.
The course also provides the basis for analyzing and understanding territorial organizations, at urban, regional and national scale, as well as the key interactions between the physical environment and social environment, allowing interpreting geographic differentiation of the relationship between man and nature as an expression of different social relations. Finally, practical applications in computer mapping, provide the basic techniques of spatial analysis and cartographic representation.


Content of the course

The Earth as differentiated space: territorial values.
The Earth as a system: eco-systems, social systems, geo-systems.
The Earth as a condition and social product.
Environments, landscapes and regions.
Organization and functioning of ecosystems.
The terrestrial ecosystem and its division into regions.
Formal and functional regions.
Economic globalization and regionalization.
Urbanization and settlement patterns.
Virtual networks and urban organization of global space.
Old and new problems of underdevelopment.
The local economy; the role in regional and global competition; dynamics and internal structure.
Natural environment, landscape and cultural heritage.
Settlement evolution.
Shape, structure and functions of settlements.
Equipment, operation and territorial organization of infrastructure and services.
Trends and prospects for development, public policy and strategic for sustainable local development.


Prerequisites

None


Course Texts

During the course the lecture notes will be distributed (available on Moodle).

Peter Haggett, Geografia umana, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2004 (available in the library).
Peter Haggett, L’ambiente globale e gli strumenti del geografo, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2004 (available in the library).

For further informations, please refer to the course page on D.I.R at:

https://eco.dir.unipmn.it/


Teaching methods

Lectures, exercises, computer mapping lab.


Examination

Written test and exercise in mapping lab.