• perhaps the pinnacle of regional geography occurred during the 1940s and 50s following Richard Hartshorne's The Nature of Geography (1939)

• Hartshorne virtually defined geography as areal differentiation or regional geography

• for one, it was overly descriptive
  -regional geographies literally followed a set format for the inventory of physical and cultural features at a given site

• secondly, it was almost purely educational
  -regions don't really exist; they are just convenient, but logical devices for partitioning the earth's surface

  -the regional concept combined with the description of regional studies made regional geography a terrific educational tool, but rendered it of little use in practical applications

• thirdly, it failed to explain geographic patterns
  -because regional geography was so descriptive and simplistic, it really did not help geographers understand why patterns were the way they were
  -in other words, it provided virtually no explanation

  -where attempts at explanation did exist, they favored a temporal or historical approach that sought to identify origins
  -even this, however, was not explanation as it did not always explain why things happened as they did

• the fourth, and probably the biggest problem of regional geography was the fact that it was unscientific
  -geographers all the way back to Varen had questioned whether geography was scientific or unscientific
  -in particular, the terms nomothetic and idiographic have been tossed around
  -nomothetic refers to "law seeking" or the formulation of general concepts

  -idiographic refers to the study or description of unique things

  -geography is really both, as Varen told us

  -however, in the years after World War II, the nomothetic aspect of virtually every field in American academics was stressed
  -the basis for this trend was the application of technology during the war

  -it culminated in the 1960s and 70s in the Quantitative Revolution, during which science and mathematics enjoyed unrivalled importance

  -obviously, as nomothetic aspects of geography became more important, and as theories, quantitative methods, and applied techniques were stressed, there was a much diminished need for regional geography
  -this is why there was a general decline of regional study and instruction during the 1960s and 70s

• it affected many fields like geography, including political science and even history

• in general, it involved the use of scientific methods, especially quantitative, statistical, or mathematical analysis, for improved explanation
  -in doing so, nomothetic studies employ conceptual explanation in contrast to the temporal explanation of idiographic studies like regional geography

  -this conceptual explanation involves the observation of repeated cause-and-effect relationships from which general theories are developed

• this approach was entirely lacking in regional geography, making it highly unscientific and opening the way for a more scientific geography built on theories proven by statistical analysis

• University of Washington
  -perhaps as early as 1955
  -probably the leading center in the country

• University of Wisconsin-Madison

• University of Iowa

• Ohio State University

• Indiana University

• much of this involved remote sensing imagery
  -air photos had become more and more popular since the first use in World War I

  -since 1960, however, the use of radar scans and infrared photographs from planes have added to geographers' abilities to interpret the Earth's surface

  -also since 1960, there has been an ever-increasing use of satellite images from beyond the Earth's atmosphere

  -these images have improved in clarity, resolution, and precision over the years and will continue to do so

• much more significant than remote sensing imagery has been the theoretical component of the Quantitative Revolution
  -of greatest importance have been:
  -statistical analysis
  -probability modeling

  -these techniques have allowed geographers to interpret more scientifically the interrelations of variables like rainfall and population density or land use and soil type

  -greatly aiding this type of study has been the computer

  -computer programs can process statistical data very quickly and even produce maps of the results

• economic geography

• urban geography

• physical geography

The application of quantitative and scientific methods is increasing in all subfields today, largely due to the advances and availability of geographic information systems.

The Quantitative Revolution has been called one of the greatest periods of intellectual achievement in the whole history of the discipline.

• in fact, as regional geography declined before the advance of mathematical geography, some believed that descriptive studies would be replaced forever

• however, as with other trends in geography, the early rage of the Quantitative Revolution and the corresponding decline of regional geography were simply part of an overadjustment
  -much the same way as cultural geographers overreacted to environmental determinism to the detriment of physical geography, quantitative geographers overreacted to descriptive studies to the detriment of regional geography

  -mathematical geography was not new in 1960

  -Thales and Eratosthenes had been mathematical geographers in the ancient Greek world

  -mathematical geography one could say, however, as not very well developed in 1960
  -this led to a rapid expansion

• we are now seeing that the Quantitative Revolution went too far, as regional geography is beginning to make a slight comeback
  -the reason for this is clear: geography needs both

  -Varen was correct

  -from regional geography we can draw the generalizations of systematic geography and the theories of systematic geography can be verified in regional geography

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