United States & Canada

This unit covers just two countries in North America: the United States and Canada. The  continent of North America actually includes many more countries, of course—it extends all the  way to the border between Panama and Colombia and includes the islands of the Caribbean as well. We’ll be covering all of those countries in the next unit on Latin America.

Most students find this unit on the United States and Canada to be the easiest unit in the course (in sharp contrast to Unit 1 on Planet Earth, which most students find to be one of the more challenging units). There are a couple of factors that make Unit 2 especially easy to master: it includes the fewest countries of any unit in the course, and it focuses on one country— the United States—that most students are likely to be fairly familiar with already. Chances are that at some point in your academic career (probably by sixth grade at the latest!), you’ve already been required to commit the fifty states to memory. All you’re doing in this unit, then, is simply adding a little polish to the knowledge you already have.

INTERPRETATION OF ECONOMIC PHENOMENA

Agricultural Geography

By contributing nearly one-fourth of the GDP and providing livelihood to around 70 per cent of the population, agriculture continues to be the backbone of the Indian economy. Spatially it is the most widespread economic pursuit claiming more than 40 per cent of the country’s total area. It is also equally important that the diverse cultural landscapes that rural India manifests are basically the product of peoples’ judicious response to the available land and other environmental resources for raising crops and livestock. Not surprisingly therefore Indian geographers have been paying serious attention to the study of agriculture and associated issues during last several decades.

Landuse/Landcover and Land Capability Studies

Landuse/land cover and land capability studies have got a renewed emphasis asthe process of agricultural use of land has been in a flux in the wake of fast changing national economy under the new global order. A number of studies on land use/overland land capability using both conventional and modern techniques appeared during thelast four years. Tribedi and Dubey (2006) using satellite imageries and aerial photographsdelineated various landuse categories in Damoh area of Madhya Pradesh for planningpurposes. They determined the changes in forest area, urban area, agricultural land, etc. and suggested measures for improvement in the landuse condition. Das (2006) analyzed the changes in landuse pattern in Assam and its implications for sustainable conomicdevelopment in the state. The study carried out by Narayanakumar and Kumaraswamy(2006) using remote sensing techniques pointed to the fact that the agricultural practicealong the fringe of the lake Oussudu contributes both nutrients and contaminants to degrade the natural aquatic environment. While discussing the causes of landuse/landcover changes in Ukhrul district of Manipur, Singh and Shah (2007) held thetraditional practice of jhuming responsible for rapid shrinkage of forest cover.

Geomorphology and Climatology

Geomorphology

Process studies in post-Davidson era have been largely responsible for major shift sin the subject matter and have provided methodological revolution in the subject and made the subject more applied than ever before. In recent past with a growing awareness towards the environmental problems and the imbalances leading to hazardous situations, the role of the geomorphology is being increasingly recognized as per-eminently necessary. Geomorphology of late is being considered as a science contributing towards the natural resource management mainly in terms of management of land, water and soil resources. Problems like stability of coastal structures, desertification, land resource appraisal etc. are emerging as major topics of research being handled or expected to be handled by the geomorphology. As a result micro studies are gaining importance allover the world and the same is slowly getting reflected in a number of research articles appearing in the journals.
In the Indian context the trend is not very different from what is seen on a global scale. “Use of remote sensing technique and GIS” appears as a favored suffix in many titles. The techniques and tools of research gain importance in such attempts and at timezone wonders if the original topic of research is getting camouflaged in the description of these tools and techniques. Nonetheless it appears that using this suffix is gaining more popularity.

Food Security and Dairy Farming

Food Security

Problems associated with food security in recent years have drawn serious attention of agricultural geographers in India in line with social scientists throughout the globe. It is now agreed that carefully planned agricultural progress with a view to saving rural livelihoods can only ensure availability of more food, jobs and income. As opposed to modern industries which promote jobless growth, agriculture including animal husbandry, forestry and ago-processing can promote job-led economic growth.
 Importantly, geographers of India have not neglected this vital issue. Studies made by Choudhury (2006) and others are significant in this regard. Choudhury made an attempt to discuss issues relating to agriculture and food security in Sikkim and observed that testate suffers from acute food shortage resulting from dearth of cropland on the one hand and traditional practice of agriculture on the other. Jha (2006) elucidated the concepts of vulnerability and food insecurity and tried to develop a theoretical framework to analyze the issues of food insecurity. He emphasized on the impact of population on food security and vulnerability in Bangladesh, a problem-ridden developing country of South Asia. Das and Dutta (2006) investigated the problem of population growth and food availability scenario of the states of North-East India and suggested measures to reduce food scarcity and malnutrition in the region. Gatade (2004) assessed the carrying capacity of land in
Samara district of Maharashtra on the basis of the standard nutrition units of both production and consumption to analyze the population–food balance in the district. 

Mountain Environment

Mountain resources are getting enormous stress due to snow melting and glacial retreat  Charlatanry et al., 2006; Dobhal et al., 2004). The scope of latitudinal gradient studies i.e. large change in altitude over short distance associated with significant change in climatic gradient varies from local studies at micro ecosystem to temperate and alpine region. Notable contribution from geographers in this context have come in studies related to assessment and modeling of the interactive influence of topography and land surface heterogeneity on the spatial pattern of soil moisture evaporate-transpiration, runoff generation and erosion. Disasters, be they natural or man-made, are the real constraints to development and are a threat to our environment. The enormous economic losses from natural disasters and the massive relief expenditure make disaster reduction a condition for sustainable development. Development programmed can be so designed as to decrease susceptibility to disasters. Disaster mitigation will have to become a part of national development.Environmental protection is also an essential input in the prevention and mitigation of disasters. The complex cause and effect relationship of disasters and the environment and its impact on development are being carefully understood in recent years as evident in afew studies related to these (Singh, 1998, Singh, 2005, Singh, 2006). Mountain regions make up one-fifth of the Earth’s land surface, and they have considerable role and global importance as environmental resources. Mountains are home to a substantial portion of the planet’s diversity of species and ecosystems. Ironically, allover the world expanding economic pressures are degrading mountain Eco-systems while confronting mountain peoples with increasing poverty, cultural assimilation, and empowerment  

Land and Agricultural Resources

With rapid population growth demand on land resources is increasing. Subsequently, risk to land resource sustainability is also intensifying. Considering thatagriculture employs 64 per cent of the labor force, it is not surprising that agriculture isthe predominant mainstay in nearly every state. Agricultural geography has been thesubject of intensive research and monitoring during the post independence period.

Considerable data already exists at national, state and district level. But, ago ecosystem research and education are being preferred by geographers in order to provide particularly a strong base for detecting responses to global climatic change and preferred differentiating effects of climates, pollution and land use (Singh and Shah, 2004, Singh and Shah, 2007). The impact of increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere will have enormous effect on agriculture and vegetation. It is important to understand processes relating to changes in land use affecting the resources of the river basin and coastal zone. A focus on agro ecosystem in Indian geography is highly imperative,
highlighting different agriculture ecosystems of India, agricultural input environment,
ecologically based pest management and Eco-farming (Jha and Singh, 2008).

Urban Environment and Climate Change

Energy, industrial development, air pollution and climate change are critical to human security. In Mega cities, urban heat islands phenomena is emerging due to land use change, building materials, industrial development and transport congestions (Singh, 2006, 2007). Much of the urbanisation in India is taking place in metropolitan cities, and is accompanied by major changes in the social, economic and technological arenas. Manyof these global trends are also apparent in India. Delhi metropolitan region has faced even more rapid rate of urbanisation and environmental change than the average for India. Thisaccelerated urbanisation trend has environmental costs. This includes air and water quality problems, waste removal and disposal; and the metropolis and the development corridor (Singh and Singh, 2007) in which it is located have an impact on the surrounding country side through the depletion of resources such as food, portable water, and aggregated building materials. This is causing immense change in land use patterns as well as human response from the surrounding rural areas. The land use change is primarily from agriculture to residential/industry or brick kilns. In this process the region faces severe problems of land degradation (Goel and Singh, 2006; Singh, 2007).