For verification of this paper, please visit on http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/innovation.php#8

Spatial geography is a branch of geography that deals with the study of the spatial distribution of phenomena on the earth's surface. It explores how different physical and human factors influence the distribution of people, resources, and economic activity across the globe. This field also looks at how different regions are connected and how they interact with one another through trade, migration, and other forms of social and economic exchange.Spatial relationships can also refer to any sort of interaction between two locations, whether they be specific locations or regions. For example, a city has a spatial relationship with the surrounding farms or with other cities.

The present study emphasizes the worth of Geography as a spatial study in all its parts.

Description of Geography as a spatial science.

‘Space and place together define the nature of geography. Spatial analysis or the explanation of spatial organisation is at the forefront of geographical research. Geographers appear to be confident of both the meaning of space and the methods suited to its analysis. The interpretation of spatial elements requires an abstract and objective frame of thought, quantifiable data, and ideally the language of mathematics. Place, like space, lies at the core of geographical discipline. Indeed an Ad Hoc Committee of American geographers (1965, 7) asserted that “the modern science of geography derives its substance from man’s sense of place”. In the geographical literature, place has been given several meanings (Lukermann, 1964; May, 1970). As location, place is one unit among other units to which it is linked by a circulation net; the analysis of location is subsumed under the geographer’s concept and analysis of space. Place, however, has more substance than the word location suggests: it is a unique entity, a ‘special ensemble’ (Lukermann, 1964, p. 70); it has a history and meaning. Place incarnates the experiences and aspirations of a people. Place is not only a fact to be explained in the broader frame of space, but it is also a reality to be clarified and understood from the perspectives of the people who have given it meaning.’¹

‘Geography enlightened a vast area of social sciences. It consists earth’s land and ocean surface, different landforms and their formation, evolution, sub-surface phenomena, atmosphere and related activities, environment and its attributes, environment as a habitat of living elements as well as a human being and their reciprocal relationships in a very critical and analytical approach. From the inception of geography as a separate discipline, it evolved through its versatile, comprehensive and holistic nature. Alteration and modification change its nature through space and time. And accordingly, the established paradigm always changed depending on the demand of the geographers.Geography has two basic aspects, Pure and Applied. Recent trend shows that most of the geographical research is focused on the applied field rather than the pure aspects of the subject itself. The most interesting fact is that the applied research is basically depends upon the Geospatial technology. A distinct paradigm shifts have been taking place in both the Geographical Research and the Geospatial Technology through Digitalization. The large growing population of the world require a logical and scientific shift in both pure and applied research in the domain of geography. Particular mention may be made in the fields of Geography such as geomorphology, population geography, urban geography, rural development and environmental geography.’²

‘Through spatial history, we learn about the routes of commodities and the structure of geographical knowledge. We learn about the values and shape of a community. We learn about privacy, plague, empire, insects, cosmography, violence and peasants. In other words, space within the pages of Past and Present has presented itself as an approach to history, an object of study and a methodology (employed to learn more about a distinct object of study). Like the field of human geography, spatial history in Past and Present responded to the influence of the postmodern and linguistic turns, though, unlike human geography, it never turned away from social issues and only recently became a more technical venture. Yet, there is no overwhelming drive towards quantitative approaches or even mapping software that requires specific technical knowledge.’³

‘Spatial science remains a substantial component of contemporary human geography. It is strongly quantitative, but the formal (geometrical) location theories based on a single causal variable (space) have largely been abandoned: the search for spatial order neither anticipates the discovery of regular structures nor seeks universal laws of spatial behavior. Sayer (1984) drew an important distinction between extensive and intensive research: the former seeks empirical regularities whereas the latter explores the causal chains responsible for particular outcomes. Much spatial science is extensive research, a necessary precursor to many detailed investigations; by not eschewing empirical generalisations, it identifies significant features and trends in the mass of numerical data which characterize modern societies.’⁴

‘Any history of science has its own geography as well. Geographers of science have tried to put science in its place. They study the socio-spatial settings in which scientific knowledge was generated, displayed and legitimated. For them, science is socially constructed in spatialities and temporalities. The main question should to be “how” spatialities are constructing scientific knowledge via its “causalities”. Geography of science is not just about special places, locations, and regions in which scientific knowledge is unequally produced/consumed and circulated or how the use of scientific knowledge can lead to the production and reproduction of unique places and spaces. Geography of science is also about a variety set of spatial causalities through which scientific knowledge can be formed and transformed. This also means that the innovative knowledge or ideas development takes place not only in the spatial contexts but because of the spatial causalities which rise from the myriad interlinkages and interdependencies among places. These imperatives of spatial significance operate across many spatial scales from the body to the global. Hence, in our increasingly glocalized world, we must seek knowledge in spatial encounters and betweenness of places, not merely within spaces and places.’⁵

Geography is a spatial science which studies the geographical features through certain measuring techniques. The author took much pains in making the work scientific through objectivity while collecting secondary data from the modern sources of information available online and on internet. The process of research involved in the preparation of this paper includes- selection of the title after much consideration, study of the previously-produced published literature, formulation of hypothesis, developing the selected theme under the research design of qualitative research, tracing the content suitable to the present study, generalization. All this helped the author arrive at the conclusion.

Geography is an epitome of that science which teaches us how to live in this planet — Earth in harmony with nature, how to take human civilization to its next level of development, in a sustainable way by minimizing the affects of man made disasters. It is often termed as spatial science as it always studies natural features, lifestyles, occupation etc. from their spatial considerations. It studies the whole environment considering its place of origin and physical settings. Physical geography forms a major part of geography. Physical characteristics of a given region form the bases for study climatology, cultural geography, economic and human geography. Geography unwraps the hidden reasons behind the situation and features of a region on the basis of physical attributes of the given region.

Spatial thinking or spatial view is a way to view a problem in a space or region based on the spatial phenomenon like the physical features, and the atmosphere of people lived there (social economy that creates the space). Spatial view is really needed and really important to have, especially for the one who wants to be the leader of their region, or their city. Spatial scale is the extent of an area at which a phenomenon or a process occurs. For example, water pollution can occur at a small scale, such as a small creek, or at a large scale, such as the Chesapeake Bay.

Spatial pattern is an observable regularity in a phenomenon in the X-Y dimension (although it could exist in three dimensions and still be geography). The pattern may not be observable to the eye and might require some spatial statistics to confirm that the data conform to a pattern.

Spatial interaction is a dynamic flow process from one location to another. It is a general concept that may refer to the movement of human beings such as intraurban commuters or intercontinental migrants, but may also refer to traffic in goods such as raw materials or to flows of intangibles such as information.

While the origin of the term may be traced to French geographers of the early 20th century, Edward Ullman’s Geography as Spatial Interaction is normally cited as the seminal statement of the concept. In Ullman’s conception there were “three bases for spatial interaction” or more fundamentally, three reasons for why things move: complementarity, transferability, and intervening opportunity.

Spatial data is any set of information with location data attached for every vector of variables.For example RS images (Remote Sensing) Landsat satellites ETM+ sensor records light and infrared reflectance in 8 bands, each band is raster grid and each grid has size, reflectance value and its position in the grid, and the grid has its corners and center location in WGS 84 coordinate system. From that knowledge we can place each cell in its proper place on earth surface.

Census data is another type of spatial data, where each home has its location, number of residents and other data. (Finnish Center of statistics collects a lot of different variables for each home, but only areal aggregates are available for researchers due to privacy concerns) usually 250 grid data, but in sparsely imhabited areas it may be 1km or larger.

Original data is vector data, because the data points are not in regular grid array. Spatial vector data comes in several forms, points, lines and polygons. Points are location coordinates, with attached attribute tables, like the census data mentioned above. Lines have starting point, end point, and in case of curves several midpoints and attribute table, this is how road networks are represented in navigation systems, its a system of connected lines and nodes with attached attributes of how fast you can drive, how long is the wait on intersections (so called time penalty).

Polygons are area units, with borders set as lines that have attached attribute table. This is how most maps are formed from rs data, the fields, forests and other forms are digitised, attributes are given to them in the process and then coloured as appropriate.

Everything about Geography is spatial. Geography studies the ‘why of where’ across the surface of the Earth. It studies how regions change and alter on the Earth. It studies how people, flora, fauna, and ideas diffuse across the surface of the Earth. It studies how people, cities and places are located relative to each other and their relationships. Lastly, Geography examines the interrelations between people and the environment and vice-versa.

Spatial perspective is what Geography is all about. It’s not just knowing landforms or memorizing place names. Geography is the rigorous discipline that explains the “Why of where”. Why is Singapore located where it is (it’s not by chance); Why and how do ocean currents affect land masses in different regions of the globe (it doesn’t just happen willy-nilly); or how is the location and livelihood of Austin affected by San Antonio or Houston? It also involves how culture regions evolve and interact. explains movement on the surface of the Earth, or investigates the inter-relationships between people and the physical environment.So “spatial” is a key word for understanding what Geography is in the first place. It is understanding the “Why of where”.

1. Tuan, YF. (1979). Space and Place: Humanistic Perspective. In: Gale, S., Olsson, G. (eds) Philosophy in Geography. Theory and Decision Library, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9394-5_19 2. Koyel Paul koyel&Chandra Jha (2021). Paradigm Shifts in Geographical Research and Geospatial Applications, Sociedade&Natureza, vol. 33, e59651, 2021 3. Courtney J Campbell (2016). Space, Place and Scale: Human Geography and Spatial History in Past and Present, Past & Present, Volume 239, Issue 1, Pages e23–e45 4. R.J. Johnston (2001). International Encyclopedia of the Social &Behavioral Sciences 5. Mahmood Shoorcheh (2021). When we put spatial causalities first in production of scientific knowledge: notes on the geography of science, Universal Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_analysis 7. https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-term-spatial-relationship-represent-in-geography 8. https://www.quora.com/Small-spatial-data-error-at-the-beginning-may-lead-to-a- major-blunder-in-GIS-How 9. https://geography.name/spatial-interaction/ 10. https://quizlet.com/150413573/ap-hug-unit-1-flash-cards/ 11. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Transportation_Geography_and_Network _Science/ Spatial_Interaction 12. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog30/node/317/ 13. https://www.quora.com/Spatial-Statistics-How-should-I-be-thinking-when-choosing- between-using-a-Queen-or-Rook-based-spatial-weights-matrix 14. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-geography-also-sometimes-called-spatial-science 15. https://www.quora.com/What-does-geography-mean-to-you-and-why 16. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-geography-and-spatial-science-if-there-is-one 17. https://www.quora.com/What-is-geography 18. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/spatial-behavior/ 19. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-and-finance/location-theory/ 20. https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-term-spatial-relationship-represent-in-geography