The Dictionary of Human Geography

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should be wary of ill-informed, careless or

biased map authors (Evans, 1977; Monmonier,

2005). mm

Suggested reading

Monmonier (1993).

classification and regionalizationProcedures

• most of them quantitative – for grouping indi-
  viduals into categories.Classificationinvolves
  splitting a population into mutually exclusive
  categories on pre-determined criteria, either
  deductively (using a previously determined
  set of classes, such as town size-groups) or
  inductively (finding the best set of classes, on
  predetermined criteria, for the data set being
  analysed: cf.deduction; induction). Some
  procedures start with the entire population and
  divide it; others start with individuals and group
  them into classes. Most proceed hierarchically,
  generating classes that nest within each other at
  various scales. The goal is to produce classes
  whosemembersaremorelikeothermembers
  of their class than they are members of other
  classes: classes are internally homogeneous and
  externally heterogeneous. A range of classifica-
  tion algorithms is available in standard statis-
  tical packages.
  Regionalization(cf.region;regional geog-
  raphy) is a special case of classification in
  which the individuals classified are spatially
  defined units (usually areas) and the resulting
  classes (regions) must form contiguous spatial
  units. Because of this constraint, regions may
  not be as internally homogeneous as would be
  classes generated for the same set of areas but
  without the insistence on contiguity. These
  latter form regional types, areal units grouped
  without a contiguity constraint, so that similar
  areas may be spatially discontinuous (e.g.
  areas with Mediterranean climates).
  Recent work has argued that classifications
  should not impose firm boundaries, and sug-
  gested instead the use offuzzy setsto indicate
  the probability that an individual belongs to
  any particular class. (See also districting
  algorithm;geodemographics;modifiable
  areal unit problem;redistricting.) rj

Suggested reading

Johnston (2005c); Heckman, King and Tracy

(2005); Openshaw and Openshaw (1997).

climate Conventionally understood to com-

prise the meteorological elements – rainfall,

wind, temperature, insolation, humidity and

so on – which characterize the general atmos-

phere over a zone of the Earth’s surface for

a period of time. The Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2003) thus

identifies climate, in itsGlossary of terms,as

‘average weather’ or ‘more rigorously as the

statistical description of the mean and variabil-

ity of relevant quantities over a period of time

ranging from months to thousands or millions

of years’. To this, the IPCC glossary adds that

the World Meteorological Organization speci-

fies 30 years as the ‘classical’ temporal period

for determining average conditions. The crisp

clarity of this definition, however, masks the

concept’s contested historical lineage. During

the period of the Europeanenlightenment,

for example, Diderot and d’Alembert’s cele-

bratedEncyclope ́dieidentified as one of its def-

initions of climate aregionwith characteristic

seasons, soils and cultural mores (Feldman,

1990). The Victorian geologist Samuel

Haughton (1880, p. 74) similarly typified cli-

mate as the ‘complex effect of external relations

of heat and moisture upon the life of plants and

animals’, including the human species. Given

these associations, it is not surprising that

the study of climate has routinely embraced

matters of social, moral and political concern.

human geography’sengagements with cli-

mate have thus been manifold. Among the

most conspicuous have been a noticeable

inclination amongst its advocates to reduce

environmental determinism to climatic

determinism; the incorporation of climatic

conditions into studies of the perception of

environmental hazardandrisk; discussion

about the role of human agents in inducing

climate change andglobal warming; medical

geography’s earlier interest in the role of

climate-correlated pathologies; and imperial

debates about human capacities to adapt to

different climatic regimes. Each of these

domains has witnessed controversy. Amongst

early-twentieth-century environmental deter-

minists, for example, climate was often called

upon to justify various racial ideologies that

attributed excellence to the temperate zones

and explained the historical trajectory of civil-

ization in the vocabulary of climatic circum-

stance (Livingstone, 1994: see also race).

Controversy has also attended proposals over

the steps that need to be taken to curb the

influence that human society has had in

climate change and over the degree to which

the Earth’s planetary atmosphere can be

understood as a self-regulating system: this

has immediate political implications, since

individual states have been reluctant to bear

the political consequences of prioritizing

environmental restraint over economic growth

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_C Final Proof page 90 31.3.2009 9:45pm

CLASSIFICATION AND REGIONALIZATION