GEOG 1104 - Intro to Geography, Environment & Population

The study of geography, population and environment tend to be treated quite separately, but there are strong and important relationships between them. This course focuses on these interactions and explores their implications for Australia's and the planet's future. Key geographical concepts such as space, place and the relationship between people and place are introduced. The contemporary dynamics of population growth, composition and spatial distribution are examined and analysed and the role environmental factors have had in shaping them is explored. Equally too, the impact of population on geographical environments is examined. The constraints that environmental factors, especially water, have placed on the development of the Australian population are investigated, along with the likely influence of future climate change. A particular focus is the changing spatial distribution of the population with issues like urbanisation, 'sea change' and rural depopulation and their inter-relationship with the environment being explored. An important focus is on internal and international migration's influence in changing the population size, structure and distribution and how it affects, and is affected by, the environment. Indigenous Australians and their special relationship with the environment is discussed separately. The course will give students a solid introductory grounding in the key concepts in and relationships between geography, environment and population.