NOTES FOR UPSC AND OPSC

                             CENTRAL PLACE THEORY German geographer Walter Cristeller is designated to be the first human Geography to have followed quantitative tradition in theory building, i.e. To involve in " treatment of the surface of the earth as isotropic plane and treatment of man as a rational economic creature ". Based on empirical studies of settlement in Southern Germany, Christaller attempted the first rational approach in the analysis of functional capacity and interdependence of different constituents of the settlement system.                           Apart from presuming constant demand prevailing in geographical space he also presumed consumers to be rational economic creatures willing to travel the least distance to attend desired goods and services. Identifying every settlement to be a  Central   Place  that is a marketplace, providing goods and services to its own population along with the population of the lower-ranking settlement, h

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY SYSTEM: System is defined as a coherent whole unit that includes several elements with persisting links between them. Ludwig von Bertalanffy Propounded first general system analysis. He was an ecologist or biologist . He believed it to be applicable only to the biological unit then it was validated in other fields too. Odum  Applied system analysis in his classification of the biological systems. From biogeography , it was also incorporated into human geography. Human Geographers incorporated system analysis in specific lab generated tools to interpret the generalized nature of the spatial pattern of economic and cultural land use. Minshull 1956 is credited to be the first human Geographer to have propounded general system theory rising on strong interactive relation variable components of human living human activities are associated with. Priston, Berry and Chorley contribution to system analysis is in identifying that like biologi