Regions are mental maps with sometimes fuzzy edges
Geographers carve Earth into regions by rock and climate, by culture, or by how people remake environments. Continents look obvious from space, yet many regional labels are conceptual tools without crisp borders, and tourism bureaus and churches draw regions of their own, from Tuscany and the Lake District to Catholic ecclesiastical provinces.
In geography, regions (areas, zones, lands, territories) are surface portions divided by physical traits, human impacts, or human–environment interaction. Their extent is often stated in square kilometres or hectares. Beyond continents, hydrospheric and atmospheric regions cover oceans and climate layers above land and sea, then break into subregions along large geological features.
Nearly every branch of geography regionalizes in its own way: environmental geographers speak of ecoregions, cultural geographers of cultural regions, biogeographers of bioregions. The study of regions as such is regional geography, a largely descriptive field that tries to define what makes a particular place distinctive. Physical and ecological fields lean on ecosystems, biomes, drainage basins, mountain ranges, and soil types, while political geography works with states, provinces, counties, and groupings such as the European Union, ASEAN, and NATO.
Global regions of land and water can be told apart from space, though mapmakers recognized continents and oceans long before anyone saw them from orbit. Continental regions squeeze broad historical experience into units small enough to study; they are conceptual constructs that usually lack sharp boundaries. Some take their identity from one dominant feature, such as the Amazon basin or the Sahara, each covering a large share of its continent.
Historical geography adds regions that live mostly in the past. D. W. Meinig's The Shaping of America describes 'The Great Fishery' off Newfoundland and New England, Grand Banks included, and sets aside familiar labels like New France and the Middle Colonies; Iroquoia, Ohio Country, and Rupert's Land are other examples. Governments and tourism bureaus invent regions as well, from Tuscany and Yucatán, built on administrative units, to the Lake District and California's Wine Country. Churches draw some of the crispest lines: the United States holds 32 Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces, and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has 33 districts.
Source: Region
