Technical geography
Study of using and creating tools to manage spatial information / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information.[1][2][3][4]
The other branches of geography, most commonly limited to human geography and physical geography, can usually apply the concepts and techniques of technical geography.[2][3][5] However, the methods and theory are distinct, and a technical geographer may be more concerned with the technological and theoretical concepts than the nature of the data.[6][7] Further, a technical geographer may explore the relationship between the spatial technology and the end users to improve upon the technology and better understand the impact of the technology on human behavior.[8] Thus, the spatial data types a technical geographer employs may vary widely, including human and physical geography topics, with the common thread being the techniques and philosophies employed.[9][10] To accomplish this, technical geographers often create their own software or scripts, which can then be applied more broadly by others.[11] They may also explore applying techniques developed for one application to another unrelated topic, such as applying Kriging, originally developed for mining, to disciplines as diverse as real-estate prices.[12][13]
In teaching technical geography, instructors often need to fall back on examples from human and physical geography to explain the theoretical concepts.[14] While technical geography mostly works with quantitative data, the techniques and technology can be applied to qualitative geography, differentiating it from quantitative geography.[1] Within the branch of technical geography are the major and overlapping subbranches of geographic information science, geomatics, and geoinformatics.[6][15]