Many geographers focus their time and energy on studying a specific region on the planet. Regional geographers focus on areas as large as a continent or as small as an urban area. Many geographers combine a regional specialty with a specialty in another branch of geography.
Applied geographers use geographic knowledge, skills, and techniques to solve problems in everyday society. Applied geographers are often employed outside of academic environment and work for private firms or governmental agencies.
It has often been said that geography is anything that can be mapped. While all geographers know how to display their research on maps, the branch of cartography focuses on improving and developing technologies in map-making. Cartographers work to create useful high-quality maps to show geographic information in the most useful format possible.
Geographic Information Systems
Geographic Information Systems or GIS is the branch of geography that develops databases of geographic information and systems to display geographic data in a map-like format. Geographers in GIS work to create layers of geographic data and when layers are combined or utilized together in complex computerized systems, they can provide geographic solutions or sophisticated maps with the press of a few keys.
Geographers working in the field of geographic education seek to give teachers the skills, knowledge, and tools they need to help combat geographic illiteracy and to develop future generations of geographers.
Historical geographers research the human and physical geography of the past.
History of Geography
Geographers working in the history of geography seek to maintain the history of the discipline by researching and documenting the biographies of geographers and the histories of geographic studies and geography departments and organizations.
Remote sensing utilizes satellites and sensors to examine features on or near the earth's surface from a distance. Geographers in remote sensing analyze data from remote sources to develop information about a place where direct observation is not possible or practical.
This branch of geography uses mathematical techniques and models to test hypothesis. Quantitative methods are often used in many other branches of geography but some geographers specialize in quantitative methods specifically.