it isn't hard to see that our planet is changing urban areas continue to grow through urban sprawl changes in agriculture have led to deforestation such as in bolivia where the amazon rainforest is being converted into soybean farms and villages and changes in our climate have led to ice caps to melt reshaping landscapes around the world we can see these changes thanks to remote sensing a process of collecting information about the world from satellites orbiting the earth geographic information collected through remote sensing will often be used in a geographic information system which is a computer system that can analyze collect and display geographic data gis can create layered maps which can give insight into spatial associations show patterns or trends of a place and can also provide individuals governments and other organizations insight into different geographic data for example farmers today can use remote sensing and gis to better understand what parts of their field need more water pesticide or attention which can help increase their crop yield individuals also use satellites to help with navigation today we use gps which stands for global positioning system to help navigate between different places something that i know i would be completely lost without even farmers are starting to use gps to use longitude and latitude to guide their tractors to make sure that they can optimize where they plant their crops or where they apply fertilizer and pesticides all of this increases their yield these different geospatial technologies allow people organizations and governments to locate places and visualize geographic data in ways that can benefit society now it's not just geospatial technologies that can collect geographic data geographers can visit a place and record first-hand observations these observations are known as field observations since it's data that's being gathered in the real world firsthand accounts are excellent for gathering accurate and detailed data but sometimes they might not be feasible due to costs or practicality if it's not practical to gather field observations or even possible geographers can look at media reports travel narratives government documents and conduct personal interviews all of which can help geographers collect geographic data without having to physically be at a place media reports such as online articles newspapers or local news stations show what is happening in an area and give insight into what the people of an area are experiencing feeling and can also even help geographers learn more about other information that's related to a specific place travel narratives show geographers what people think of a place what they observed and experience while visiting or living in an area travel narratives can often show a more unfiltered perspective of a place and can reveal what everyday people experience while visiting a place government documents show geographers how land is being used what cultural values are being promoted what systems are in place what's happening now and what will happen in a place for example countries around the world are seeing decreasing birth rates as their natural growth rate starts to slow in response governments have started to try and change this trend by passing new incentives to motivate their citizens to have more children here we can see government policy shifting to account for changes in their country's demographic personal interviews can be conducted in person or online here geographers can gain valuable insight into a place by talking with individuals who live in the place or individuals who maybe have visited or have specific qualifications or expertise about a particular topic geographers can also use landscape analysis to better understand the impact humans have had on an area by studying the wildlife vegetation geography and other physical elements of a place geographers can start to see how different places are impacted not only by the people who live there but by other places as well for example if we use remote sensing we can see how the landscape of las vegas has changed over the years as more people continue to not only visit las vegas but also move there this has led to new hotels homes stores and other buildings to be built and urban sprawl to occur lastly geographers could use photo analysis where geographers analyze photos to better understand the type of culture demographics population density and what's happening in a place for example if we look at this photo we can see right away large walls that stretch along the city's landscape this indicates division or conflict in the area this need for separation could indicate conflict between different groups of people or perhaps border disputes between different states we can also see a golden dome which is the dome of the rock this is a religious building for islam this gives us insight into the religious practices happening at this place and speaking of the buildings we can also observe that the roofs are flat which tells us this image is of a place that's in a region that's hotter and probably remains warm throughout the year all these different insights we can gather from simply looking at a photograph so we can see that data can be collected and analyzed in a variety of different ways now regardless of how the data is collected we can generally categorize the data into two different categories qualitative data and quantitative data qualitative data is observations interviews and individuals thoughts this information is often up for debate and discussion it's hard to replicate since the information will often change depending on when it is collected and who collects it for example the presidential approval rating gives geographers insight into how citizens of the united states of america view their president as we can see here with president bush's approval rating quantitative data is used to better understand specific details about a place this information is not up for debate and is often in number four information such as how many people are in each age cohort in japan or the religious breakdown of the united states would be examples of quantitative data notice here that they're not opinions they are numbers and facts so there you have it another topic review video down now comes the time to practice answer the questions on the screen and when you are ready to check your answers go down to the comment section down below also if you are finding value in these videos and want to see more make sure you hit that subscribe button it lets me know that you want more videos and help support the channel and if you need more help with your ap human geography class make sure to check out my ultimate review packet it's a great resource that will help you get an a in your class and a five on the national exam as always i'm mr sin thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time online