What is Regionalization in geography?
- Regionalization is a process by which the boundaries of regions are marked from a large geographical area.
- Regionalization is the process of identifying different regions on the earth.
The following are examples of regionalization:
- Economic regionalization[ examples, developed region, underdeveloped region, etc]
- Political regionalization[ Examples, Communist region, democratic region, etc]
- Geographical regionalization[ examples, plain region, plateau region, mountaneaous region, etc]
- Linguistic regionalization [Examples, Hindi region, Telgu region, Tamil region, etc]
- Cultural regionalization[ examples, Bangla region, Maratha region, etc]
- Planning regions[ Examples, BIMARU region, districts, etc]
Steps of regionalization:
There are two steps of regionalization:
- To identify the variable on the basis of which the region has to be identified.
- Determination of the boundaries of the region.
Identification of variables [ First step] :
The first step of regionalization is to identify the variable/variables on which boundary of the region would be demarcated.
Variables are generally two types:
- Natural geographical variables
- Socio-economic variables
Natural geographical variables:
The following are natural variables:
- Climate
- Temperature
- Topography
- Vegetation
- Rainfall
- Minerals
The following are cultural variables:
There are three types of regions or regions that can be delineated into three types and each has different approaches to delineating:
- GDP
- Percapita Income
- H D I
- Sex Ratio, fertility ratio, birth rate, the death rate
- Migration
- Productivity, crop production type
- Land use
- Political types such as democrats, autocrats, communism, socialism
- Religion-based
- Language-based
- Culture-based
There are three types of regions or regions that can be delineated into three types and each has different approaches to delineating:
- Formal regions
- Functional regions
- Planning region[ the region where economic decisions are applied, for example, Districts, states, countries, coastal regions, etc]
Regionalization for the formal region?
A formal region is a region where everyone in the region shared a common attribute(or attributes].
For example,
country, state, districts, etc are examples of formal regions.
Regionalization of the formal region is done based on the similarities of the specific formal characters, the following methods are used to demarcate the formal region:
- Single Variable method
- Fixed Index method
- Cluster method
Single variable method:
The formal region can be delineated based on the homogeneity of a single variable.
For example,
- if we take soil color as a variable to demarcate the region, then we will get the red soil region, black soil region, yellow soil region, etc.
- If we take the temperature as a single variable, then we will get the tropical, temperate, tundra, etc regions.
- If we take nationality as a single variable then we will get different countries as regions.
In this method, many variables are selected and the weight of each variable is assigned based on its importance. The index is made from these weighted variables.
For example,
For example,
- Human Development Index(HDI), in the HDI, there are three main variables ( education, health, income) assigned by the same weight. There are many sub-variables in each main variable.
- The other examples of fixed index methods are CPI, WPI index, etc.
- Regions can be delineated based on the HDI, WPI, etc values.
The cluster method is used where the comparison of the variable is not possible.
For example,
For example,
- A comparison of wheat production to fish production is not possible, but we make similar types of variables to one cluster.
- We can make one cluster of primary activities. By this method, fish production & agriculture production can be mapped to a single region.
Regionalization of the functional region?
Functional regions are regions that have homogeneity of certain functions.
Examples of functional regions are linguistic regions, city spheres, cultural regions, etc.
The following are three main methods for the regionalization of the functional region:
- Flow analysis
- Gravitation analysis
- Thiessen polygon method
Flow analysis:
Flow analysis is the method of regionalization of the functional regions.
Regional boundaries of functional regions are marked by influential areas of the variable.
 |
| formal region of an industry |
For examples,
- If we want to mark the boundary of the Mumbai dabbawala's sphere of influence [functional territory] then the area that the dabbawala's service reaches will be the dabbawala's sphere of influence.
- The functional region of the industry is the area to which the final goods of the industry are sold and from where the raw materials for that industry come.
The intensity of the flow of an object in a functional area increases as we move from the boundaries of that functional region toward the center. Thus the intensity of the flow of the object is zero at the boundaries of the field and highest at the center.
Gravitational analysis:
Through gravitational analysis, we can get the possibility of the flow of goods & services between two geographical areas.
Gravitational flow =population of region 1 * population of region 2/ Square of the distance between two region
For example,
We must have noticed the flow of goods and services from the village is maximum to the near city and very less to far distanced city.
Thiessen polygon method of regionalization:
For the Thiessen polygon method of regionalization, Please visit. Thiessen polygon method of regional delimitation
Try to solve the following questions:
- What is a region? Discuss the types of regions and methods of regionalization. (UPSC 2000, 12 marks)
- What is a region? Discuss the methods of regionalization. (UPSC 2005, 12 MARKS)
- What is a ‘region’? Describe the ‘Thiessen’ polygon method of regional delimitation. (UPSC 2016, 15 marks)
- Examine the method of regionalization of the formal regions.
- Examine the method of regionalization of the functional region.
- Explain the flow analysis method of regionalization.
- Examine the delineation method of the physiographic division of India.
- Examine the regionalization of Indian states.
Answer the following multiple-choice questions on regionalization.
1. Which of the following defines regionalization of the region?
a) A homogenous geographical region.
b) It is the political process of forming a state.
c) It is the process of forming a small region out of larger areas.
d) It is the process of forming a large area out of many smaller areas.
Answer. c) It is the process of forming a small region out of larger areas.
2. Which of the following regionalization facilitate the free flow of goods and services and coordinate the foreign countries for trade?
a) Economic regionalization
b) Political regionalization
c) Cultural regionalization
d) Linguistic regionalization
Answer. a) Economic regionalization
3. Which of the following is not a method of regionalization for delineating the formal regions?
a) Flow analysis
b) Mono variables method
c) Cluster method
d) Variables index method
Answer. a) Flow analysis
4. Which of the following is not a method of regionalization for delineating the functional regions?
a) Flow analysis
b) Gravity analysis
c) Polygon method
d) Fixed index method
Answer. d) Fixed index method
5. Which of the following is not a type of region?
a) Formal region
b) Functional region
c) Planning region
d) None
Answer. d) None
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