System analysis in Geography

System analysis in Geography 

What is the system in geography?

In geography, the system is comprised of all elements connected with a specific link. The following are the characteristics of the system:

• The system may be open or closed,  for example:
• Open system: Earth, ocean, forest, atmosphere,  etc
• Closed system: Culture of Andaman & Nicobar tribes
• System change through time, for example:
• Earlier, the system was dominant by the environment and animals
• Nowadays, the system was dominant by human 
• Structure of the system:
• Elements. For example, the element of the Ocean system will be water, temperature, vegetation, fishes, salinity, acidity, ice, dept, coastal areas, etc.
• Linkage, for example, Paddy productivity is linked with soil, water, moisture, fertilizer, etc.
• Inputs:
• input will be null if a closed system
• input varies if an open system
• Output: behavioral change of system:
• Cascading effect
• Each element is interlinked by other elements.  The change in one element or link, the effect can be seen in the whole system, for example: 
• the whole earth affects if the percentage of CO2 changes in the atmosphere.
• no one lives in the ocean without vegetation
• animal and vegetation are interdependent
• In the governance system, the public and politicians, officers, all are interdependent. 
• The system has many subsystems, for example, the subsystem of ocean systems are:
• Coastal subsystem
• Deep ocean substem
• Coldwater & Worm water subsystem, etc

System Approach and System analysis?

In geography, the system approach is one approach used to find out the causes and function of the geographical phenomenon, by studying all the interlinked components as a whole. 

System analysis is the tool to analyze the system and its components to understand the complex phenomenon. For example, why is the migration happening? under system analysis, the following component will be included in the study:

• The population of the concerned region
• Growth of population
• Economic activities and availability for livelihood
• Law and order situation
• Freedom
• Education and health facilities
• City size, distance, etc
• Types of migration

By using these components, we can get the whole picture of migration, we can see the migration changing pattern by changing the components because each component of interlinked,
for example:

• What will be migration, if education & health facilities increase and economic& social freedom decrease?

Principles of General system :

• A study of the subsystem is needed to understand the complex system
• Some geographical system is naturally controlled and regulated, for example, changes in the season due to the earth's revolution around the sun and rotation around its own axis.
• But when human is involved in the general system, then it increases the complexity and hampers the autoregulation. For example, now the global temperature is rising due to climate change is happening because of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

Challenges in System Analysis:

• Very complex to analyze the open system because of many components and linkages
• Demarcation of the boundary of the system and identification of the components of the system is challenging. For example, it is hard to demarcate the boundary of the Tata Salt market
• Anthropogenic actions are adding complexity to the geographical system.

Importance of System analysis

• Easy to analyze complex systems through system analysis
• Many outgoing problems can be well analyzed and can be predicted by system analysis, such as:
• Environment degradation
• Climate change
• Migration
• Naxalism problems
• Poverty 
• Unemployment
• Quantitative revolution is based on System analysis

Criticism of System Analysis:

• No place for religious belief, morality, ethics in system analysis

Try to solve the following questions.

• Discuss the Systems Approach and its applicability in Geography. (2011, 30 marks)
• Answer the following questions in about 150 words each 
• Write an explanatory note on geographical systems.  (2017, 10 marks)
• Giving suitable examples, describe the. importance of system analysis in geographical studies. (2014, 15 marks)

Download Pdf Notes:

You may also want to read the following post:

• Contribution of Arab Geographers to geographical thought
• Humboldt and Ritter's Contribution to Modern Geographical thought
• Areal Differentiation
• Regional Synthesis
• Dichotomy and Dualism in Geography
• Determinism
• Environmental Determinism
• Neo Determinism( Stop and Go Determinism)
• Possibilism
• Positivism
• Spatial and Locational analysis
• Quantitative Revolution
• System analysis
• Schaefer's views and Exceptionalism
• Behaviouralism and Mental map
• Humanism approach
• Welfare approaches
• Radicalism

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