North Africa and Southwest Asia based on the Five Themes of Geography

Geography’s Five Themes

Geography’s five themes are Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Mobility, and Region. Because it shares human and physical traits, North Africa and Southwest Asia (NASWA) are regarded to be one geographical region. To demonstrate why this portion of the world is regarded unique, investigate the following Geography themes in respect to this place (Blij, Muller, & Nijman, 2015).

Location

The position of a specific spot on the globe is referred to as its location. North Africa is located on the African continent to the north of the Sahara. This region of the world used to be continuous with the Arabian Peninsula in the subcontinent of Asia before the building of the Suez Canal. Therefore, even though this Southwest Asia is hundreds if not thousands of miles from North Africa, there is some form of geographical continuity between the two locations (Blij et al., 2015).

Place

Place is a geographical theme that refers to the name, site and the environmental conditions of an area. NASWA is often referred to as the Middle East in the media and diplomatic circles. The countries in this region have also been referred to as the Arab World/ the Islamic World because the majority are Arabs and follow Prophet Muhammad and the Quran (Blij et al., 2015). Site describes the features of the place. Most of NASWA is characterized by desserts and dry lands. Most of North Africa is located on the northern fringes of the Sahara desert while countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, Oman and the U.A.E in Southwest Asia are located on or close to the Arabian Desert. However, most of the regions residents reside near water sources such as the Nile, in the Tigris-Euphrates basin, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and in desert oases (Blij et al., 2015). Parts of the region are mountainous and there are also several river valleys. In terms of the environment, most of NASWA experiences a hot and dry climate (Blij et al., 2015).

Human-Environment Interaction

Human-Environment interaction is a theme of geography that has three distinct aspects, modification, adaptation and dependency. In terms of modification, most of NASWA depends on irrigation to grow food crops especially on large swathes of land in the Nile Valley (North Africa), and on the Tigris-Euphrates Basin (Southwest Asia). With regards to adaptation, most of the populations in this region live closer to water points. For instance, 95% of the population of Egypt lives less than 20 kilometers from the Nile (Blij et al., 2015). The case is the same in the other NASWA countries where most live near sea shores, rivers, or in desert oases! Many also keep camels to travel across deserts as these animals can better withstand desert conditions (Blij et al., 2015).

Movement

Movement is one of the other key themes of geography. There are airports in major cities across NASWA such as Cairo, Dubai, Algiers, Baghdad, and Riyadh! Dubai is one of the busiest airports in the world (Hetter, & Cripps, 2016). There are also major sea ports and the Suez Canal that enable trade between countries in the region and the export of oil and related products from oil-rich countries in the region!

Current Issues Specific to Geographic Themes Affecting the Region

One of the main issues afflicting the region is terrorism especially in countries such as Iraq and Syria where several religious extremists are fighting to impose their own laws (Brady, 2017). This is specific to Islam which dominates North Africa and Southwest Asia’s cultural geography (Brady, 2017). The religion is the cause of many political developments and plays a big role in conflicts. The second-biggest issue is global warming. Most of NASWA is already water-scarce (Al-Otaibi, 2015). The likes of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and UAE are among the world’s top ten most water-scarce countries (Al-Otaibi, 2015). Global warming is likely to reduce the rainfall levels and perhaps even cause major rivers to dry up disrupting the lives of millions of people in the region.

Conclusion

North Africa is lumped together with Southwest Asia for many reasons including the fact that both regions are mainly populated by Arabs, widely practice the same religion (Islam), and have the same human-environment interactions.

References

Al-Otaibi, G. (2015). By the numbers: Facts about water crisis in the Arab World. World Bank. Retrieved 29 May 2017, from http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/numbers-facts-about-water-crisis-arab-world

Blij, H. J., Muller, P. O., & Nijman, J. (2015). The World Today: Concepts and Regions in Geography, 7th Edition. John Wiley & Sons.

Brady, E. (2017). An analysis of Patterns of Change Arising from the Syrian Conflict: Islamic Terrorism, Refugee Flows and Political Destabilization in Europe. Journal Of Terrorism Research, 8(1), 53. http://dx.doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1298

Hetter, K., & Cripps, K. (2016). The world’s busiest airport is CNN. Retrieved 29 May 2017, from http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/09/aviation/worlds-busiest-airports-final-2015/