01 April 2009

Recreation Geography Defined

Sure, you might know what recreation is. And you probably had a geography class back when you were 13 years old. But what is Recreation Geography?

re-cre⋅a⋅tion 
–noun
1. the act of creating anew.
2. something created anew.

ge⋅og⋅ra⋅phy
–noun, plural -phies.
1. the science dealing with the areal differentiation of the earth's surface, as shown in the character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world of such elements as climate, elevation, soil, vegetation, population, land use, industries, or states, and of the unit areas formed by the complex of these individual elements.
2. the study of this science.
3. the topographical features of a region, usually of the earth, sometimes of the planets.
4. a book dealing with this science or study, as a textbook.
5. the arrangement of features of any complex entity: the geography of the mind.
(source Dictionary.Com)

Well, combining the two terms we come up with my definition:

Recreation Geography is the study of humans participating in some leisure pursuit at some setting. That is, people, activity and park.

People are categorized by the socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Activities are what people are doing and the park could be the Grand Canyon, the neighborhood, or your couch!

In this new blog, that premiers on April Fools' Day 2009, I hope to inform the readers about what recreation geography is all about and hopefully illustrate, as the definition implies, that recreation geography is all around us.

If this is something that floats your boat, bookmark this page for future reference. If not, go back to Google!

rsb