Applied geography

Summary

This article examines the historical origins, intellectual foundations, practical scope, and educational prospects of applied geography. Although the expression itself gained currency only recently, especially after the Second World War, the author argues that the underlying practice is much older. Vauban’s 1707 work La Dîme royale already exemplified a geographical approach to public action by combining regional surveys, population counts, information on economic activities and living standards, and cartographic documentation before roads, canals, or other territorial interventions were undertaken. Applied geography should therefore not be regarded as a discipline detached from pure geography, but as the logical extension of classical geographical knowledge into collective life, planning, and action. Regional geography provides its principal foundation because its comprehensive understanding of physical environments, human activities, and their interrelations enables geographers to diagnose territorial problems, anticipate the effects of proposed remedies, and contribute to rational spatial planning. Comparing national experiences, the article contrasts France, where an impressive tradition of regional scholarship long produced relatively few practical applications, with Britain, where geographers became directly involved in surveys and regional or national planning. The author nevertheless stresses that planning is necessarily collaborative: geographers must work with urban planners, economists, sociologists, engineers, and other specialists while preserving their distinctive responsibility for spatial synthesis and integrated regional interpretation. Belgian examples demonstrate how regional monographs and surveys can lead public authorities to recruit geographers for territorial planning, rural land consolidation, and related administrative tasks. The article also considers professional training. Field observation, cadastral and archival research, seminar-based practical work, and supervised research placements can prepare students to address concrete planning problems without weakening their scientific formation. Initiatives at Liège, Strasbourg, Rennes, and Bordeaux illustrate the growing institutional recognition of the field. Their projects encompass coastal and rural change, suburban agriculture, regional development, tidal-energy proposals, industrial social problems, climatology, and overseas investigations, often undertaken in partnership with government, commerce, or industry. The author concludes that pure and applied geography are not rival enterprises: sound application presupposes rigorous classical geography, and both belong to a single body of knowledge. The increasing number and diversity of successful applications establish geography’s direct usefulness to society, although the creation of specialized university teaching still requires international debate. Finally, the article distinguishes geographers’ applied geography from the urban planners’ proposed “geonomy.” Applied geography concerns geographical methods and analysis within preparatory planning surveys; geonomy concerns the technical coordination of the various specialists involved. Coordination by planners should not become an unjustified transfer of functions properly belonging to geographers.