Geography consists of at least two different sub-fields of knowledge with similar methodology: Physical geography and human geography. The following table also helps to make the differences between these two types of geography more apparent. This table describes some of the phenomena or elements studied by each of these sub-fields of knowledge. Knowing what kinds of things are studied by geographers provides us with a better understanding of the differences between physical and human geography.

     地理学由自然地理学和人文地理学两个知识领域组成,二者采用的研究方法相似。表1可以帮助大家更清楚地了解这两种地理学之间的区别。此表描述了自然地理学和人文地理学两个领域的一些现象或者研究要素。明白地理学家所要研究的对象，会让我们更好地了解自然地理学和人文地理学两者之间的差异。

Table 1: Some of the phenomena studied in physical and human geography.

表1：自然地理学和人文地理学研究的一些现象

Geography is also a discipline that integrates a wide variety of subject matter. Almost any area of human knowledge can be examined from a spatial perspective. Figure 1describes some of the main subdisciplines within human and physical geography. Physical geography's primary subdisplines study the Earth's atmosphere (meteorology and climatology), animal and plant life (biogeography), physical landscape (geomorphology), soils (pedology), and waters (hydrology). Some of the dominant areas of study in human geography include: human society and culture (social and cultural geography), behavior (behavioral geography), economics (economic geography), politics (political geography), and urban systems (urban geography).

地理学是一门融合了一系列广泛主题的学科。人类的所有知识领域几乎都可以从空间层面加以剖析。图1描述了自然地理学和人文地理学的一些主要分支学科。自然地理学的主要分支学科分别研究地球的大气（气象学和气候学）、土壤（土壤学）、水体（水文学）。人文地理学的一些主要领域包括：人类社会和文化（社会文化地理学）、行为（行为地理学）、经济学（经济地理学）、政治（政治地理学）以及城市系统（城市地理学）。 

 The graphic model in Figure 1 indicates that the study of geography can also involve a holistic synthesis. Holistic synthesis connects knowledge from a variety of academic fields in both human and physical geography. For example, the study of the enhancement of the Earth's greenhouse effect and the resulting global warming requires a multidisciplinary approach for complete understanding. The fields of climatology and meteorology are required to understand the physical effects of adding addition greenhouse gases to the atmosphere's radiation balance. The field of economic geography provides information on how various forms of human economic activity contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel burning and land-use change. Combining the knowledge of both of these academic areas gives us a more comprehensive understanding of why this serious environmental problem occurs.

图1表明，地理学研究还涉及整体的合成，即将人文地理学和自然地理学中各学术领域的知识相互串联起来。例如，研究地球温室效应的增强和温室效应所导致的全球变暖时，需要通过多学科的方法进行全面的了解。通过气候学和气象学，我们了解到温室气体的额外增加对大气辐照平衡的物理效应；经济地理学提供了各种形式的人类经济活动在燃烧化石燃料和土地利用变化方面对温室气体排放的贡献信息。将这些学术领域的知识相结合，我们能够更全面地了解为什么会出现这样严重的环境问题。

The holistic nature of geography is both a strength and a weakness. Geography's strength comes from its ability to connect functional interrelationships that are not normally noticed in narrowly defined fields of knowledge. The most obvious weakness associated with the geographical approach is related to the fact that holistic understanding is often too simple and misses important details of cause and effect.

地理学的这种整体性既是其优势，也是其劣势。其优势是能够将在某一狭窄的知识领域中难以被发现的功能之间的相互关系串联起来，而采用地理学方法最为明显的劣势是这种整体的了解往往太过简单，常常会遗漏原因与结果之间的重要细节。