areal differentiation

How areas of the earth's surface differ; a study of the way human and physical phenomena vary over the earth's surface, which is aimed at interpreting the variations in the character of the settled world. As such it may be seen as chorography, or traditional regional geography, but as systematic geography developed from the mid-1960s onwards, using the quantitative approach, many geographers abandoned regional geography.

In the 1980s, areal differentiation was again seen as a central theme in geography. The major topics in this field emphasized by humanistic geographers include the social construction of space, the sense of place, and the iconography of landscape, while other geographers, notably Marxist geographers, are concerned with those spatial variations in the quality of life and in economic activity which are referred to as uneven development. Another approach—that of contextual geography—considers the interaction of place and human agency in producing geographical sameness and difference.

Systematic themes have by no means been abandoned, but it is generally recognized that every process will be modified according to the unique nature of each separate environment.