GEOG 6 - Resources and Energy

Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Department of Global Studies and Geography
Hofstra University
Hempstead, New York 11549 USA
Jean-paul.Rodrigue@hofstra.edu
Phone: (516) 463-5765. Fax: (516) 463-6519.

Outline

GEOG 6 introduces in a broadly conceived manner the geography of resources. Resources include a wide range of purposes such as natural resources, human resources, capital, as well as energy. In spite of substantial developments in the service and information industries, we still much live in a “physical world”. Resources are fundamental to many activities and much value is attached to their procurement, transformation and use. Most resources are used to produce an outcome of economic value, such as providing food, energy and materials for manufacturing and construction. They thus have an economic and strategic importance which is subject to geopolitical contentions. Additionally, resources are not uniformly distributed and geography is an essential aspect for their procurement and availability on markets.

The main objectives of the course are:

• Students will be familiarized with economic processes linked with the procurement, transformation and distribution of resources, and their impacts on economic, cultural and social activities.
• Students will learn how resources are regulated and under the jurisdiction of a variety of geographical units and how these relations shape the economic and social space.
• Students will gain a level of understanding about environmental systems linked with resources, such as climate and biogeography.
• Students will be exposed to the nature of physical systems linked with resources such as geomorphologic processes.
• Students will be able to read and interpret resource information on different types of maps.

PowerPoint Slides

• Topic 1 - What are Resources?
• Topic 2 - Economic Role of Resources and Energy
• Topic 3 - Agriculture and Food
• Topic 4 - Fossil Fuels
• Topic 5 - Hydroelectricity and Nuclear Energy
• Topic 6 - Alternative Sources of Energy

Dr. Rodrigue's research interests mainly cover the fields of transportation and economics as they relate to logistics and global freight distribution. Area interests involve North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East and Southeast Asia. Specific topics over which he has published extensively cover maritime transport systems and logistics, global supply chains and production networks, gateways and transport corridors. Current projects involve:

• The Governance of Intermodal Transportation Assets
• The Transport Geography of Logistics
• Gateways, Corridors and Inland Freight Distribution
• Globalization and Transport Terminals