John F. McCoy – Geo-Data. The World Geographical Encyclopedia

Автор: John F. McCoy
Название книги: Geo-Data. The World Geographical Encyclopedia
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Геология и Геодезия
Страницы: 717
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

Gale is pleased to present the third edition of Geo-Data:
The World Geographical Encyclopedia. This is the first
new edition of Geo-Data since 1989, and it represents a
complete revision and updating of that work. The purpose
of the book remains unchanged: to provide the
reader with the most detailed and comprehensive
descriptions available for the physical geography of countries.
Geo-Data’s focus and design is unique. Many encyclopedias,
atlases, and other books provide some information
on geography, but it is usually secondary to history,
current events, or other topics. In these sorts of references
physical geography receives a few paragraphs of
coverage per country at best, compared to pages in Geo-
Data. Among the few books that can rival Geo-Data coverage,
none can match its ease of use. There is no need to
hunt from one end of a dictionary or gazetteer to another,
searching for details on a country's many different features.
In Geo-Data everything is presented in one place.
Each of Geo-Data’s entries gives the reader a complete
portrait of a country's mountains, fields, forests, deserts,
rivers, seas, wetlands, and other features, with additional
information on population distribution and natural
resources. Key facts and statistics are highlighted at the
beginning of each entry. In addition to the country
entries, Geo-Data features a World Rankings Appendix,
listing the world's tallest mountains, longest rivers, deepest
oceans, largest lakes, most populous countries, and
other outstanding features.
Selection Criteria
Geo-Data features 207 entries, each describing a single
country or dependency. Every entry includes a relief map
depicting the country or dependency. There is a separate
entry for each of the world’s 192 countries, including the
new nation of East Timor. In addition, the autonomous
island of Taiwan and the continent of Antarctica have their
own entries, as do 13 dependencies: Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda,
the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands,
French Guiana, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Martinique,
Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos
Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Smaller, less populated,
and more remote dependencies, such as the Cook
Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and Svalbard, are discussed in the
entries of their parent states.
Although all countries and dependencies are
described in detail, entries can vary greatly in length.
This is often due to the obvious reason that some countries
are much larger than others. However, countries
with particularly complicated geography, such as Nepal,
may have longer entries than much larger countries with
fewer outstanding features, such as Libya. Countries with
a large number of dependencies, such as France or the
United Kingdom, also have longer entries than comparably
sized countries.
Names and Measurements
Geography is an imprecise science. Knowledgeable
experts, most of whom have lived, worked, or studied
extensively in the countries about which they wrote, prepared
the entries for this new edition of Geo-Data. Gale
editors have relied on authoritative sources such as Merriam
Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed., The
World Factbook 2001 of the CIA, The Columbia Gazetteer
of the World, and the statistics and geographic divisions
of the United Nations and various countries to check our
facts. However, the reader should be aware that it is difficult
if not impossible to measure exactly such large and
irregular features as mountains, lakes, and rivers. Even
authoritative sources often vary slightly in their information.
Population information can be even more difficult
to determine accurately, as many countries do not measure this scientifically and on a regular basis. While basic
population statistics are present in every entry, detailed
tables and other breakdowns are present only in those
entries for which accurate and reasonably current information
was available.
It is common for a single geographical feature or
country to be called by many different names, depending
on the source and context. In Geo-Data we have
attempted to use the names that will be most familiar to
the majority of our readers. These are most commonly
English-language names, but widely used names in other
languages and names which have no English equivalent
also appear frequently. In addition, the reader will often
find alternative names for the same feature given in
parentheses after it is first mentioned in the text.
In the case of country and dependency names, the editors
have again opted for using the most easily recognized
versions of their names. Thus the reader will find Brazil
under B, not under F for Federative Republic of Brazil or R
for República Federative do Brasil. Full, formal, names are
used with the two Congos and the two Koreas, but these
countries still appear under C and K, respectively.
When discussing geography it is impossible to avoid
controversy. There are many regions around the world
whose ownership is disputed, sometimes violently.
Although Gale does not support or seek to legitimize the
views of any of the parties of these disputes, for the sake
of completeness it was necessary to include these disputed
regions in one entry or another. The editors have
chosen to discuss disputed regions within the entries of
the countries that physically control them, while at the
same time carefully noting in those entries that the
region is claimed by other countries and its status is not
determined. Thus the West Bank can be found under
Israel, Jammu and Kashmir within the entries on India
and Pakistan, and Taiwan in its own separate entry.
How Each Profile is Organized
Geo-Data’s 207 entries are organized alphabetically.
All entries follow the same basic structure, beginning
with a collection of Key Facts. The purpose of the Key
Facts is to gather together in one easy to find place the
basic information about each country that readers most
often need. These facts always include a country’s: area
(total and ranked relative to other entries), location relative
to the rest of the world, coordinates, border length
(overall and with individual countries), coastline length,
territorial seas, highest point, lowest point, population
(total and ranked relative to other entries), largest city,
and capital city. When available and applicable, the longest
distances across the country, its longest river, and its
largest lake are also provided.
Following the Key Facts are eight rubrics. First, the
overall geography and geology of the country is described
in the Overview. Next, Mountains and Hills describes the
major elevations of the country. Inland Waterways then
describes the country’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands. The
Coast, Islands, and the Ocean gives information on the
bodies of water that border on the country, the country's
coasts, and its major islands. Climate and Vegetation
describes the country’s temperature and rainfall patterns,
as well as its forests, grasslands, deserts, and other ground
cover. Human Population outlines the major concentrations
of people in the country. Then Natural Resources
identifies the most important resources found within the
country. Finally, the Further Readings rubric gives an
interested reader suggestions on where to find more
information.
All eight rubrics appear in every entry, in the order
given above, making it easy to navigate within entries and
to compare information across countries. Entries are
written as a narrative, so the reader looking for the complete
picture on a country should find the entire entry an
enjoyable read. Rubrics are clearly denoted in the text,
however, so a reader looking for specific information can
find it easily. Throughout the text, major features are
identified by name, and their height, length, or other
dimensions are provided whenever possible, both in
imperial and metric units. Sidebars highlight particularly
unusual and interesting facts.
Geo-Data’s entries are greatly enhanced by their
maps. Every entry in the book includes a relief map.
These maps were created specifically for their entries and
give the user an extremely detailed view of the geography
they are reading about. Since they were created especially
for Geo-Data, the reader can be assured that all but the
smallest of features mentioned in the text also appear on
the map. In addition to the maps, most entries feature
one or two tables. These tables list the country's largest
cities and their populations and the country's provinces,
their capitals, area, and populations.
Additional Features
Readers looking for comparative information on the
world’s most remarkable features will find the World
Rankings Appendix useful. The 19 tables in this section
include lists of the world’s tallest mountains by continent
and country; the world’s longest borders; the world’s
largest bays and gulfs; the world’s tallest volcanoes; the
world’s deepest oceans; and much more. Geo-Data’s
exhaustive subject index can help the reader find more
information in the text on these and other features. A
glossary is also provided, for those readers who are
unfamiliar with some of the terms used throughout the
book.