Addis Ababa University

College of Social Sciences

Department of Geography and Environmental
Studies

Geography of Ethiopia and the Horn

GeES 1011
By: Goitom Abraha (PhD)
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Geography: Definition, Scope and Themes
• This chapter deals with the meaning, scope, themes,
and approaches of Geography. In addition, it discusses
the location, shape, and size of Ethiopia and the Horn. It
also introduces the tenets of basic map reading skills.
• Hence, this introductory part of the text paves the way
for an understanding of the geographic issues presented
in the succeeding chapters.
Objectives
• Comprehend the meaning and scope of Geography.
• Explain the themes of Geography.
• Explicate the implications of location, shape and size on the
physical environment, socioeconomic and political aspects.
• Acquire basic skills of map reading.
 Meaning of Geography

• It is difficult to forward a definition acceptable to all

geographers at all times and places.
• Many definitions because of the dynamic nature of the
discipline and the changes in its scope and method of study.
• The word ‘geography’ originates from two Greek words. The
first is ‘geo’ which means ‘the earth’ and the second Greek
word is “graphy” which means ‘to write’ .
• The simple definition of Geography is description of the earth’s
surface.
• A working definition could be:
• Geography is the scientific study of the Earth that describes
and analyses spatial and temporal variations of physical,
biological and human phenomena, and their interrelationships
and dynamism over the surface of the Earth.
 Meaning of Geography…Cont’d
• The Spatial Perspective: Geographers can study anything that has
a significant spatial component. Geographers concentrate on the
"where" and by doing this they may be able to gain a better
understanding of what is being studied.
• It seeks to answer the questions of why things are happened in
some place as they are, and where they are.
• Spatially, geography means knowing where places are and what
they are like.
• Discussion of an area's geography usually refers to its topography
—its relief and drainage patterns and predominant vegetation,
along with climate and weather patterns—together with human
responses to that environment, as in agricultural, industrial, and
other land uses and in settlement and urbanization patterns.
 Meaning of Geography…..Cont’d
• The Temporal Perspective: When Geographers study a topic
they focus on the WHEN.
• The history of geography is the history of thinking about the
concepts of environments, places, and spaces.
• Its content covers an understanding of the physical reality we
occupy and our transformations of environments into places
that we find more comfortable to inhabit (although many
such modifications often have negative long-term impacts).
• Geography provides insights into major contemporary issues,
such as globalization and environmental change, as well as a
detailed appreciation of local differences; changes in
disciplinary interests and practices reflect those issues.
 Meaning of Geography…..Cont’d
• Geography is much more than cartography, the study of
maps.
• Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth
and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is
affected by these, including the distribution of populations
and resources and political and economic activities.
• By, its nature , Geography is concerned with almost
everything on the face of the Earth , that any
phenomena(physical or human) that is irregularly distributed
over the earth surface can be studied by the Geographic
method .
 Branches of Geography
• Geography is divided into two main areas: physical
geography and human geography.
• Physical geography: Physical geography is the branch of
natural science which deals with the processes and patterns
in the natural environment such as the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere, as opposed to the
cultural or built environment, the domain of human
geography.
• This branch focuses on Geography as an Earth science,
making use of biology to understand global flora and fauna
patterns, and mathematics and physics to understand the
motion of the Earth and relationship with other bodies in the
solar system.
 Branches of Geography …..Cont’d
• Physical geography looks at the natural processes that make
the surface of the earth the way it is. Physical geography
includes the following major sub disciplines :
• Geomorphology, Meteorology, Biogeography and
Climatology and others.
• Geomorphology: is the study of landforms and landform
processes.
• Meteorology: is the study of atmospheric weather processes.
• Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and
ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time.
• Climatology :is the study of climate, which is basically the
long term pattern of temperature
 Branches of Geography…..Cont’d
• Human geography: The human, or social, branch of geography
– also called anthropogeography focuses on the social science,
non-physical aspects of the way the world is arranged.
• It examines how humans adapt themselves to the land and to
other people, and in macroscopic transformations they enact
on the world.
• Human geography looks at the human activities that make the
surface of the earth the way it is.
• Human geography includes numerous sub disciplines, some of
which are:
• Population geography, cultural geography, economic
geography, political geography , urban geography and many
others.
 Branches of Geography…..Cont’d
• Population geography: Population geography addresses the spatial
distribution, characteristics, and spatial variation of the population.
• Cultural geography: studies collection of behaviors and traditions of
a group of people.
• Economic geography, Economic Geography is the study of the
spatial variation of human economic activities – production,
consumption, and exchange, with emphasis on resource
endowments, international trade and commerce, population
growth, settlements, development, interaction and
interdependencies, and regional supply and demand.
• Political geography: Political geography looks at the citizen–state
relations and social transformation by paying increasing attention to
the dynamics and geographical difference of social movements and
their intimate relationships with formal institutions. Examples
include: how boundaries between countries, states or counties are
made.
 Branches of Geography…..Cont’d
• Urban geography: Urban geography is a branch of human
geography concerned with various aspects of cities. An urban
geographer's main role is to emphasize location and space and
study the spatial processes that create patterns observed in
urban areas.
• Therefore, Human geography or anthropogeography is the
branch of geography that is associated and deals with humans
and their relationships with communities, cultures, economies,
and interactions with the environment by studying their
relations with and across locations.
• Generally, Geography encompasses both natural science and
social science as it examines people and their environment and
serves as a bridge between the physical and cultural worlds.
 Geographic Techniques
• Geographic Techniques is specializing in quality maps for analyzing,
managing, and communicating the diversity past and current
information.
• The world is fortunate that geographers through the ages have
developed a set of spatial tools to help us understand how the world
works. These tools are often referred to as the geographic
techniques and they include the sub disciplines of:
• Cartography: the art and science of making maps and the oldest of
the geographic techniques.
• Remote Sensing: the art and science of obtaining information about
the earth by study from satellites.
• Geographic Information Systems: a GIS is a computer-based system
that collects, stores, analyzes, and displays spatial information to
solve problems.
 The Scope of Geography
• Geography is the study of places and the relationships between
people and their environments. Geographers explore both the
physical properties of Earth's surface and the human societies
spread across it.
• Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why
they are there, and how they develop and change over time.
• Geography is the study of the natural world and how humans
have changed it. It examines the physical Earth and life on it,
looking at the world’s diverse cultures, economies, and the
environmental problems they produce.
• The scope of Geography is the surface of the Earth, which is the
very thin zone that is the interface of the atmosphere,
lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, which provides the
habitable zone in which humans are able to live.
•
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• 1. Atmosphere
• We live at the bottom of an invisible ocean called
the atmosphere, a layer of gases surrounding our
planet.
• Nitrogen and oxygen account for 99 percent of the
gases in dry air, with argon, carbon dioxide, helium,
neon, and other gases making up minute portions.
• Water vapor and dust are also part of Earth’s
atmosphere.
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• Earth’s atmosphere has a layered structure. From the
ground toward the sky, the layers are the troposphere,
stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and
exosphere.
• The boundaries between atmospheric layers are not
clearly defined, and change depending on latitude and
season.
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• Troposphere: This is the lowest part of the atmosphere - the
part we live in. It contains most of our weather - clouds, rain,
snow. On average, the troposphere extends from the ground
to about 10 kilometer.
• Almost all weather develops in the troposphere because it
contains almost all of the atmosphere’s water vapor.
• Stratosphere: The stratosphere extends from the tropopause,
the upper boundary of the troposphere, to about 50
kilometers (32 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
• The stratosphere is crucial to life on Earth because it contains
small amounts of ozone, a form of oxygen that prevents
harmful UV rays from reaching Earth.
• The region within the stratosphere where this thin shell of
ozone is found is called the ozone layer.
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• Mesosphere: The mesosphere extends from the stratopause (the
upper boundary of the stratosphere) to about 85 kilometers (53
miles) above the surface of the Earth.
• The mesosphere is the coldest atmospheric layer surrounding the
earth.
• The mesosphere is the least-understood part of Earth’s
atmosphere. It is too high for aircraft or weather balloons to
operate, but too low for spacecraft.
• Sounding rockets have provided meteorologists and astronomers
their only significant data on this important part of the
atmosphere. Sounding rockets are unmanned research
instruments that collect data during sub-orbital flights.
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• Thermosphere: thermosphere lies above the mesopause, and is
a region in which temperatures again increase with height. This
temperature increase is caused by the absorption of energetic
ultraviolet and X-Ray radiation from the sun.
• The thermosphere extends from the mesopause (the upper
boundary of the mesosphere) to 690 kilometers (429 miles)
above the surface of the Earth.
• Exosphere: The region above about 500 km is called the
exosphere.
• The exosphere expands and contracts as it comes into contact
with solar storms. In solar storms particles are flung through
space from explosive events on the sun.
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
• Lithosphere: the lithosphere is the rocky outer part of the
Earth. It is made up of the crust and the top part of the upper
mantle. The lithosphere is the coolest and most rigid part of
the Earth.
• It extends to a depth of about 60 miles (100 km).
• The Earth has two types of lithosphere: oceanic and
continental.
• The continental lithosphere is also called the continental
crust.
• It is the layer of igneous, sedimentary rock that forms the
continents and the continental shelves.
• Continental crust is typically 40 km (25 miles) thick.
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d

• Oceanic crust is much thinner, averaging about 6 km (4 miles) in

thickness.
• Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of mafic(rich in magnesium
and iron) crust and is denser than continental lithosphere.
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
 The Scope of Geography….Cont’d

• Hydrosphere: A hydrosphere is the total amount of water on a

planet. The hydrosphere includes water that is on the surface of
the planet, underground, and in the air.
• About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and
the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth's water.
• A planet's hydrosphere can be liquid, vapor, or ice. On Earth,
liquid water exists on the surface in the form of oceans, lakes
and rivers.
• All of the oceans, lakes, seas and clouds are an example of the
hydrosphere. All of the Earth's water, including surface water
(water in oceans, lakes, and rivers), groundwater (water in soil
and beneath the Earth's surface), snowcover, ice, and water in
the atmosphere, including water vapor.
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
The Scope of Geography….Cont’d
 Approaches of Geography
• There are two basic approaches to the study of world
geography. These are Topical & Regional Approaches.
 Topical/systematic/thematic) fields of Geography view
particular categories of physical or human phenomena as
distributed over the Earth.
 Systematic geography, studies one issue and looks at its
spatial variations in all parts of the globe. College courses in
systematic geography include: physical geography, economic
geography, cultural geography, political geography.
 Regional geography is concerned with the associations within
regions of all or some of the elements and their
interrelationships. The regional approach studies the many
characteristics of each region of the world. Example Ethiopian
geography, African geography, European geography…etc.
Approaches of Geography…..Cont’d
 Basic themes of Geography
The five basic themes of geography are: location, place, human-
environment interaction, movement and region.
1. Location(Where is it located?)
 Most studies of geography begin with the mention of this theme
 It answers the question where?
 Two ways of expressing location of a place:
 Absolute location by using latitude and longitude
 Relative location using neighbours, water bodies or landmass
 Latitude and longitude are a system of lines used to describe
the location of any place on Earth.
 Lines of latitude run in an east-west direction across Earth.
 Lines of longitude run in a north-south direction. Although
these are only imaginary lines, they appear on maps and
globes as if they actually existed
Basic themes of Geography ….Cont’d
 Basic themes of Geography ….Cont’d
2. Place(What's it like there?)
• Place refers to the physical and human aspects of a
location. (name and description of the features of
the place, situation).
• Each place is unique in terms of landforms,
hydrology, biogeography, pedology, population,
cultures…..
• The concept of “place” aids geographers to compare
and contrast two places on Earth.
 Basic themes of Geography ….Cont’d
3. Human-Environment Interaction(What is the relationship
between humans and their environment)
• Ceaseless human-environment interactions
• Profound effect on the environment than any other as humans.
• Human-environment interaction involves:
 Dependency of humans on nature for a living.
 Adaptation -how humans modify themselves, their lifestyles and
their behavior to live in a new environment with new challenges.
 Modification altering/conquering the environment for their
comfortable living.
4. Movement(How and why are places connected with one
another?)
• Movement entails translocation of human beings, goods, and
their ideas from one end of the planet to another.
 Basic themes of Geography ….Cont’d
5. Region(How and why is one area similar to another?)
• Regions may be defined as “sub-national geographical
units that are smaller than national territorial space
which posses common characteristics that differentiate
them from other areas within the nation”.
A) Formal / uniform regions- these are fact-based regions because
they can be proven to exist by obtaining data about them. They
have formal boundaries, e.g.
– Climatic regions with known temperatures and rainfall pattern,
– Language/culture-based regions that can be mapped.
B) Functional / nodal regions- these are use-based. There is a
functional centre and an area that is linked with the center.
Consider utilities conveyance systems such water supply system,
electricity supply system, free delivery areas (service areas)
 Location, Shape and Size of Ethiopia and the Horn
• The Horn of Africa, a region of eastern Africa, is a narrow tip
that protrudes into the northern Indian Ocean, separating it
from the Gulf of Aden.
• It is the easternmost extension of African land composed of the
countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, whose
cultures have been linked throughout their long history.
• In terms of size, Ethiopia is the largest of all the Horn of African
countries, while Djibouti is the smallest.
• The Horn contains such diverse areas as the highlands of
the Ethiopian Plateau, the Ogaden desert, and the Eritrean and
Somali coasts.
• Its coasts are washed by the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and
the Indian Ocean.
• It has long been in contact with the Arabian Peninsula and
southwestern Asia.
Location, Shape and Size of Ethiopia and the Horn…Cont’d
 Location of Ethiopia
• Two ways of expressing the location of a country or a place:
astronomical and relative locations .
 Astronomical/ absolute or mathematical location: location of
places using the lines of latitudes and longitudes.
 Ethiopia is located between 3oN (Moyale) and 15oN (Bademe - the
northernmost tip of Tigray) latitudes and 33oE (Akobo) to 48oE
(the tip of Ogaden in the east) longitudes.
 As a result of its astronomical location Ethiopia experiences
tropical climate; and due to its longitudinal extension there is a
difference of one hour between the eastern and western points of
the country (3 hours-time zone is used only for convenience).
 Location of Ethiopia…..Cont’d
• Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the time measured on the Earth's
zero degree line of longitude, or meridian. This runs from the North
Pole to the South Pole, passing through the Old Royal Observatory
in the London suburb of Greenwich.
24 hours= 360 Degrees
1 hour =?
1hour x 360 Degrees = 15 degrees. Therefore, 1 hour=15 degrees
24 hours
• If 1 hour is 15 degrees, we add one more hour for each fifteen
degrees towards east direction and subtract one hour for each
fifteen degrees towards west direction.
• After GMT i.e 0 degree if it is 15 degree it is(GMT+1); 30
degree(GMT+2); 45 (GMT+3)…….etc
• Therefore Ethiopia is located is between 33oE to 48oE which is
Location of Ethiopia…..Cont’d
 Location of Ethiopia…..Cont’d
 Relative(Vicinal) location expresses the location of
countries/places with reference to the location of other countries
(vicinal), landmasses or water bodies.
 Relative location of Ethiopia refers to its location with
neighboring countries, the land masses or water bodies.
 The relative location of Ethiopia can be expressed in terms of the
neighboring countries and it is located :
• South of Eritrea
• West of Djibouti
• Northwest of Somalia
• North of Kenya
• East of Sudan and South Sudan.
 Location of Ethiopia…..Cont’d
• The relative location of Ethiopia
Vicinal location In relation to water bodies & land
masses
Sudan to the west and In the Horn of Africa
northwest
South Sudan to Southwest of the Arabian Peninsula
southwest
Djibouti to the east South of Europe
Somalia to the east and Northwest of the Indian Ocean
southeast
Eritrea to the north and In the Nile Basin
northeast
Location of Ethiopia…..Cont’d
 Implications of the location of Ethiopia
Climate: The fact that Ethiopia is located between 3 Degree N and
15 Degree N (between the Equator and Tropic of Cancer)
implies that the country has a tropical climate, though modified
by its altitude.
 The location of Ethiopia relative to the Indian Ocean, and the
African and Asian landmass has also various bearings on the
climate of Ethiopia.
Implications of the location of Ethiopia….Cont’d
 Socio-cultural: Ethiopia is one of the earliest
recipients of the major world religions namely
Christianity, Islam and Judaism due to its proximity
to the Middle East.
 The linguistic and other cultural relationships, which
Ethiopia shares with its neighbours, reflect the
influence of location.
 Implications of the location of Ethiopia….Cont’d

• Political: The political history of Ethiopia has been

considerably influenced by:
• Geopolitical considerations of superpowers.
• Adjacency to the Red Sea (a major global trade
route).
• The Middle East geopolitical paradigms.
• As a result, Ethiopia has been exposed for external
invasions in a number of times; though the country
resisted foreign intervention and remains free of
external domination.
 1.2.2. Size of Ethiopia
• Ethiopia, about 1,106,000 km2 is the 8th largest
country in Africa and 25th in the World.
• Extends about 1,639 kilometers East-West, and 1,577
kilometers North-South.
• About 0.7% of the country is covered by water bodies.
• Implications of the size of Ethiopia:
diverse climate,
varied resources,
ample arable land,
large population and diversified cultures
 Size of Ethiopia….Cont’d
• Advantages and disadvantages of Ethiopia’s large size

Advantages Disadvantages
Possess diverse agro ecological zones Demands greater capital to construct
infrastructural facilities

Variety of natural resources Requires large army to protect its

territory
Own extensive arable land Difficult for effective administration

Have larger population size Difficult for socio-economic integration

Home for diverse cultures
Greater depth in defense external
invasion
 The shape of Ethiopia and its Implications
• Types of shapes of countries:
• Compact : The distance from the geographic centre of the state to
any of the borders does not vary greatly. It is easier for defence,
socioeconomic and cultural integration.
 An example of a compact state would be Ethiopia, Kenya,
Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi
 Fragmented : They are divided from their other parts by either
water, land or other countries. Philippines and Indonesia, are
examples of fragmented states
 Elongated : long and relatively narrow like Chile.
 Perforated : A country that completely surrounds another country
like the Republic of South Africa because it surrounds Lesotho.
 Prorupt: Countries that have one portion that is much more
elongated than the rest of the country like Myanmar and Eritrea.
The shape of Ethiopia and its Implications….Cont’d
 The shape of Ethiopia and its Implications…Cont’d
• There are various ways of measuring shape of countries. These
measures are known as the indices of compactness.
• These indices measure the deviation of the shape of a country from a
circular shape, which is the most compact shape.
• Since there is no country with absolutely circular shape, those
approximating a circular shape are said to be more compact.
• There are four most commonly used measures of compactness.
These are:
• 1. Area-Boundary ratio. The higher the A/B ratio, the greater the
degree of compactness.
• 2. Boundary-Circumference ratio. It measures how far the boundary
of a country approximates the circumference of a circle of its own
size. Therefore, the nearer the ratio to 1 the more compact the
country is.
 The shape of Ethiopia and its Implications…Cont’d
• 3. Area-Circumference ratio. It compares the area of the
country with the circumference of a circle that passes touching
the extreme points on the boundary of the country.
• The higher the A/C ratio, the greater the degree of
compactness.
• 4. The ratio of the actual area of a country to the smallest
possible inscribing circle: Area-Area (A/A‟) ratio. The area of
the inscribing circle is the area of the smallest possible circle
whose circumference passes through the extreme points on the
boundary.
• Half-length of the longest distance between two extreme points
gives radius of the inscribing circle. The nearer the ratio to 1, the
more compact the country is.
 The shape of Ethiopia and its Implications…Cont’d
• Ethiopia's shape compared to its neighbors in the Horn

Country Area(km2) Bounda A/B B/C A/C ratio

ry (km) ratio ratio

Ethiopia 1,106,000 5,260 210.27 1.41 296.61

Djibouti 22,000 820 26.83 1.56 41.83

Eritrea 117,400 2,420 48.51 1.99 96.83

Somalia 637,657 5,100 125.03 1.80 225.22

 Basic Skills of Map Reading
• What is a Map?
• A map is a two-dimensional scaled representation of part or whole
of the Earth surface on a flat body such as piece of paper, black
board, wood or cloth.
• Map reading encompasses a systematic identification of natural
features and manmade features.
• Natural features include mountains, plateaus, hills, valleys, river,
ocean, rocks, plain etc.
• On the other hand, manmade features include roads, railway,
buildings, dam etc.
• Maps have a special significance for Geographers as primary tools
for displaying and analyzing spatial distributions, patterns and
relations.
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• Importance of maps
• Provide the basis for making geographical details of regions
represented i.e. the geographical facts of an area such as relief,
drainage, settlement etc.
• Maps are powerful tools for making spatial analysis of
geographical facts of areas represented.
• Maps are useful for giving location of geographical features by
varied methods of grid reference, place naming etc.
• Maps are used on various disciplines like land use planning,
military science, aviation, tourism, marine science, population
studies, epidemiology, geology, economics, history, archaeology,
agriculture etc.
• Maps are potentially used to storage of the geographical data and
to asses‟ reliable measurements of the geographical features. The
measurements can be of area size, distance etc.
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• Types of Map :There are many types of maps according to their
purpose and functions. For the purpose of this course,
topographical and statistical maps are considered.
• a. Topographical maps: Topographic maps depict one or more
natural and cultural features of an area. They could be small,
medium or large scale depending on the size of the area
represented. Contents of topographical maps depend on
purpose of a map, scale of a map, date of compilation, and
nature of the land represented.
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• b. Special purpose/statistical maps: These are maps, which
show distribution of different aspects such as temperature,
rainfall, settlement, vegetation etc.
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• Marginal Information on Maps (Elements of Maps) :Marginal information is
shown on a map to enable the reading and interpretation of the geographical
information of an area represented. This includes:
• a. Title: It is the heading of the given map which tells what the map is all about.
• b. Key (legend): It is the list of all convenional symbols and signs shown on the
map with their interpretation.
• c. Scale: It is the ratio between the distance on the map and the actual ground
distance. Scales enable the map user to interpret the ground measurement like
road distance, areal sizes, gradient etc. It can be expressed as representative
fraction, statements/verbal scale, and linear (graphic) scale.
• d. North arrow: It is indicated with the north direction on a map; used to know
the other important directions of the mapped area like east, west, south, and
west.
• e. Margin: Is the frame of the map. It is important for showing the end of the
mapped area.
• f. Date of compilation: It is a date of map publication. This enables map users
to realize whether the map is updated or outdated.
Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• Basic Principles of Map Reading
• In developing map reading abilities and skills, certain basic
principles must be applied by the map-reader to translate map
symbols into landscape images.
• Map Readers must have ideas about the symbol and also the real
World (landscapes). Every map symbol must be visualized by the
reader to read a map.
• The first symbols introduced should be those, which refer to
landscape features of which the reader already has some images.
• Secondly, knowledge of directions is an important principle in
reading maps.
• One of the basic functions of maps is to help us to orient ourselves
and to locate places on the earth.
 Basic Skills of Map Reading ….Cont’d
• Unless a reader knows the basic directions, he or she may not use a
map effectively.
• Before locating features using a map, north (the north arrow) should
be determined and the readers should have practice in finding this
direction.
• Next they should learn to read direction on a specific map and the
location of the features shown on the map in relation to one another.
• Maps are covered in a series of lines that make up a grid.
• The lines have numbers accompanying them that allow you to
accurately pinpoint your location on a map.
• Once you have located where you are, the grid system makes it
simple to give an accurate description of your location. This
description, which will be a series of numbers, is known as a grid
reference.
Thank You !