Applied Geography 128 (2021) 102412

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Geography
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/apgeog

Applied geography: A problem-solving approach

Nancy Hoalst-Pullen a, 1, *, Jay D. Gatrell b, Mark W. Patterson a
a
Kennesaw State University, USA
b
Eastern Illinois University, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Applied Geography is a journal devoted to the publication of research which utilizes geographic approaches
Applied geography (human, physical, nature-society and GIScience) to resolve human problems that have a spatial dimension. These
Problem solving problems may be related to the assessment, management and allocation of the world’s physical and/or human
Definition
resources. The underlying rationale of the journal is that only through a clear understanding of the relevant
Methods
Applied research
societal, physical, and coupled natural-humans systems can we resolve such problems.
Big questions

Applied Geography is a journal devoted to the publication of research interface to better understand policy, solve real world problems, and
which utilizes geographic approaches (human, physical, nature-society improve the material conditions of everyday life. Further, applied ge­
and GIScience) to resolve human problems that have a spatial dimen­ ography is an increasingly international sub-field, with research inves­
sion. These problems may be related to the assessment, management and tigated by geographers and non-geographers alike. In short, the
allocation of the world’s physical and/or human resources. The un­ hallmark of applied geography (as a subfield of the discipline, and as an
derlying rationale of the journal is that only through a clear under­ applied venue at large) has long been its inherent diversity of topics,
standing of the relevant societal, physical, and coupled natural-humans approaches, places, and scales of study. In a very real sense, applied
systems can we resolve such problems. 2 geography has hewed very closely to the adage that “geography is what
geographers do” (Johnston, 1980; Bird, 1973, p. 201).
Applied geographic research uses real world problems and situations
Unfortunately, we believe the character, uniqueness, and nature of
to test the validity of, and limits to, a theory within a spatial context.
applied geography may be changing. Specifically, the peer-reviewed
While geography as a discipline is often misconstrued or misrepresented
literature has become less diverse and more redacted, with “methods”
as less rigorous or too descriptive, applied geography has attempted to
becoming ever more synonymous with “applied.” While we recognize
thwart this tenet by conforming to a traditional style, structure, and
published peer reviewed research must meet high standards and reflect
trajectory of research.3 As a result, publications in this field have
the current academic discourse, applied geography’s growing over­
embraced emerging technologies and contextualized spatial concepts at
dependence on the application of existing or emerging methods now
local to global scales. Indeed, much of the recent “applied” work pub­
overshadows the opportunity and promise to solve and/or resolve
lished in this journal, Applied Geography (JAPG), has been quantitative in
complex physical, social and human-environmental conflicts that are
nature and driven by emerging methods, similar to scholarship found in
inherently spatial. This emphasis on a methods-focused spatial “science”
the flagship journals of major international professional organizations.
approach will inevitably translate into fewer voices being heard and a
Today, applied geography seeks to unlock, model, and explain
decline in the broader impacts that will benefit society.4
human systems, natural processes, and the human-environment

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: npullen@kennesaw.edu (N. Hoalst-Pullen).
1
All authors have held the role of Editor-in-Chief for the journal Applied Geography. Hoalst-Pullen is the current Editor-in-Chief (2015-present), Patterson was co-
Editor-in-Chief from 2015 to 2018, and Gatrell was Editor-in-Chief from 2008 to 2015.
2
Scope of the journal Applied Geography from the publisher’s website (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-geography).
3
As Barker (2008) notes, applied geography has a “long, if contested, history” in the discipline (p. 183). This observation reflects much of the broader debate of
scholarship in the U.S. that gave rise to Boyer’s (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered and subsequent discussions across higher education.
4
Ironically, improved citation indices for this journal (and others) does not necessarily result in positive real world change.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102412
Received 2 February 2021; Accepted 7 February 2021
Available online 5 March 2021
0143-6228/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Hoalst-Pullen et al. Applied Geography 128 (2021) 102412

1. The relevance of applied geography Table 1

Cutter et al.’s (2002, p. 307) Big Questions in Geography.
For generations, academics - particularly social scientists - have 1. What makes places and landscapes different from one another, and why is this
openly debated the relevance of their research inclusive of applied important?
research (see Council 1997; Moser, 2009; Rustow, 1971, National 2. Is there a deeply held human need to organize space by creating arbitrary borders,
boundaries, and districts?
Research). While several scholars have attempted to define applied ge­
3. How do we delineate space?
ography since the early 1900s (see Hogarth, 1921), Pacione (2011) 4. Why do people, resources, and ideas move?
defines it as “the application of geographic knowledge and skills to the 5. How has the earth been transformed by human action?
resolution of social, economic and environmental problems” (p.10). 6. What role will virtual systems play in learning about the world?
Ideally, applied geography should deploy mixed methodologies, draw 7. How do we measure the unmeasurable?
8. What role has geographical skill played in the evolution of human civilization,
on multi- and inter-disciplinary frameworks, and fuse
and what role can it play in predicting the future?
intensive-extensive approaches (see Sayer, 1984) that reside at the 9. How and why do sustainability and vulnerability change from place to place and
nexus of practice, policy, and place. This can be done via charting pat­ over time?
terns, mapping processes over time and regions, and gaining deep 10. What is the nature of spatial thinking, reasoning, and abilities?
knowledge about spaces and places. The outcomes by academics, edi­
tors, and reviewers - as found in the pages of this journal - should be a
human condition, the physical landscape, or answer Cutter, Golledge,
refinement in theory, empowering practitioners to develop and employ
and Graf’s (2002) “big questions”. Simply put, methods do not solve
critical policy and practical responses to the “wicked problems” asso­
problems—people do. Yet, as current and former editors of the journal of
ciated with coupled human and natural systems (Chisholm, 1971), as
Applied Geography, we are increasingly concerned by the assumption
well as their broader physical and socio-spatial processes.
that methods—rigorous quantitative methods—applied in new locations
Is this evident? Unfortunately, no. Much of the contemporary work
or different contexts, have become the dominant trope of the sub-field.
focuses on deploying new techniques, developing explanatory models
This tendency to see “applied geography” as “applying geographic
based on local observed change, or identifying locational determinants
methods” has resulted in a literature that is somewhat repetitive and
of change. That said, we are not implying that methods and models are
fails to focus on novelty.5 For example, over a 5-year period between
not important - they are, and will remain an integral aspect to any
2016 and 2020, this journal published scores upon scores of papers on
applied research. However, we urge our colleagues to not succumb to
“land cover change” and “land use change”. Many of these articles uti­
the epistemological tyranny of statistical significance, granting p-values,
lized cellular automata, markov chains, regression analysis, and other
algorithms, and models an importance that seems so pervasive and
now standard techniques to “assess” and “observe” change across urban,
entrenched in the literature that they have redefined what “applied”
peri-urban, and rural spaces. In each of these papers, generally, the
means. Rather, our collective and individual work needs to (re)focus on
authors observed (more or less) the same things—specifically increased
and (re)align to the underlying albeit underrepresented canon that truly
environmental degradation over time and/or the intensification of ur­
makes applied geography relevant—problem solving.
banization. And when and where researchers have simulated future
Let us repeat this—problem solving makes applied geography
changes, the trends relative to findings or results continue through 2030
relevant.
(Martellozzo, Amato, Murgante, & Clarke, 2018); 2050 (Tong, Sun,
Requiring applied geography to be(come) relevant moves the
Ranatunga, He, & Yang, 2012); and beyond (Palmate, Pandey, & Mishra,
research from being merely descriptive, didactic and/or conceptual in
2017). Simply put, descriptions of land use change in far away places are
nature to one that constantly diagnoses and informs theory as it seeks to
interesting; however, explaining the statistical drivers (or correlates) of
solve real world problems. It also provides an avenue to address and
land use change does not change the lives of individuals, and seldom
answer what Cutter et al. (2002) describe as the “big questions” of ge­
impacts or speaks directly to concrete policy changes. And, if the many
ography, many of which have been self-limiting due to the fragmented
papers in JAPG are correct, the drivers of change are fairly consistent
history and nature of geographic discipline (see Neil Smith, 1987).
across space, time, culture groups, and economic systems.
Applied geography goes beyond the “traditional” (perhaps somewhat
As this aforementioned example implies, geography - specifically
limiting) branches of geography (e.g. physical, human, geospatial,
applied geography in this case - has experienced a methodological
environmental) and their paradigms, because, as Yeager and Steiger
convergence that translates into a ever-homogenizing collection of
(2013) recognize, solving problems requires researchers to create,
research deploying similar techniques in new places around the world
confirm, and connect knowledge through mixed methodologies. Applied
with familiar results. One result of this replication-focused literature is
geography’s spatial approach can grant researchers the platform to
an echo-chamber effect that appears to prioritize methodology over
explain, for example, the morphology and evolution of physical land­
relevance and impact. This is not entirely unexpected - ever since the
scapes, as well as address the human responses of everyday behavior and
quantitative revolution, geography has increasingly relied on statistical
new public policy regimes. Indeed, applied research, if seen as a
approaches, advanced spatial research methods, and the technological
malleable and mutually informing collection of what Cox and Mair
wizardry of geo-visualization to endorse and validate the discipline’s
(1987) described as “levels of abstraction,” begins with the concrete
identity. Likewise, the proclivity of research specializations, many
everyday experience. Thus, when applied geography moves beyond the
buried within pedantic paradigms that have demoted the importance of
realm of modelling problems and upholding paradigms to (re)solving
problem solving, has resulted in applied geography literature that
problems that have real world consequences, then we can start
doesn’t solve problems, but rather recognizes and even accentuates
answering those “big questions” (Table 1).
them.
The challenge facing this journal—and arguably all peer reviewed
2. Trends and convergences in applied geography applied journals—is how to move beyond the identification of a narrow
gap in the literature to rationalize the use of a “novel” method, a “novel”
To understand the challenges facing applied geography and applied scale of study, or a “novel” space. Instead, applied geographies should
research, we believe it is useful to understand the observed trend to­
wards techniques, technology, and theory that has come to fill the pages
of this journal. Indeed, we acknowledge as editors and practitioners that
we too, prioritized or festishized space (see Soja, 1980), cool visualiza­ 5
Novelty could also refer to the concept of the gap in the literature. Yet, by
tions, dense data clouds of cellular data, and the mapping of branded focusing on the “gap”–the contribution is often reduced to different geographies
Tweets. However, these sorts of exercises do not necessarily improve the or spaces and same methods.

2
N. Hoalst-Pullen et al. Applied Geography 128 (2021) 102412

inform behavior in the real world neighborhoods, cities, and regions that statement at the end of the research paper. We see how many re­
reside beyond the campus confines of academic geography. For searchers attempt to provide an adequate “applied” context by way of a
example, Maples & Tiefenbacher’s (2009) investigation of Texas single sentence (or two) in the conclusion, which is usually something to
Flooding Deaths associated with automobiles can create new strategies the effect of “policy makers can use the results of this model to help them
for saving lives through public awareness campaigns. Similarly, Brierly make decisions”. This academic “passing of the buck”— of shifting or
et al. (2011) develop and deploy GIS tools to understand comprehensive reassigning responsibility to someone else—needs to stop. Researchers
floodplain management in place. Dottridge and Jabar (1999) explore have an obligation to provide concrete, real-world solutions based on
water resource management in Jordan. They model groundwater their model outputs. Recognizing applied research as research with an
extraction, aquifer recharge and consumption patterns and rates to inherent problem-solving approach requires researchers to construct
develop a series of recommendations for the federal government to and embrace frameworks onto which the entire manuscript should be
implement to prevent overuse of the limited resource. Finally, Rhoades, constructed. And, over time, these frameworks will contribute to the
O’Neal, & Pizzuto (2009) examine how bank erosion and sedimentation collaborative creation of scaffolding by academics, policy makers, pro­
patterns can be used to understand the migration of mercury across fessionals, and citizens that transform communities and promote posi­
space, as well as estimate mercury loads, in former industrial tive change at local to global scales.
landscapes.
These examples demonstrate how applied geography contributes to References
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Along with many more published in Applied Geography.

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