Date of Award
Master of Arts (MA)
Geography and Geology
Dr. Harold J. Retallick
"A particular method of inspecting data is known to all scholars as the geographic method, based on charting the limits or range of phenomena, features, or traits that have a localized distribution on the earth." Geographers have long been concerned with the distribution of phenomena, whether they be species of trees, refugees, cities, land use, resources, glaciers, farms, ethnic groups, religions, or a myriad of other examples, and distributional analyses are fundamental to the discipline of geography. During the infancy of geography as a discipline, the studies of distributions were mainly descriptive, but as the subject grew and became, more sophisticated, comparison with other patterns and explanation became important. As Taaffe has noted, the geographer still describes and analyzes patterns found on maps, but behavior and process are becoming important considerations. This paper, too, is designed to study the patterns found on maps, that is, the residential patterns associated with the military personnel of Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, Process is also one of the considerations.