We explain what an economic region is, its characteristics, function and examples from around the world. Also, other types of regions.
What is an economic region?
When we speak of an economic region, we refer to an area of the land surface in which, for the most part, some specific type of productive activity is carried out.
It may also be an area of particular wealth and exploitation of certain natural resources inside of the territory of a country, or encompassing the territory of several nations whose economies they have achieved a significant level of rapport.
It is a kind of geographic region that focuses on economics to organize its limits, which can be of enormous interest for the study of human performance in an area of the world, which is key in turn for issues of investment economic, diplomatic treaties, etc.
In the world there are numerous economic regions of global importance, almost all constituted by a commercial treaty or by other ties of cooperation economical. On the other hand, all the countries of the world can be subdivided, internally, into their constituent economic regions, if we pay attention to the way in which productive activity is organized spatially.
Examples of economic regions
Some known economic regions are:
- The Orinoco mining arch. Located in southeastern Venezuela, where an important portion of the exploitation mining and oil in that country, at the hands of large transnational companies.
- The "cotton belt" or belt of American cotton. Located in the southeast of this country, it receives its name from the abundant planting of this fabric (cotton) that was carried out between the 18th and 20th centuries.
- The humid pampas South American. Of around 600,000 km2 of total area, covering the territories of Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and part of central Argentina (provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba and La Pampa), it is one of the best areas in the world for sowing, especially cereals.
- The Ruhr region of Germany. Also called "Ruhr mining basin", it is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the country, with 5 million inhabitants, in the heart of the state of Westphalia (North Rhine), and agglomerates eleven cities in a mostly productive area industrial.
Other types of regions
Urban regions include a large city and the populations that surround it.
Apart from the economic, geographical regions can be organized according to various criteria, depending on the specific element in which we decide to focus. We have, like this:
- Natural regions. When we choose to look at the natural conformation of the terrain: relief, hydrography, vegetation, weather, etc.
- Political regions. If we look at the way in which societies Humanities are organized ethnically, culturally, or ideologically.
- Cultural regions. If we look exclusively at the similarity of local cultures (generally using the religion or the language spoken) and the territories occupied by its practitioners.
- Urban regions. Those that generally comprise a large urban population (a large city) and those of lesser preponderance that accompany it or depend on it.