The Relations Between Man and the Natural Environment as the Methodological Basis for Delimitation of Regions

The concept of regional geography as a science examining the relations between man and the natural environment is presented. Spatial coexistence of natural and socio-economic phenomena is a premise to search for causative relations. Their theoretic fundaments are described by the principle of factors limiting human activity, diversification as the general characteristic of the natural environment having impact on man and his activity, the principle of indirect chain links, changeability of relations in time and their interactions. Among others, correlation and regression analysis, the class differences method and tests of independence are used in research on the concordance of spatial coexistence of characteristics of the natural environment and socio-economic characteristics. The issue of the relations between man and the environment, examined on different scales, is associated with issues of the geographic region. A region may be perceived as an area characterized by a similarity of relations between the natural environment and human activity.