HUMAN GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN BIG DATA ERA

The advancement of information and communication technologies(ICTs) influences human activity and thus the spatial organization at urban and regional scale, with of flows instead of of place becoming the major space platform for people's daily activity. The exploration of huge amount of information promotes the advent of big data era and the innovation of human geography which focused on the relationship between human activity and geographic space in terms of both theory and methodology. Based on a systematical literature review, this paper summarizes three new changes in human geography researches:①in research field, more attention will be paid on the integration of physical science and social science; ②in research methodology, innovation of data-extensive inquiries will be more effectively employed; ③ in research question, human activity will be more focused. Then an overall framework of human geography and its main sub disciplines including urban geography, social geography, economic geography, transport geography, tourism geography, political geography, culture geography and military geography in the big data era is put forward, enriching and supplementing the traditional human geography theory and methodology. Meanwhile, this paper recognizes the significance of big data in human geography research to analyze and solve urban problems, promoting the sustainable development of urban and rural areas. Thereafter, the possible application practice in the future in urban planning methodology and technology, decision-making optimization of individual activity behavior, operating decisions of enterprises, and government macro policy and management are elaborated, which will be quite important for human geography to better serve the current transformation of socioeconomic development in China and optimizes urban spatial structure.