Vernacular geography

[1][2] Current research by the Ordnance Survey is attempting to understand the landmarks, streets, open spaces, water bodies, landforms, fields, woods, and many other topological features.

[3] Examples of vernacular regions in the United States include Tidewater, also known as Hampton Roads, Siouxland, and the Tri-City area of Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles, Illinois.

The British Ordnance Survey is sponsoring research at the Universities of Cardiff and Sheffield,[4][5] the aim of which is to study the use of vernacular geography, and to investigate how information mined from the Web can be used to generate an approximate spatial boundary for an imprecise region.

In pursuit of delineating vernacular regions, trigger phrases are used by the researchers to capture regular linguistic patterns, which identify relationships between geographic locations.

Cardiff University launched a web questionnaire[7] together with mapping tools to capture people's perception of Vernacular Geography in Great Britain.