PROCESS AND FORM RELATIONSHIPS: AN EXAMPLE FROM HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

Relationships between process and form are complex. Historical geographers concerned with the evolution of form may profitably investigate such relationships by analyzing both real processes and various counterfactual processes. Simulation is an appropriate method. For Southern Ontario two dissimilar settlement processes are used to generate settlement forms during the period 1782 to 1851. The resulting forms are initially different, but they converge through time and by 1851 have become similar. Different processes can generate similar forms although form evolution is not similar.