Modern geography (since 1960s) is the latest stage of geography development to adapt to the scientific and technological society or the information society, and it is still in the pioneering period. Social and economic requirements are the main driving force for the development of modern science. After the Second World War, many tasks have been put forward in economic construction and planning in eastern and western countries. Geography did some work in land use and watershed development before the war, but it is still difficult to adapt to the new urban, regional and environmental planning. At the same time, since the 1950s, comprehensive scientific methodologies such as system theory, cybernetics and information theory have risen rapidly, and electronic computers have been widely used, which has brought many disciplines including geography into a modern stage. The development process of modern geography includes: the quantitative movement in the 1960s, the behavioral research in the 1970s, and the comprehensive trend in the 1980s. In a word, it can be called the theorization and quantification of geography.

In the early 1950s, F.K. Schaefer, a German economic geographer living in the United States, criticized the regional school and formed the prelude to the quantitative movement. After that, there appeared three schools of theorization and quantification of geography in the West: ① Washington Group, a postgraduate course organized by W.L. Garrison and assisted by E.L. ullman, a famous American economic geographer. This is the biggest influence of many quantitative geographic centers in the United States. Starting with the promotion of statistical methods such as the theory of central location and traffic network, famous artists such as Bang Qi (W.W.) and Berry (B.J.L.) have been trained. (2) Cambridge School, represented by R.J. Jolly, P.hagt and D.W. Harvey, was formed in Cambridge University. This school rose after the Washington Group and is famous for its profound theoretical attainments. (3) Lund School, headed by T. Herstrand, rose in Lund University, Sweden. This school began to discuss spatial diffusion in the 1940 s and began to work on spatio-temporal geography after the 1960 s, which was fruitful. Therefore, Hargreaves is recognized as the most famous theoretical and quantitative geographer, and is also a master of modern regionalism.

Behavioral research in geography was influenced by behavioral science in 1960s, and it was very popular in 1970s. It is a subjective factor that people estimate the formation and evolution of geographical things outside the objective conditions such as nature, technology, economy and society, that is, the perception (induction) of various people (such as decision makers, laborers and consumers). ) on the earth's surface phenomenon and the corresponding behavior, so that decision-making and prediction are more in line with reality. Therefore, the correct behavior research should be to explore the objective laws of people's subjective factors, such as the "behavior matrix" proposed by American geographer a·r·Pred.

In 1980s, due to the increasingly serious problems of population, resources, environment and development in the world, relevant science participated in the research of the above problems under the call of relevant United Nations organizations. Geologists from all over the world have extensively participated in the work of three major plans (urban planning, regional planning and environmental planning) and played a leading role in some aspects. In this way, a comprehensive study of cities, regions and environment has emerged from practice, which has made great progress in theory, mode and decision-making, brought into play the inherent comprehensive characteristics of geography, and sprouted a series of new branches: ① Theoretical geography, including people and environment, location theory and regional research, is the basic theory of geography and has a guiding role for other branches; (2) Metageography is the philosophy of science and the science of geography, and it is the connecting link between philosophy and geography; (3) Applied geography, a practice-oriented branch of geography application, began to form as early as the later period of modern geography, which has three directions in the modern geography stage: planning, survey and design, and cultural education; (4) new methods and new technical disciplines, including geographic quantitative methods, geographic information systems, indoor simulation experiments and geographic positioning research (see color map). They are all restricted by theoretical geography and scientific methodology, providing methods and techniques for applied geography.