GeoGuessr

A geographer employed by the Farquhar company at Philadelphia at work on a four dimensional world, circa 1955. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

With the world changing at a faster rate than ever, threatened by everything from climate change to political revolutions and terrorist attacks, understanding geography is critical to our future. Harm de Blij, a geographer and former editor of National Geographic, says geography is a distressingly underrepresented field of study and in misunderstanding it, we're prone to errors of foreign policy and environmental conservation.

"The more we know about our planet and its fragile natural environments, about other peoples and cultures, political systems and economies, borders and boundaries, attitudes and aspirations, the better prepared we will be for the challenging times ahead," de Blij wrote in his book Why Geography Matters.

An article by National Geographic added that geography shows how interconnected we are with the rest of the world. Geo-literacy is essential to daily decision-making concerning everything from how and where we live to how the American military operates.

To help you brush up on your understanding of the world and how it works, we've found five of the best free geography games on the Internet.

The first game, GeoGuessr, forces you to assess your surroundings and pay close attention to detail. The game uses Google Maps street view to drop you somewhere in the world. You can scroll around the get a better view of the surroundings, and once you have a guess you loacte yourself on a smaller world map. The game includes five rounds, which each round placing you in a new location. The closer your pin is to the correct location, the more points you get.

For added fun, you can turn on a time limit or challenge friends to beat your high score. Part of what makes the game so difficult — and endlessly entertaining — is the fact that you might land in a Dutch town square only to learn that it's a Dutch theme park in Japan, says Slate.

NEXT: Another game to test your geolocation skills

Map Race

Geography isn't just about maps - it also includes the study of earth systems. Natives palms are seen at San Andreas Spring. Researchers discovered that human-created changes effecting the Salton Sea appear to be the reason why California's massive earthquake is long overdue. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Similar to the previous game, Map Race provides you with aerial views of a city somewhere around the world (you can limit it to only North American cities or choose to play with all world cities) and asks you to choose which city you're in from a list of choices. The goal is to locate the city as fast as possible, but zooming out or guessing incorrectly will add time to your score. According to Map Race, which was dreamed up by Henry Reich of the popular video series "Minute Physics," the game was in development in 2012, but didn't get the push it needed to launch online until GeoGuessr appeared.

Like GeoGuessr, Map Race is a good way to see city planning in action. To get a higher score, you'll have to learn to pay attention to city layouts and environmental details.

NEXT: Can you find Afghanistan on a map?

Traveler IQ Challenge

Geography is more than just maps. Researchers also study politics and natural earth systems, like Band-e Amir Lake in Afghanistan, pictured here on March 2, 2013. (MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images)

Traveler IQ Challenge tests your broader understanding of spatial relationships and country borders. Faced with a zoomed-out world map, you're given world cities and famous sites and asked to drop a pin in the approximate location of these places as quickly as possible. Because you need a certain number of points to advance to each new round, it's important to drop the pin with as much speed and accuracy as possible.

Hosted by TravelPod, a content management system for travel bloggers, this game might prove you to be a geography pro. Then again, you could find yourself among the 88 percent of young Americans who are unable to locate Afghanistan on a map, despite heavy media coverage of the area.

NEXT: How much do you know about the developing world?

Global Development Game

Geography is more than just maps. Researchers also study politics and development. Here, protesters display placards during a rally against a Chinese fishing vessel that ran aground the World Heritage-listed Tubbataha coral reef in Palawan island, western Philippines. (JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)

If you want to test more than just your ability to locate a country on a map, try out The Guardian's Global Development Game. In addition to identifying countries and territories on each of the continents, the game has you rank nations from wealthiest to poorest and answer questions about the United Nations and development by choosing from a series of four photos.

This quiz branches out from the previous games by testing your knowledge of current events, politicians, and economic development. It might just teach you a few things about the world we live in — like the fact that one of the top pollution problems is improper battery recycling.

NEXT: Flags, borders and capitals

Buzzfeed's Geography Quiz

Geography is more than just maps. Researchers also study agriculture and the environment. This picture taken Sept. 15, 2012, shows an aerial view of the fish farms in the countryside near Hefei, in central China's Anhui province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

From country flags to capital cities, Buzzfeed'sGeographyQuiz tests your knowledge on an assortment of geography topics. The only downside to the quiz is that you can memorize the answers to attain a perfect score, since the questions never change. But maybe memorizing answers to get a higher score is just what you need to permanently learn which countries share a border with Germany.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: 10 Wonders of the Ancient World

The three large pyramids of Menkaure (L), Khafre (C) and Khufu loom over the horizon November 13, 2004 at Giza, just outside Cairo, Egypt. The three large pyramids at Giza, built by King Khufu over a 30 year period around 2,550 B.C., are among Egypt's biggest tourist attractions. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)