Thinking Geographically

Flashcards generated from lecture notes on Thinking Geographically, covering key concepts, regions, location, distance, spatial interactions, patterns, density, diffusion, geographic tools, map scale, projections, models, and geographic technology.

What is the geometric surface of the Earth?

Space

What is the area wherein activity occurs on a daily basis?

Activity space

What is an area of bounded space of some human importance?

Place

What is a place-name, technically?

Toponym

What is the succession of groups and cultural influences throughout a place's history?

Sequent occupancy

What is the relationship of an object or place to the Earth as a whole?

Scale

What describes the ratio of distance on a map to distance in the real world in absolute terms?

Map scale

What refers to the level of aggregation, or the level at which you group things together for examination?

Relative scale, or scale of analysis

What are the three categories of regions?

Formal, functional, and vernacular

What are areas of bounded space that possess some homogeneous characteristic or uniformity?

Formal regions

What type of regional boundaries tend to have fuzzy borders?

Culture regions

What type of regional boundaries are finite and well-defined?

Political regions

What type of regional boundaries are transitional and measurable?

Environmental region boundaries

What is the environmental transition zone between two bioregions?

Ecotone

What regions have a central place, or node, that is a focus or point of origin that expresses some practical purpose?

Functional regions or nodal regions

What is an attraction at a shorter distance that takes precedence over an attraction that is farther away?

An intervening opportunity

What regions are based upon the perception or collective mental map of the region's residents?

Vernacular regions

What defines a point or place on the map using coordinates such as latitude and longitude?

Absolute location

What is 0° longitude?

The Prime Meridian

What is 0° latitude?

The equator

What refers to the location of a place compared to a known place or geographic feature?

Relative location

What refers to the physical characteristics of a place?

Site

What refers to the place's interrelatedness with other places?

Situation

What is the distance between two places as measured in linear units such as miles or kilometers?

Linear absolute distance

What means that the farther away different places are from a place of origin, the less likely interaction will be with the original place?

Distance decay (gravity)

What law states that all places are interrelated, but closer places are more related than farther ones?

Tobler's law

What is the length of distance that becomes a factor that inhibits the interaction between two points?

Friction of distance

What is decreased time and relative distance between places?

Space-Time Compression

What are any node of human activity and are most often the centers of economic exchange?

Central Places

Who developed central place theory?

Walter Christaller

What is the core of the urban landscape?

CBD (central business district)

What is when things are grouped together on the Earth's surface?

A cluster

What is when clustering occurs purposefully around a central point or a economic growth pole?

Agglomeration

What is when there is no rhyme or reason to the distribution of a spatial phenomenon?

A random pattern

What patterns have a narrow frontage along a road or waterway with a very long lot shape behind?

Long-lot patterns

What is most often calculated as the number of things per square unit of distance?

Arithmetic density

What measures the number of people per square unit of arable land?

Physiologic density

What refers only to the number of farmers per square unit of arable land?

Agricultural density

What is the point of origin or place of innovation?

A hearth

What diffusion pattern originates in a central place and then expands outward in all directions to other locations?

Expansion diffusion

What diffusion pattern originates in a first-order location and then moves down to second-order locations and from each of these to subordinate locations at increasingly local scales?

Hierarchical diffusion

What diffusion pattern begins at a point of origin and then moves outward to nearby locations, especially those on adjoining transportation lines?

Contagious diffusion

What diffusion pattern is a general or underlying principle that diffuses and then stimulates the creation of new products or ideas?

A stimulus diffusion pattern

What diffusion pattern begins at a point of origin and then crosses a significant physical barrier, such as an ocean, a mountain range, or a desert, and then relocates on the other side?

Relocation diffusion

What maps show the contour lines of elevation, as well as the urban and vegetation surface with road, building, river, and other natural landscape features?

Topographic maps

What maps express a particular subject and does not show land forms for other features?

Thematic maps

What maps express the geographic variability of a particular theme using color variations?

Choropleth maps

What maps calculate data values between points across a variable surface?

Isoline maps

What maps use dots to express the volume and density of a particular geographic feature?

Dot density maps

What maps use lines of varying thickness to show the direction and volume of a particular geographic movement pattern?

Flow-line maps

What maps use simplified geometries to represent real-world places?

Cartograms

What is the cognitive image of landscape in the human mind?

Mental map

What type of map is one with a ratio that is a comparatively large real number, covering a small area with high detail?

Large-scale map

What type of map is one with a ratio that is a comparatively very small real number, covering a larger area with low detail?

Small-scale map

What projections attempt to maintain the relative spatial science and the areas on the map, but distort the actual shape of polygons?

Equal-area projections

What projections attempt to maintain the shape of polygons on the map, but distort the relative area from one part of the map to the other?

Conformal projections

What is an abstract generalization of real-world geographies that share a common pattern?

A model

What models attempt to show the commonalities in pattern among similar landscapes?

Spatial models

What models try to show how different cities have similar spatial relationships and economic or social structures?

Urban models

What models are non-spatial models that use population data to construct a general model of the dynamic growth in national scale populations without reference to space?

Demographic transition models

What model is a mathematical model that is used in a number of different types of spatial analysis?

A gravity model

What incorporates one or more data layers in a computer program capable of spatial analysis and mapping?

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

What utilizes a worldwide network of satellites, which emit a measurable radio signal?

The Global Positioning System (GPS)

What are images of the Earth from an aircraft?

Aerial photographs