APHG Unit 1 - Introduction to Geography

Human Geography

One of the two major divisions of Geography; the spatial analysis of human population, its cultures, activities, and landscapes.

Physical Geography

One of the two major divisions of systematic geography; the spatial analysis of the structure, processes, and location of Earth's natural phenomena such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and topography.

Spatial Distribution

Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.

Location

The geographical situation of people and things.

Human-Environment Interaction

The reciprocal relationship between humans and environment.

Region

An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features.

Place

The uniqueness of a location.

Movement

The mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet.

Spatial Interaction

The degree of flow of people, ideas, and goods among places.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape. The layers of buildings, forms, and artifacts sequentially imprinted on the landscape by the activities of various human occupants.

Sequent Occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Networks

Defined by Manuel Castells as a set of interconnected nodes without a center.

Cartography

The science and art of making maps.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features.

Relative Location

The regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places.

Absolute Location

The position or place of a certain item on the surface of the Earth as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and longitude.

Mental Maps

Image or picture of the way space is organized as determined by an individual's perception, impression, and knowledge of that space.

Remote Sensing

A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments that are physically distant from the area or object of study.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A collection of computer hardware and software that permits spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, manipulated, analyzed, and displayed to the user.

Scale

Representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization.

Formal Region

A type of region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region or homogeneous region.

Functional Region

A region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it.

Perceptual Region (Vernacular)

A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity. For example, in the United States, "the South" and "the Mid-Atlantic region" are perceptual regions.

Cultural Hearth

Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture.

Time-Distance Decay

The declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source.

Hierarchical Diffusion

A form of diffusion in which an idea or innovation spreads by passing first among the most connected places or peoples.

Contagious Diffusion

The distance-controlled spreading of an idea, innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person.

Stimulus Diffusion

A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.

Relocation Diffusion

Sequential diffusion process in which the items being diffused are transmitted by their carrier agents as they evacuate the old areas and relocate the new ones.

Possiblism (Environmental Possiblism)

Geographic viewpoint - a response to determinism - that holds that human decision making, not the environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development.

Environmental Determinism

The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development. Also referred to as Environmentalism.

Human Development Index (HDI)

An indicator of the level of development for each country, constructed by the United Nations, that is based on income, literacy, education, and life expectancy.

More Developed Country (MDC)

Also known as a relatively developed country or a developed country, country that has progressed further along the development continuum.

Less Developed Country (LDC)

Also known as a developing country, a country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic development.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total output of all economic activity in the nation, including goods and services.

Primary Sector

The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth's surface, generally through agriculture, although sometimes by mining, fishing, and forestry.

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

An indicator constructed by the U.N. to measure the gender gap in the level of achievement in terms of income, education, and life expectancy.

Gender Inequality Index (GII)

An indicator constructed by the U.N. to measure the extent of each country's gender inequality in terms of reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market.