World geography unit 1 vocab

Physical geography

the natural world, weather climate, physical features, waterway, etc.

Human geography

studies the distribution of humans and their activities on the surface of the earth and the processes that generate these distributions (Ex: culture, settlement, politics, agriculture, cites)

Toblers 1st law of geography

“Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”

Scale analysis

this is the level of representation, expirience, and organization of the geographical events + process

Absolute location

exact location on the earth using latitude and longitude (ex: a grid system or an address)

Relative location

the location of a place by comparing it to another location (cardinal direction, distance, time and landmarks)

physical

natural characteristics (ex: climate, vegetation, wildlife and topography)

human

Man-made characteristics ( ex:agriculture, architecture, reliving and economics )

Region

grouping of places that have something in common and can be given a name based on a similar features ( climate, geographic, political, economic, cultural and physical region )

Formal / uniform

An area defined by a limited number of related characteristics (ex: city, state and country)

Functional

areas created by movement around a central hub or node, must have movement (ex:subway system in New York)

Perceptual

How people perceive a region. It exists in someone’s mind meaning the boundaries and characteristics are different depending on the individuals perception. (Ex: south and Midwest)

Depend

to get essential resources, humans DEPEND on the environment/nature for survival (ex: water, and soil for agriculture)

Adapt

humans can change / adapt to various environmental conditions for survival and to meet their needs (ex: clothing like shorts during summer and jackets during winter)

Modify

any change in the physical environment by humans (ex:building a bridge)

movement

how people and places are linked by the flow of communication and the movement of people, goods and ideas (goods, energy, disease, ideas and people)

Migration

the act of owing from one place, country or location to another

Refugees

People are fleeing armed conflicts or persecution

Migrants

choose to move to improve their lives

Map scale

distance on a map relative to the distance on earth

Small scale map

Show large areas in less detail

Large scale map

Shows small areas in greater detail

Physical map

highlight naturally occurring features

Political map

highlight human-made features

Thematic map

show one theme

Choropleth map

uses shading to show different levels of data

Dot / Pin dot map

• each dot represents a number of occurrences

• the closer the dots are together, the higher the occurrence

Isoline map

connects points of equal value to make lines on a map ( ex:topographic / contour map )

Cartogram

show size using data other than area

Map projection

a way to make a flat representation of the earth

Distortions

Every map MUST have distortions that result from making a 2D representation of a 3D sphere

Gall-peters projection

Robinson projection

Mercator / cylindrical projection

Globe

THREE dimensional representation of the earth

Maps

TWO dimensional representations of selected parts of the earth surface

Remote sensing

gathering information on the earths surface from distance by using airplanes but mainly satellites

Geographic information system

• the GIS is a database geographers use to create maps with “data layers”

• These maps allow geographers to look at phenomena and data spatially

Satellite navigation systems

utilization of multicultural GPS points to guide navigation or track movements

Global Positioning System (GPS)

satellite based system for the determining the absolute location of places or geographic features