APHuG Unit 1

Map

A 2D visual representation of a geographic area that displays features such as landforms, bodies of water, and human-made structures.

Cartography

The science of making maps.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system that stores geographic data and allows for the analysis and visualization of spatial relationships and patterns.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A satellite-based system used to determine precise location.

Exact Location

The location in relation to the latitude and longitude.

Latitude

Measures the distance north or south.

Longitude

Measures the distance east or west.

Flow

The movement of goods, people, ideas, or money from one place to another.

Distance Decay

The interaction of two places decreases as the distance increases.

Projection

The method cartographers use to make the Earth into a map.

Distortion

The change of shapes when making the Earth into a map.

Relative Location

The location in relation to physical features, landmarks, or human characteristics.

Space

The distance between two things.

Geographic Data

Information that is tied with a specific location.

Spatial Pattern

The study of how human activities, behaviors, and phenomena are distributed across Earth’s surface and why they are located where they are.

Dispersal

Scattered or spread far apart

Density

The number of things that occurs in an area.

Concentration

Describes how far or close things are in a space.

Clustering

Closely packed things in an area.

Functional Region

A region organized around an important point

Vernacular Region

An area that isn’t formed by physical borders.

Formal Region

An area that is formed by a measurable characteristic

Topographic Map

A physical or reference map that shows the elevation.

Time-Space Compression

The process by which improvements in transportation reduce the time to get to a place, although the space is the same.

Cartogram

A thematic map that distorts the geographic area to make them proportional to its statistical value.

Choropleth

A thematic map that’s area is colored according to a statistical value

Isoline Map

A thematic map that uses lines to connect points of the same value.

Map Scale

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on the Earth’s surface.

Small Scale Map

A map that shows a large geographic area with less detail.

Large Scale Map

A map that shows a small geographic area in high detail

Site

The physical characteristic of a place.

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surroundings or/and environment.

Environmental Determinism

A 19th - early 20th century approach to geography that states that the physical environment and climate dictates how a human society functions.

Culture

The shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors that a society passes from generation to generation.

Environmental Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment may set limitations on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust and adapt to the environment.

“Why of Where”

The reason why spatial patterns and things are located where they are.

Choke Point

A narrow, strategic, corridor that limits trade giving the state economical and political power/leverage.

Human-Environment Interaction

How people depend on, adapt to, and modify the natural world, and how the physical environment influences human society.

Sustainability

The use of Earth’s resources in a way that meets current needs without compromising the future generation’s needs.

Globalization

The expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes around the world increasingly interconnected and interdependent.

Census

The official count of a nation’s entire population.