All AP HUG Vocab

Vocabulary flashcards related to Geography lecture notes.

Reference maps

Maps designed for people to refer to for general information about places. The two main types are political and physical.

Thematic Maps

Maps used as a communications tool to show how human activities are distributed.

Cartogram

A type of thematic map where the size of areas is distorted to represent statistical data.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.

Dot Density Map

A thematic map that uses dots to represent the frequency of a variable in a given area.

Isoline Map

A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.

Proportional Symbol Map

A thematic map where the size of the symbol varies in proportion to the magnitude of the attribute being shown.

Clustering

A spatial pattern where features are grouped or bunched together.

Dispersal

A spatial pattern where features appear to be distributed over a wide area.

Elevation

The height of a geographic location above or below a reference point, such as sea level.

Mercator Map Projection

Map projection where shape and directions of countries are fairly accurate, but greatly distorted toward the poles.

Robinson Map Projection

Map projection where everything is distorted in small amounts.

Goode Homolosine Projection

Map projection where continent sizes are accurately portrayed, but directions and distances aren’t accurate.

Gall-Peters Projection

Map projection where shape of countries, especially near the equator, is distorted.

Geospatial Data

All information that can be tied to a specific location.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface.

Geographic Positioning System (GPS)

A system that uses data from satellites to pinpoint a location on Earth.

Remote Sensing

The process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites or airplanes to understand Earth's geography.

Absolute Location

The precise spot where something is located.

Relative Location

Where something is in relation to other things.

Place

The specific human and physical characteristics of a location.

Distance Decay

The effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions.

Time-Space Compression

The increasing sense of connectivity that seems to be bringing people closer together even though their distances are the same.

Pattern

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in an area.

Sustainability

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Environmental Determinism

How the physical environment caused (determined) social development.

Possibilism

The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.

Scale of Analysis

How zoomed in or out you are when looking at geographic data (Global, Regional, National, State, and Local).

Formal Region

A region based on quantitative data that can be documented or measured.

Functional Region

A region based around a node or focal point.

Vernacular Region

An area that shares a common qualitative characteristic; it's only a region because people believe it's a region.

Ecumene

A term used by geographers to mean where people are settled on the Earth.

Arithmetic Density

The total number of objects in an area.

Physiological Density

The number of people supported by a unit area of arable land.

Agricultural Density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain.

Overpopulation

When there are not enough resources in an area to support a population.

Age/Sex Ratio

Comparison of the numbers of males and females of different ages.

Population Pyramid

A graph of the population of an area by age and sex.

Demography

The study of population.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of live births per one thousand people in the population.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths per one thousand people in the population.

Doubling Time

The time period it takes for a population to double in size.

Fertility

The number of live births occurring in a population.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The number of children who don't survive their first year of life per 1000 live births in a country.

Mortality

The number of deaths occurring in a population.

Rate of Natural Increase (RNI)

(birth rate - death rate)/10 - a positive NIR means a population is growing and a negative NIR means a population is shrinking.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman is predicted to have in her childbearing (fecund) years.

Malthusian Theory

While population increases geometrically, food supply increases arithmetically (population will increase more quickly than food supply).

Neo-Malthusian Theory

Earth's resources can only support a finite population; pressure on scarce natural resources leads to famine and war.

Antinatalist Policies

When a country provides incentives for people to have fewer children (sometimes including punishments).

Pronatalist Policies

When a country provides incentives for people to have more children.

Contraception

Methods of preventing pregnancy.

Dependency Ratio

The ratio of the number of people not in the workforce (dependents) and those who are in the workforce (producers).

Life Expectancy

The average number of years a person born in a country might expect to live.

Push Factors

Forces that drive people away from a place (e.g., no jobs, slavery, political instability, no water).

Pull Factors

Forces that draw people to immigrate to a place (e.g., jobs, to be near family).

Intervening Opportunity

The presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away.

Intervening Obstacle

A force or factor that may limit human migration.

Asylum Seeker

A person seeking residence in a country outside of their own because they are fleeing persecution.

Chain Migration

A series of migrations within a group that begins with one person who, through contact with the group, pulls people to migrate to the same area.

Step Migration

Migration to a faraway place that takes place in stages.

Forced Migration

When people migrate not because they want to but because they have no other choice.

Guest Worker

A legal immigrant who is allowed into the country to work, usually for a relatively short time period.

Internally Displaced Person

A person forced to flee their home who remains in their home country.

Refugee

A person who flees their home country and is not able to return.

Transhumance

Moving herds of animals to the highlands in the summer and into the lowlands in the winter.

Voluntary Migration

People choosing to migrate (not being forced).

Brain Drain

When the majority of educated or skilled workers leave an area to pursue better opportunities elsewhere.

Culture

Body of materials, customary beliefs, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group or people.

Material Culture

The material manifestation of culture, including tools, housing, systems of land use, clothing, etc.

Nonmaterial Culture

Beliefs, traditions, celebration, thoughts, values, and ideas of a group (religion, morals, attitudes, etc.).

Cultural Relativism

The culture should be judged based on its own standards, not based on another culture.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on the rules of your culture.

Cultural Landscapes

The forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of humans.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Neighborhood, district, or suburb which retains some cultural distinction from a larger surrounding area.

Sense of Place

A strong feeling of identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants and visitors of a location.

Language

A set of mutually intelligible sounds and symbols that are used for communication.

Religion

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

Ethnicity

The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.

Relocation Diffusion

Diffusion where the ideas being diffused are transmitted by their carriers as they migrate to new areas.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of an idea through a population so that the number of those influenced becomes continuously larger.

Contagious Diffusion

Transmission of a phenomenon through close contact with nearby places, like diseases.

Hierarchical Diffusion

An idea spreads by passing first among the most connected individuals, then spreading to other individuals.

Stimulus Diffusion

A form of diffusion that creates a cultural adaptation as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used by people who have different native languages.

Assimilation

The process of a person or group losing the cultural traits that made them distinct from the people around them

Acculturation

Adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another

Multiculturalism

When various ethnic groups coexist with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities

Globalization

World interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology

Colonialism

an effort by one country to establish settlement in a territory and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on that territory

Imperialism

The policy of extending a country’s influence through political or military force to areas already developed by an indigenous people.

Language family

A collection of languages that are all descended from an original, proto-language

Ethnic religion

A religion that is focused on a single ethnic group (often in a centralized area) that doesn't attempt to appeal to all people

Universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people and has a worldwide focus as opposed to a regional focus

State

political unit with a permanent population and boundaries that are recognized by other states that allows for the administration of laws, collection of taxes, and provision of defense.

Nation

people who think of themselves as one based on a shared sense of culture and history and who desire political autonomy.

Nation-state

a state with a single nation

Stateless nation

a nation who do not have their own independent state

Multinational state

a state with two or more nations