Studied by 8 people
Cartogram
A special kind of map that distorts the shapes and sizes of countries or other political regions to present economic or other kinds of data for comparison.
Cartography
The science of mapmaking
Census Bureau
The group of government geographers that investigate the populations throughout the United States.
Choropleth Map
A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.
Contagious Diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
Culture
Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.
Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of human-environment relationships
Density
The measurement of how many objects are in a given area
Diffusion
The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time
Distance Decay
The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Distribution
The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.
Environmental Determinism
A nineteenth- and early twentieth-century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.
Expansion Diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.
Formal Region
An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.
Friction of Distance
A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between two places.
Functional Region (Nodal Region)
An area organized around a node or focal point
Geographic Information System (GIS)
A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Globalization
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.
Hearth
The region from which innovative ideas originate
Hierarchical Diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places
Idiographic
Pertaining to the unique facts or characteristics of a particular place
Intervening Opportunity
An environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that helps migration.
Isoline Map
A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.
Less Developed Country
A country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic development
Latitude
The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.
Land Ordinance of 1785
A law that divided much of the United States into a system of townships to facilitate the sale of land to settlers.
Longitude
The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian
Mental Map
A representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in a place and where places are located.
Mercator Projection
A true conformal cylindrical map projection, the Mercator projection is particularly useful for navigation because it maintains accurate direction. Mercator projections are famous for their distortion in area that makes land masses at the poles appear oversized.
More Developed Country
A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development.
Natural Resources
Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain/ accessible to living organisms
Nomothetic
A feature that is universally applicable across many regions
Pattern
The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area.
Possibilism
The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives.
Qualitative Data
Data associated with a more humanistic approach to geography, describes the data using characteristics, approximations, descriptions, and is based on opinion.
Quantitative Data
Data associated with mathematical models and statistical techniques used to analyze spatial location and association.
Relocation Diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.
Remote Sensing
The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods.
Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion
Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a small town to large cities
Rural vs. Urban
Rural areas are small in size, have low density, and have socially homogeneous populations. Urban areas are large in size, have high density, and have socially heterogeneous populations.
Scale
The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole, specifically the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.
Site
The physical character of a place
Situation
The location of a place relative to other places
Space-time Compression
The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communications and transportation systems
Stimulus Diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.
Sustainability
The use of Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future.
Toponym
The name given to a portion of Earth's surface.
Vernacular/Perceptual Region
An area that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity.
Boundary
An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory
Cultural Landscape
Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group.
Ecology
The study of how living things interact with each other and their environment
Ecosystem
A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment
Infrastructure
Fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools
Natural Hazard
Any natural process that is a potential threat to human life and property
Nonrenewable Resource
Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans
Renewable Resource
Something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans
Polar Projection
Map projection centered on Earth's north or south pole
Region
An area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of cultural and physical features
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