AP Human Geography Review

absolute location

absolute location

The exact position of an object or place, measured within the spatial coordinates of a grid system.

cartography

science or art of making maps

circular pattern

Objects that circle another object, another name for it is Centralized Pattern; For example, in an Islamic city, houses and public buildings may circle around the mosque, or house of worship.

cultural landscapes

The products of complex interactions between humans and their environments.

daylight savings time

the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less

distortion

a change in the shape, size, or position of a place when it is shown on a map

environmental geography

The intersection between human and physical geography, which explores the spatial impacts humans have on the physical environment and vice versa.

equator

an imaginary line drawn around the earth equally distant from both poles, dividing the earth into northern and southern hemispheres and constituting the parallel of latitude 0°.

Eratosthenes

The head librarian at Alexandria during the third century B.C.; he was one of the first cartographers. Performed a remarkably accurate computation of the earth's circumference. He is also credited with coining the term "geography."

formal regions

Also called uniform regions, an area that has striking similarities in terms of one or a few physical or cultural features.

functional (nodal) regions

areas organized around cores, or nodes

GIS

Geographic Information System; a computer system that captures, stores, analyzes, and displays data.

globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

Greenwich Mean Time

The time in that time zone ecompassing the Prime Meridian, or 0 degrees longitude

GPS

Global Positioning System; uses a system of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers to determine precise absolute locations on earth.

grid pattern

Also called a rectilinear pattern, reflects a rectangular system of land survey adopted in much of the country under the Ordinance of 1785. Streets form grids and are sometimes labeled "1st", "2nd", "3rd" streets and so on.

Hecataeus

Lived in the late 6th and early 5th centuries B.E.C., a Greek scientist, he wrote a book about geography and illustrated a map of the countries and inhabitants of the known world.

human geography

a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the built environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earth's surface

Idrisi

An 11th century Arab geographer that worked for the king of Sicily to collect geographical information into a remarkably accurate representation of the world. Under his direction, an academy of geographers gathered maps and went out on their own scientific expeditions.

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher and geographer in the 1700s that defined geography as the study of interrelated spatial patterns.

landscapes

The overall appearance of an area that is shaped by both human and natural influences

latitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.

linear pattern

when the pattern in along straight lines, like rivers, streets, or railroad tracks.

local time

The standard time in the region that a person lives in

location

The position of anything on Earth's surface.

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 (0°).

George Perkins Marsh

An inventor, diplomat, politician, and scholar, his classic work, "Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action," provided the first description of the extent to which natural systems had been impacted by human actions.

Mercator projection

a map projection of the earth onto a cylinder

meridian

an arc drawn between North and South poles that measures longitude

multi-national corporations

An example of economic globalization in which the business has centers of operation in many parts of the globe.

parallel

A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.

pattern

the arrangement of objects on earth's surface in relation to other objects

perceptual (vernacular) regions

places that people believe to exist as a part of their cultural identity

periphery

the outer boundary of a region; Countries that usually have low levels of economic productivity, low per capita incomes, and generally low standards of living. The world economic periphery includes Africa (except for South Africa), parts of South America, and Asia.

Peters Projection

An equal-area projection purposely centered on Africa in an attempt to treat all regions of Earth equally.

place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular character.

physical geography

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

physical site characteristic

A location that includes climate, topography, soil, water sources, vegetation, and elevation.

prime meridian

The meridian, designated at 0° longitude, which passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

Ptolemy

a Greek scholar who lived five hundred years later than Eratosthenes, recalculated the circumference of the earth to be much smaller - by about 9000 miles. He was wrong, but his mistake was taken as truth for hundreds of years. Despite his famous miscalculations, his Guide to Geography included many rough maps of landmasses and bodies of water, and he developed a global grid system that was a forerunner to our modern system of latitude and longitude.

random pattern

a pattern that exists if no regular distribution can be seen

regionalization

the organization of earth's surface into distinct areas that are viewed as different from other areas

Robinson projection

Projection that attempts to balance several possible projection errors. It does not maintain completely accurate area, shape, distance, or direction, but it minimizes errors in each.

Carl Sauer

early 20th century geographer from California, shaped the field of Human Geography by arguing that cultural landscapes (products of interactions between humans and their environments) should be the main focus of geographic study. His study is basic to environmental geography, a field that centers on the interaction of human and physical geography.

scale

The ratio between the size of an area on a map and the actual size of that same area on the earth's surface.

site

the physical and human-transformed characteristics of a place

situation

characteristic that refers to relative location

solar time

based on the position of the sun in the sky as the day progresses

space

the physical gap or distance between two objects

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

spatial organization

organization according to location, position, or direction

spatial perspective

observing variations in geographic phenomena across space

time zone

24, 15 degree sections that each represent a different hour of the day

topography

A description of surface features of land.

toponym

Place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams.

U.S. Census Bureau

a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for producing data about the American people and economy.

"why of where"

Critical to geographers, the explanations for why a spatial pattern occurs

activity space

The space within which daily activity occurs.

agricultural revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

AIDS

Immune system disease caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which over a period of years weakens the capacity of the immune system to fight off infection so that weight loss and weakness set in and other afflictions such as cancer or pneumonia may hasten an infected person's demise

arable land

land suitable for growing crops

arithmetic growth

population growth where population increases by the same amount over each time interval

arithmetic population density

The population of a country or region expressed as an average per unit area. The figure is derived by dividing the population of the areal unit by the number of square kilometers or miles that make up the unit

awareness space

Locations or places about which an individual has knowledge even without visiting all of them, includes activity space and additional areas newly encountered or about which one acquires information.

carrying capacity

Largest number of individuals of a population that a environment can support

chain migration

migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there

circulation

Short-term, repetitive, or cyclical movements that recur on a regular basis.

critical distance

the distance beyond which cost, effort, and means strongly influence our willingness to travel

crude birth rate

The number of live births per year per 1,000 people.

crude death rate

The number of deaths per year per 1,000 people.

demographic equation

The formula that calculates population change. The formula finds the increase (or decrease) in a population. The formula is found by doing births minus deaths plus (or minus) net migration. This is important because it helps to determine which stage in the demographic transition model a country is in.

demographic momentum

this is the tendency for growing population to continue growing after a fertility decline because of their young age distribution. This is important because once this happens a country moves to a different stage in the demographic transition model.

demographic transition theory

Multistage model, based on Western Europe's experience, of changes in population growth exhibited by countries undergoing industrialization. High birth rates and death rates are followed by plunging death rates, producing a huge net population gain; this is followed by the convergence of birth rates and death rates at a low overall level

demography

Scientific study of human populations.

population density

A measurement of the number of persons per unit land area.

dislocation

people forced from their home due to ethnic strife, war, or natural disasters

distance decay

the effects of distance on interaction, generally the greater the distance the less interaction

dot maps

Maps where one dot represents a certain number of a phenomenon, such as a population

doubling rate

The length of time needed to double the population

emigration

Migration from a location (Exit migration)

endemic

Native or confined to a particular region or people

epidemiologic transition

The shift from high death rates to low death rates in a population as a result of modern medical and sanitary developments. Also called the "mortality revolution"

ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

exponential growth

Growth whose rate becomes ever more rapid in proportion to the growing total number or size. Also called population growth at a "geometric rate"

female infantcide

The preference to have a son is so extreme that it reduces the survival rate of baby girls

forced migration

Human migration flows in which the movers have no choice but to relocate.

gravity model

A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

immigration

Movement of individuals into a population (In migration)

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.

infant mortality rate

The percentage of children who die before their first birthday within a particular area or country.

in-migration

the total number of immigrants who arrive in a country in a given time period

internal migration

Permanent Movement within a particular country.

inter-regional migration

Permanent movement from one region of a country to another

intervening obstacles

Any forces or factors that may limit human migration.

intervening opportunity

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

intra-regional migration

Permanent movement within one region of a country.

life expectancy

A figure indicating how long, on average, a person may be expected to live

linear growth

Expansion that increases by the same amount during each time interval.

Thomas Malthus

Eighteenth-century English intellectual who warned that population growth threatened future generations because, in his view, population growth would always outstrip increases in agricultural production.

migration

Form of relocation diffusion involving permanent move to a new location.