Ap Human Geography Unit 1

Physical Geography

Physical Geography

the study of natural characteristics and the distributions of its features across the Earth.

Human Geography

the study of the events and processes that have shaped how humans understand and alter the Earth

Spatial Perspective

Refers to where something occurs.

Ecological Perspective

Refers to the relationships between living things and their environment.

absolute location

Exact location of a place on the earth described by global coordinates

relative location

The position of a place in relation to another place

place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by physical and human characteristics

site

A place's absolute location along with its physical appearance.

situation

the location of a place relative to other places

Distribution

The way something is spread out or arranged over an area

Distance Decay

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

scale

the area of the world being studied

region

an area on Earth with distinct characteristics that make it different from other areas

formal region

An area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics

Functional Region

an area organized by its use, interest or activity

Node

the focal point of a functional region

suburb

residential areas around a city

perceptual region (vernacular region)

a region that reflects peoples emotions around a place, like how people perceive it

Cartographic Scale

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and its actual size

Three types of cartographic scale

ratio, graphic, and verbal

Large scale

Smaller amount of area with more detail

small scale

larger amount of area with less detail

Geographic Scale

Amount of territory on a map

4 types of Geographic Scale

Global, Regional, National, and Local

Scale of Analysis/ Scale of the Data

Refers to if the data is shown at the country, state/territory, county, etc. level

5 steps of geographic inquiry

Ask, Collect, Visualize, Create, Act

Geographic Information

any data with a location tied to it

Quantitative

Data that is in numbers

Qualitative

Data in the form of recorded descriptions rather than numerical measurements.

Census

the official count of a population in a defined area

Topography

Shape and features of land

Geovisualization

the creation and use of visual representations for geographic analysis utilizing maps, graphs, and multimedia.

Remote Sensing

To get data without any kind of physical contact. This is often seen using drones.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A set of 31 satellites in the US orbiting Earth that transmit location data to handheld receivers.

space

The physical gap between two things

Density

The number of things in an area

pattern

the way that something is arranged in a particular area

flow

the way that people, goods, and information move and the ways that that effects political, social, economic and cultural aspects

time-space compression

the way that modern processes are causing the relative distance between places to shrink

Enviornmental Determinism

A theory from the 18th, 19th, and 20th century that said that the way that humans act is mostly controlled by the environment.

Possibillism

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

Sustainability

A way of using the resources and land on the Earth so it can be continued for a long time

Cartographer

a geographer who makes maps

Thematic Maps

maps that focus on relationships between geographic data that also have a purpose and a theme

cartogram map (thematic)

A map that shows information by making it proportional to the variable

choropleth map (thematic)

A map that uses differences in color and tone to show quantitative data

Dot Density Map (thematic)

A map where dots are used to show different locations and events

graduated symbol map (thematic)

A map where data is displayed using a variation in symbol sizes

Isoline Map (thematic)

A map where data points are connected when they have equal value

map projection

a way of representing the 3D Earth on a 2D surface

Mercator Projection

A map projection that shows true direction and accurate shape, but the size of the continents gets very distorted as it moves towards the poles.

Gall-Peters Projection

A projection that shows true direction and relative size, but the shapes of the continents are distorted and stretched out

Robinson Projection

A projection that has curved longitude lines, and straight latitude lines. Shapes of the continents become distorted towards the poles, and directions are off but none of the differences are too extreme.

Azimuthal Projection

A map projection using a radial grid that is good for showing the poles of the Earth. It distorts shape and area.

Equal-area projection

A map projection that attempts to maintain the relative spatial science and the areas on the map

lambert projection

An example of an equal-area projection, often used for eronautical charts, portions of the State Plane Coordinate System, and many national and regional mapping systems

Conformal projections

Map projections that attempt to maintain the shape of polygons on the map

goode’s homolosine projection

Reference Maps

Maps that focus on locations of places like countries lakes and/or cities

Level of aggregation

The level at which you group things together for examination

Ecotone

The environmental transition zone between to biomes

Friction of distance

When the length of distance becomes a factor that inhibits the interaction between two points

Sinuous

To have a wavy pattern

Flow-line map

A map that uses lines of varying thickness to show the direction and volume of a particular geographic movement pattern

Spatial model

A model that is object-oriented with coverage and concerned with how the physical world works or looks.

Activity space

the location where regular behaviors occur

Homogeneous characteristic

A characteristic shared by a group of people

International date line

a boundary from which each calendar day starts

Royal Naval Observatory

Where the Prime meridian was fixed upon in Greenwich, England at 0 degrees longitude