AP Human Geography Unit 1

Political Maps

Countries, states, cities

Physical Maps

Mountains, rivers, deserts

Road maps

Highways, streets, alleys

Plat maps

Property lines, land ownership

Thematic maps

Show spatial aspects of information or of a phenomenon

Two most common isoline (isometric) maps

Togographic (elevation) and weather (changes in pressure, temperature, or precipitation)

Cartogram

Distorts size according to a specific statistic

Contour map

Commonly shows elevation (isoline)

Mercator projection

Makes land masses towards the poles much larger. Used for navigation

Landscape

Condition of the land

Spatial data

All information that can be tied to a specific location

How to obtain spatial data

Remote sensing (satellites outside atmosphere) and aerial photography (professional photos from planes, inside atmosphere)

Qualitative data

Data that can be disputed, not numbers

Quantitative data

Data in the form of numbers, hard facts

Geospatial data

Can be quantitative and qualitative. Can be obtained through fieldwork (census, interviews, observations)

Geovisualizations

Ex. Google Earth, virtual ways to see the world

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Use location of multiple satellites to determine and record receiver’s exact location. Used to precisely locate borders, navigate ships and cars, map lines or points

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Cameras system that can store, analyze, and display information from multiple digital maps or geospatial datasets. Used to analyze crime data, monitor effects of pollution, analyze transportation or travel time, plan Urban areas

Remote sensing

Cameras or other sensors on aircraft or satellites to collect digital video or image of Earth’s surface. Used to determine land cover and use, monitor environmental changes, assess spread of spatial phenomena, monitor weather

Smartphone and Computer Applications

Location-aware apps that gather, store, and use locational data from computers or other personal devices. Used to suggest restaurants, stores, or best routes, trace contact (diseases, exposure to chemicals), map photos from geotags

Community-Based solutions

More likely to be successful because they create buy-in from local residents and are likely to be socially accepted

Seven things spatial approach focuses on

Location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, interconnection

Site

Characteristics at the immediate location. Ex. soil type, climate, labor force, human structures

Situation

Location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places

Placelessness

A place that inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks uniqueness

Time-Space Compression

The shrinking of relative distance between two locations

Distance decay

Ex. Radio signals get weaker the farther from the radio station

Spatial association

Indicates that two (or more) phenomena may be related or associated with one another

Human-environmental interaction

How humans influence the physical world

Built environment

Ex. buildings, roads, signs, farms

Cultural landscape

Anything built by humans

Environmental determinalism

Environment determines culture

Possiblism

Culture is shaped by but not determined by environment

Global scale

Entire world. Ex. Earth at night, global population

World regional scale

Multiple countries. Ex. North America, South Asia

National scale

One country. Ex. US, Thailand

National regional scale

Portion of country, region(s) in country. Ex. the Midwest, eastern China

Local scale

Province, state, city, county, neighborhood. Ex. Tennessee, Moscow

Aggregation

When geographers organize data into different scales such as by census tract, city, county, or country

Formal regions can also be called

Uniform regions, homogeneous regions

Formal regions

Must be united by one or more traits in common. Ex. political, physical, cultural, economical

Functional (nodal) regions

United by networks of communication, transportation, or other interactions

Perceptual (vernacular) regions

Defined by the informal sense of place that people ascribe to them

Sub-Saharan Africa is divided into four regions

West, Central, East, Southern

Asia is divided into five regions

Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia

Three regions in the Americas

North America, Central America, South America

Europe divided in two regions

Western Europe, Eastern Europe

Gall-Peters Projection

Shows true direction and area is relatively precise. Distorts shapes

Robinson projection

Minimal distortion of shape and size, but uses imprecise measurements and has extreme distortion of the poles and is compressed near the equator

Chloropleth map

Shows statistics in map form (states with more smokers shaded in darker)

Isoline map

Different shades represent statistics ignoring political boundaries but keeping map politically correct

Cartogram map

Distorts where size relates to a statistic

Graduated symbol map

Circle size shows quantity of a statistic

Preference map

Ex. Most common girls name by state

Glocalization

The practice many companies use to make their products more to local communities (Ex. McDonalds serves cheesecake in Italy)

Toponym

Name of place