Human Geography Key Terms – Lecture Notes Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering 40 key human-geography terms from the lecture notes.

Built Landscape

The human-made environment altered or constructed by people, including cities, buildings, roads, and other infrastructure.

Breaking Point

The outer boundary of a city’s sphere of influence where its economic or social dominance diminishes and another city’s influence begins.

Sequent Occupance

The idea that successive societies leave their imprint on a place, collectively shaping its cultural landscape over time.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity on the physical environment.

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area of a region.

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit of arable (farmable) land.

Diffusion

The process by which a cultural or other phenomenon spreads from its origin to other locations over time.

Connectivity

The degree of direct linkage between one location and others within a transport or communication network.

Scattered (Distribution)

A spatial pattern in which objects are spread out over a wide area with considerable space between them.

Distribution

The arrangement of physical or human features in space.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that the physical environment exclusively shapes human development, culture, behavior, and even economic and political systems.

Absolute Location

The precise point on Earth where a place is located, typically expressed in latitude and longitude or a street address.

Relative Location

The position of a place in relation to other places or landmarks.

Site

The physical characteristics of a place, including landforms, climate, vegetation, water, soil, and resources.

Toponym

The name given to a place on Earth.

Natural Landscape

The physical environment that exists before significant human modification.

Cartographer

A person who creates maps.

Land Use

How humans utilize Earth’s surface, including agriculture, residential, industrial, and recreational activities.

Sustainability

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

Formal Region (Uniform Region)

An area where everyone shares one or more common characteristics, such as language, climate, or political system.

Functional Region (Nodal Region)

An area organized around a central node, with surrounding areas linked to it through interaction or connection.

Vernacular (Perceptual) Region

An area defined by people’s informal sense of place and cultural identity rather than formal boundaries.

Scale (Cartographic/Geographic)

The relationship between the area shown on a map and the actual size of that area on Earth.

Distance Decay

The declining degree of interaction between two places as the distance between them increases.

Friction of Distance

The concept that effort, cost, and time to overcome distance increase with distance traveled.

Time-Space Compression

The reduction in perceived distance between places due to advances in transportation and communication.

Distortion (Map)

Inaccuracies that occur when representing Earth’s curved surface on a flat map.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system for capturing, storing, analyzing, managing, and displaying geographically referenced information.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A satellite-based navigation system that provides precise location, time, and navigation information.

Map Scale

The ratio between a distance on a map and the corresponding distance on Earth’s surface.

Thematic Map

A map that focuses on a specific theme or subject within a geographic area using visual symbols to represent data.

Statistical Map

A type of thematic map that uses statistical data to depict spatial patterns of a phenomenon.

Cartogram

A map that distorts the size of geographic areas to represent a specific variable such as population or GDP.

Dot Map

A thematic map that uses dots to represent the presence or quantity of a phenomenon.

Choropleth Map

A map that uses shading or coloring of areas to represent the intensity or value of a variable (e.g., population density).

Isoline Map

A thematic map that uses lines to connect points of equal value (e.g., elevation or temperature).

Mental Map (Cognitive Map)

An individual’s internal, subjective representation of a place or environment.

Model (Geographic)

A simplified representation of real-world spatial relationships or processes.

Remote Sensing

Acquiring information about Earth’s surface from a distance, typically via sensors on satellites or aircraft.

Gravity Model

A spatial interaction model predicting flows of people, goods, or information between two locations based on their population size and the distance between them.